Become an Edu-preneur!

As teachers, we are used to multi-tasking and managing numerous responsibilities without missing a beat. The fact is we are a talented bunch of people who should not limit our influence to the classroom solely.

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I began the journey to entrepreneurship (or in education we refer to this as edu-preneurship!) two years ago and don’t regret a single decision since. It began when I left the classroom to coach teachers. I continued my blog and shared my classroom adventures from a new found perspective.

In efforts to reach more teachers, I created an audio blog, called a podcast, so that educators could learn and be inspired while on the go.

At this point in time, I also spent more time creating products on Teachers Pay Teachers [TpT] that my new teachers were requesting. I can’t say that I had more time stepping out of the classroom, but my creative juices were rejuvenated and I was passionate about spending longer hours creating than ever before.

A book I published prior to leaving the classroom also took some energy to promote and market, but I was excited to have these side projects that kept me learning and growing in addition to my full-time job.

Putting on my entrepreneur hat made me realize I needed to connect with my audience more than just on social media, so I started a monthly newsletter full of tips and freebies for my readers. This email list continued to grow and I continued to produce content to help solve their pain points.

In order to make a more personable product, I started creating webinars teaching my audience how to gain certain skill sets. See the current list of webinars available below:

• Twitter Chat Webinar + Blog post!
• How to Participate in or Moderate a Twitter Chat + Blog post!
• Create and Lead Efficient and Effective Professional Development Sessions + Freebie + Blog post!
• Giving Authentic, Actionable Feedback + Freebie + Blog post!
• Wanted: Qualified and Passionate Teachers + Freebie + Blog post!
• 5 Keys to Leading Effective and Engaging Guest Interviews +Freebie + Blog post!
• New Teacher Academy Online Training + Blog post!

Looking back, my journey may seem a bit random, but everything I began started organically out of a need and where I was on my journey. If it was hard to keep up, here’s a quick run-down of what elements (and in what order) I added to my “business” model:

BLOG –> PODCAST –> TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS STORE –> BOOK –> NEWSLETTER –> WEBINARS

In no way are these the magic ingredients to a successful recipe. They are just part of my story.

You might be wondering why it takes so many different elements to be an edu-preneur? Well, the truth is, it doesn’t. For me, though, not one element grossed enough money for me to rely on alone so I needed to branch out and try different avenues to generate an audience that would then generate sales. As time goes on, I plan to streamline this process and simplify where my energy and time go. In the meantime, the teacher in me has created a very organized work structure to keep productivity rockin’! [See how here.]

Get Connected

There is no reason you need to travel on your journey alone. There are lots of educators out there making the transition and having a support system can be very helpful. I am part of a few on Facebook, have made friends through Twitter chats and continue to learn and grow with each other via Voxer. Start searching on social media and request to join groups or hop in on discussions. You’ll learn a ton and make lots of new friends in the process!

Get Real

All of this hard work was fun and exciting, but I realized I needed to make myself official. If I was going to sell products jam packed with value in content I needed to do my due diligence and become a “for-real” entrepreneur. Luckily my husband is a lawyer and could help me with all the nitty gritty business details. It was quick and easy to establish the following three items:

• Employer Identification Number [EIN]– This number is required for tax purposes. You want to make sure your business is considered legal and you are keeping track of all expenses and revenue collected during the calendar year. The last thing I wanted was to have to owe the government more of my hard earned money because I didn’t follow “the rules.” Now that I had a number, I could technically do business!
• Trademark– Give yourself some credit! Use your creativity to design a logo or slogan, but be smart enough to trademark it so no one else can use it! Always A Lesson was my blog name. I used that also for my podcast. So naturally it made sense to use it for my TpT store, webinars, and… you guessed it, my consulting business. With it being trademarked, no other similar education business can use that name (thankfully no one else had done this yet because I had been using this name for quite some time now and didn’t want to start all over re-branding myself).
• Limited Liability Company [LLC]– My consulting business is just me. I am the sole proprietor and I want to make sure I follow the rules (again!). This allows myself flexibility in how I run my business as well as protects me from company tax processes since I am just one individual.

I used all of this paperwork to set up a separate business bank account to ensure I kept my money separate and made taxes much easier on myself in the long run!

As “real” as those boring business tasks are, I still felt I needed something that would make it all legit. Dun dun dun… business cards!

 

The title “consultant” allows me flexibility to take on numerous roles and projects without having to continue to change my title- phew, what a pain that would be!

In a nutshell, any entrepreneur starts from the ground up because you are creating your future business. There are lots of details to work out and everything takes time. No one’s journey is alike, so take time on the front end to plan out your focus and structures so that you can pick up steam once you get rolling on the “Real” train!

Snag this freebie to start planning!

What questions do you still have about becoming an edu-preneur?