Hello there! My name is Lauren, and I have been homeschooling for almost 10 years and entrepreneur-ing (that’s a word, right?) for almost the same amount of time. It’s not easy juggling three kids, homeschooling, and starting a business, but it’s definitely possible if you don’t give up. Over the last ten years I have learned so much from books, podcasts, and my own mistakes. There’s a wealth of knowledge out there that I wish I knew when I started years ago. I want to share with others the things I’ve learned over the years. I’m by no means an expert. I get most of my wisdom from others far more experienced that myself. But, I have been able to spend the last ten years trying different productivity hacks and business advice that I’ve come across. I can’t wait to tell you my about my successes and failures.
How did it all start?
I NEVER thought I’d be an entrepreneur. To me, the thought was very scary! I always associated entrepreneurship with undertaking some colossal risk that involved thousands of dollars and working 80 hours a week. It may be like that in some cases, but now, thanks to the internet, the startup costs of a business are such that even a homeschooling mom like me can do it!
I stopped teaching full-time when I had kids, but I still taught part-time two nights a week at a charter school to bring in enough to help cover all of the bills. When we unexpectedly moved over an hour and a half away from my job, I knew I had to do something different. I looked at local jobs, but at the time, there was nothing that fit my needs or paid as well as my job where I used to live. So, I drove back and forth for over an hour every Monday for a year. (I still have a hard time believing I was able to handle that. It was my first year homeschooling, and I had 3 kids under the age of 6.) On that drive I had a lot of time to think about how to replace my work income. Many people told me they loved the curriculum I wrote for my classes and that I should sell it. I dismissed the idea of that at first. Who am I to start selling things? No one would buy it anyway, would they? The more hours I spent driving to work, the more driven I became to change my situation. I finally got fed up enough to do something.
I tried selling a few things online. I’ll never forget how much my hands were shaking when I hit “Submit” on that first product. I was terrified. What if people didn’t buy it? What if they did and then hated it? How would my confidence and pride recover if someone hateful vented on me in the product reviews? Slowly my stuff started selling, and people actually liked it! I could see the potential, but I didn’t really know where to go from there. I had so many questions! How do I increase sales? How do I decide what to make?
The Conversation That Changed Everything
Then I had a conversation with Heather. Heather was a mom in my homeschool co-op who was also a district representative for Avon. She had several kids and was working, and she managed to do it with grace and sanity. She mentioned one day that she listened to a business podcast every day at lunch. Hmmm, I had never really thought about that. It couldn’t hurt, right?
That week, I stumbled upon the podcast that would change my life, Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn. Pat Flynn introduced me to the idea of passive income, which I was already pursuing (I just didn’t realize that’s what it was). His podcast is not aimed at homeschooling entrepreneurs, but I still learned so much! I learned which online marketing strategies were working, trends in online business, and what books were worth the read.
Ups and Downs
I started a website. I started a podcast. My business started growing, but then life hit. I was pushing too hard and my body paid the price. I ended up with shingles and pneumonia back to back. So I had to step away and slow down. Over the last ten years it’s been an up and down journey. Covid hit; my sales went down. I had a really popular product; my sales went up. The platform I was selling on made changes to its search algorithm; my sales went down. Some days I only have 15 minutes to work on my business. Sometimes I have 2 hours. I had one year where I only posted two blog posts. TWO! But I’ve never stopped. I just did what I could at the time. I’ve kept kicking through all of the craziness life has thrown at us.
I used to listen to the podcasts that had full-time entrepreneurs on there and feel SO jealous. Of course you can write 3 blog posts a week when you have 40 hours to do it! But what if you have the never-ending job of homeschooling? What if you only have 30 minutes of “free time” and your options are to do laundry so your family has clean underwear or work on your business? What if your kids interrupt you three times in ten minutes while you are working (which literally happened to me as I’m writing this)?
That’s what I’m here to talk about. How can we be successful while having very little time and energy to devote to a business? Is it even worth pursuing? How can we keep going when it feels like we are making progress at a snail’s pace? That’s what I hope to help you with! I’m still on my journey. I’m still learning. Let’s learn together.