When you have aspirations for starting a business, you usually have an idea of what you want to create, produce, or sell, as well as your financial goals. But sometimes, when starting a business, you learn and achieve a lot more than what you started out with. This was definitely true for me when I started Educator Forever; I started out with one idea and ended up with a whole lot more. So, in today’s episode, I wanted to share the five lessons I learned when starting an education business.

As I reflected on my journey, I realized my biggest growth was through action and mistakes. And even though fear felt paralyzing at times, it was the lessons and experiences I took from my action steps that ultimately grew my business. I also share the importance of staying true to yourself and how the people who support you are the unexpected gift of starting a business. So, if you’re thinking about beginning a new career, take a listen to what I learned when I started my education business.

For all links and resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.educatorforever.com/episode59

Watch our free on-demand workshop to learn more about flexible work opportunities beyond the classroom: https://www.educatorforever.com/workshop

Take our free quiz to discover your next career step: https://www.educatorforever.com/quiz

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Today, I'd love to talk about five things that I've learned since I started an education business almost a decade ago.

And since leaving the classroom, and really starting a business, I have learned so much. And I didn't really know that I was starting a business when I first left the classroom, you know, I was doing consulting on the side and trying new things, and taking on contracts, and then realizing, Oh, I'm finding more contracts, and I'm advertising my services, and I'm building relationships. And guess what, I was building a business.

And so once I realized that my mindset changed, I was like, Alright, I guess I'm building a business, I should learn how to do this. I had a really taught kindergarten and first grade before, that was my only career before I went into building an education business.

And so I had a lot to learn. And I have to say that I've learned so much. And I know I said in the intro, that it's been almost a decade, but actually, it's been almost 12 years, which is really crazy to reflect on how far that I've come, since I left the classroom, how much I've learned and how much that I'm still learning.

It's not a destination, when you're building a business or living your life, you know, really is a journey of what you're focusing on and what you're learning. So I thought it would be fun and meaningful to reflect on five lessons that I've learned.

The first one is that action brings clarity. Taking action is the best thing you can do. And then I'll modify that a little bit to say, take imperfect action, we can get so paralyzed by this idea of perfection, feeling like it has to be perfect before I put that out there in the world.

You know, I've seen people and I've been there tinkering with their websites for many, many months, before they go out and ask for a sale. Not the best strategy. Because often tinkering with our website is something we do to really not take that bold action, but almost procrastinate and keep ourselves playing small.

So really pushing yourself to take action before you're ready to do it. And getting through all the feelings that come up. Like it can feel so scary starting a business and being like, oh my goodness, I'm asking people to buy things from me, like all the feelings.

But the way you get through that. And the way you find an authentic way to ask people to buy things from you that will actually help them is by taking action. And by trying things out. And that's not to say the first time you try, it will sound really great, or it won't be awkward. But you have to make that first pancake, you have to.

And if you don't start now, then imagine how long you know how much time you're going to be wasting between when you're thinking about it right now and then when you actually take the action.

So I have learned to take action as soon as possible and learn through doing it. Don't wait to have something fully, perfectly created. Because likely that's not ever going to happen. Because things are always evolving. And it can be a real blocker to progress. So take that action no matter how small it is.

The flip side of that too is you build momentum. The more action you take, the more action you want to take. Because you're getting clearer, you're interacting with people you're trying things out. And that action that energy is magic.

My second thing I've learned is also about magic. And it is that mistakes are magic. I used to fear mistakes so much. Just like oh my gosh, what if I put the wrong thing out there on social media or somebody misunderstands what I'm saying all the things, and those would also stop me from being visible.

And so really realizing that it's okay to make a mistake. You do not have to go out there and present yourself perfectly. If you do something that you regret later, if you make a mistake, you can make it better. The power is in the repair after and learning through it.

And along with that, you know, as you build a business, you're going to do a lot of things wrong, and that's how you learn. I always go back to what I told my kindergarteners like mistakes are how we learn. That is true for adults too.

But it can feel so heavy, especially if you're like, oh my gosh, I have this great idea, I'm gonna start this online course. And then you go out and try and sell it. And you realize that the way that you're selling, it isn't effective, it can feel really easy to just think, Oh, well, maybe nobody wants this, maybe I'll give up.

But reframing it that trying it the first time and getting that data is magic, like that is what you need, you need to dry things out and see them not work. So you can figure out what works. And the only difference between people who are successful and people who are not, is that people who are successful, keep going.

And they keep going, especially after they've made mistakes. So really reframing mistakes as being positive as being learning experiences can take a lot of the pressure off.

The third thing I've learned from starting an education business is that building a business means building the world you want to exist. This is something I thought I let go of when I was a classroom teacher, you know, this is why I became a classroom teacher, to really create the world, I wanted to exist in my own classroom.

And the wonderful thing is, I realized I can do that through my business too. You know, really creating a tiny world, a microcosm of the world where teachers are truly valued, where teachers are really supported in all aspects of themselves, I've been able to create that Educator Forever, something that I really wanted to see in the world.

And so I think thinking about what you want to see in the world, what change do you want to see or be part of? That can be such a powerful thing to build your business around. And that's really like a guiding light, right? Like when things are tough.

When you're making mistakes when you're taking action. And it's messy, and it feels hard, you will be in it because you want to create that change. And having that vision of the world you want to create through your business can be so powerful.

The fourth thing I've learned from running an education business is that it's important to show up as your whole self. There are so many businesses out there and likely many businesses similar to whatever you are hoping to create. And that's okay.

But there's only one you. So you have to show up as you. All the things that make you uniquely you are going to be all the things that draw in your ideal customers. So don't be afraid to share about you share about your personal experiences, share your opinions, really bring yourself into the brand that you're creating.

And this can feel uncomfortable, especially when you're first starting out and being like, Oh, well, is this the way I'm supposed to do it? And if we have this mindset of like, this is the way that I'm supposed to do it, then we often end up doing it in some weird way that we see somebody else doing things. We don't use our own voices, you know, we don't really show up as our full selves.

So from the beginning, think about what you can bring to your business. And it's a lot. It's your unique experience. It's your viewpoint. It's your personality, it's what you care about. It's your passions. It's how you connect with people, it's all the things that make you you.

And don't be afraid to share them, because that is what will bring people to you. And that is what will help you find your people that you really resonate with.

And the last thing of my five things list because I know I could go on forever, about things I've learned from starting a business. But the last thing on my list is that building a business is rewarding, but creating a community is even better. And so really going out and focusing on the transformation that you hope you can help people achieve in whatever business that you're creating.

And through that transformation, you can build a really beautiful community. I set out starting with Educator Forever, you know, building online courses to show teachers all the ways that we can use our skills beyond the classroom. And as the years went on, I also built this really amazing supportive community.

Our educator forever network community is my favorite place to be. We have educators all over the country coming together on weekly more than once a week calls and really seeing each other and supporting each other in a way that I didn't even conceptualize when I started this business and I'm gonna start crying.

Because truly, like that community is so powerful. And it was not created by me. It was co created by all these members that I was able to call in when I showed up as my whole self as I built the world that I hope to see and I'm trying to build the world I hope to see out there for educators I called in all these amazing people who became part of our community and really co created it alongside me.

So really thinking about the community that you hope to bring together. And create can also be such a huge motivator.

As you start or grow or think about growing an education business, I would love to hear what you're learning too, because it is constantly a learning process. And it is hard. It's hard to always be trying new things and putting yourself out there, failing, learning all the things.

And it's a lot easier if we can share those triumphs and struggles together. So I would love to hear your reflections on what you are learning beyond the classroom.