Hello Supportive Forum Members!
First off, I'd like to thank MJ for creating and nurturing this community. I heard about the forum from a stray reddit post, checked it out, and immediately bought and started reading Unscripted . Before I get into my story, I want to give 'mad props' to MJ for managing to get this extremely red-pilled book past the bureaucrats at Amazon and Audible as well as putting together such an immense amount of varied life and business wisdom into one book instead of milking it and turning it into 4-10 books like other authors do. Thank you!
Back to me:
I am 39 years old and I currently own and operate a tutoring agency in a major city. It's not big, and it took me nearly 10 years to go from being a reluctant, socially inept freelance tutor(I didn't want to have a boss), to a clueless business owner, to finally organizing my company (and myself) into something that actually works, and works reasonably well.
I now make around $100k/ yr, and due to the work I've put into optimizing systems, automating everything that could be automated, training a fantastic manager, and more or less "solving" how to hire exceptional tutors who are easy to manage, I work on this business about 2 hours a week max. I was also extremely lucky to not be significantly effected by corona since the service we provide meets the commandment of "Need" - even when the world is locked down, people with means *need* their kids to do well in school.
We provide an extremely good service and customer support, and my business is slowly growing on it's own with zero spent for advertising. And it is at this point that I have a dilemma as to how to move forward.
The first option and obvious option is to invest my time and effort into growing this business. My gut, however, tells me that this is a bad idea for two reasons:
1) Control.
My business has many points of failure. Some known (below), and some unknown.
* I rely heavily on SEO for customer acquisition. Google has liked my website for the last many years.. but that could change.
* I have one manager who handles everything while working just a few hours a day. She's amazing - a perfect fit - and gets paid well, but if for some reason she quits it would be quite hard to replace her.
* The govt could always impose some kind of restriction or undue burden on this type of service. Not likely, since upper-crust people are the ones who use it, but it could happen.
2) Scale.
My business is hard to scale.
We offer a 'white glove' service, but that means that we need to source 'white glove' people in a highly competitive market, and this sourcing takes time.
To add to that, we are limited by the geographic area and have a lot of competition. We do stand out, and offer good value, but perhaps not so much that it's clear to some people why they should pick us over some of our competitors. I can focus on this but I cannot see more than an incremental improvement coming from this effort. Furthermore, it would not reduce the issues with Control, above.
So, instead of scaling my current business, my current thinking is that I would like to help other people start and operate this same kind business all over the (English speaking) world. I believe MJ calls it 'entryfication' in Unscripted .
I'm not exactly sure what form this would take, or if it's even a good idea, so I'd love to ask you folks for any feedback - positive or negative - based on my current thinking.
At the moment, there are 100,000+ (perhaps a few million) tutors in the world. The vast, vast majority work as freelancers, for brick and mortar agencies, or for online marketplaces like WyzAnt.
Although they are all freelancers, 99.9% don't know the first thing about running a business. Marketing, customer service, operations, even building a simple website - nothing. Most are good, kind people who do a great job of actually helping students but they are not entrepreneurs in spirit. At the same time, agencies take a large cut of tutor pay (I know I do!), and online marketplaces commodify and drive down the prices for most tutors even though the service and each service provider is unique. Worse yet, most of these tutors have minimal control of their clients - if WyzAnt or an agencies fires you, well, that's it for all the reputation you've built through them.
Of those 100k+ tutors, *some* would like to start their own business - or least make more money and have their own brand - but just don't have the will or self determination to take the risk and time to learn all the skills necessary to do it. On the other hand, once this kind of business is set up, it's not hard to keep it humming along smoothly.
Given all that, and given that I know how to start and run this business ( and have proof to show ), can anyone here give me some suggestions on how to help these folks in a way that makes CENTS?
* What do I do for them?
* Should I sell them an ebook? a $997 course
?
* Create websites for them? Do everything to get them set up and take a percentage of their revenue? (Isn't that kind of a franchise?)
* How should I reach them? I'm thinking youtube + blog with useful content.
* How do I create ongoing value that justifies recurring revenue? Provide ongoing operations support? Provide some other service?
So far, the best idea I have come up with would be to find motivated individuals, help them get basic operations off the ground for some nominal fee to make sure they are invested, and provide training and operations support for some amount of time in exchange for a stake of their company.
Each company would look more or less the same on the inside, so it could be scalable. On the other hand, I could see business owners getting annoyed 5 years down the line when I'm doing essentially nothing and collecting %x percent of their revenue or profits.
Too all of you who have read this far - thank you so much for your attention. I look forward to your feedback.
Questions are also welcome!
First off, I'd like to thank MJ for creating and nurturing this community. I heard about the forum from a stray reddit post, checked it out, and immediately bought and started reading Unscripted . Before I get into my story, I want to give 'mad props' to MJ for managing to get this extremely red-pilled book past the bureaucrats at Amazon and Audible as well as putting together such an immense amount of varied life and business wisdom into one book instead of milking it and turning it into 4-10 books like other authors do. Thank you!
Back to me:
I am 39 years old and I currently own and operate a tutoring agency in a major city. It's not big, and it took me nearly 10 years to go from being a reluctant, socially inept freelance tutor(I didn't want to have a boss), to a clueless business owner, to finally organizing my company (and myself) into something that actually works, and works reasonably well.
I now make around $100k/ yr, and due to the work I've put into optimizing systems, automating everything that could be automated, training a fantastic manager, and more or less "solving" how to hire exceptional tutors who are easy to manage, I work on this business about 2 hours a week max. I was also extremely lucky to not be significantly effected by corona since the service we provide meets the commandment of "Need" - even when the world is locked down, people with means *need* their kids to do well in school.
We provide an extremely good service and customer support, and my business is slowly growing on it's own with zero spent for advertising. And it is at this point that I have a dilemma as to how to move forward.
The first option and obvious option is to invest my time and effort into growing this business. My gut, however, tells me that this is a bad idea for two reasons:
1) Control.
My business has many points of failure. Some known (below), and some unknown.
* I rely heavily on SEO for customer acquisition. Google has liked my website for the last many years.. but that could change.
* I have one manager who handles everything while working just a few hours a day. She's amazing - a perfect fit - and gets paid well, but if for some reason she quits it would be quite hard to replace her.
* The govt could always impose some kind of restriction or undue burden on this type of service. Not likely, since upper-crust people are the ones who use it, but it could happen.
2) Scale.
My business is hard to scale.
We offer a 'white glove' service, but that means that we need to source 'white glove' people in a highly competitive market, and this sourcing takes time.
To add to that, we are limited by the geographic area and have a lot of competition. We do stand out, and offer good value, but perhaps not so much that it's clear to some people why they should pick us over some of our competitors. I can focus on this but I cannot see more than an incremental improvement coming from this effort. Furthermore, it would not reduce the issues with Control, above.
So, instead of scaling my current business, my current thinking is that I would like to help other people start and operate this same kind business all over the (English speaking) world. I believe MJ calls it 'entryfication' in Unscripted .
I'm not exactly sure what form this would take, or if it's even a good idea, so I'd love to ask you folks for any feedback - positive or negative - based on my current thinking.
At the moment, there are 100,000+ (perhaps a few million) tutors in the world. The vast, vast majority work as freelancers, for brick and mortar agencies, or for online marketplaces like WyzAnt.
Although they are all freelancers, 99.9% don't know the first thing about running a business. Marketing, customer service, operations, even building a simple website - nothing. Most are good, kind people who do a great job of actually helping students but they are not entrepreneurs in spirit. At the same time, agencies take a large cut of tutor pay (I know I do!), and online marketplaces commodify and drive down the prices for most tutors even though the service and each service provider is unique. Worse yet, most of these tutors have minimal control of their clients - if WyzAnt or an agencies fires you, well, that's it for all the reputation you've built through them.
Of those 100k+ tutors, *some* would like to start their own business - or least make more money and have their own brand - but just don't have the will or self determination to take the risk and time to learn all the skills necessary to do it. On the other hand, once this kind of business is set up, it's not hard to keep it humming along smoothly.
Given all that, and given that I know how to start and run this business ( and have proof to show ), can anyone here give me some suggestions on how to help these folks in a way that makes CENTS?
* What do I do for them?
* Should I sell them an ebook? a $997 course
?* Create websites for them? Do everything to get them set up and take a percentage of their revenue? (Isn't that kind of a franchise?)
* How should I reach them? I'm thinking youtube + blog with useful content.
* How do I create ongoing value that justifies recurring revenue? Provide ongoing operations support? Provide some other service?
So far, the best idea I have come up with would be to find motivated individuals, help them get basic operations off the ground for some nominal fee to make sure they are invested, and provide training and operations support for some amount of time in exchange for a stake of their company.
Each company would look more or less the same on the inside, so it could be scalable. On the other hand, I could see business owners getting annoyed 5 years down the line when I'm doing essentially nothing and collecting %x percent of their revenue or profits.
Too all of you who have read this far - thank you so much for your attention. I look forward to your feedback.
Questions are also welcome!
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
