Owning and running a small business is far from easy. In fact, most of us start out this journey feeling like we have no idea what we’re doing. While entrepreneurship is a whirlwind and rewarding journey, it doesn’t come without some stress and tough decision making. But the rewards that you can reap from owning a small business and pursuing your dreams are absolutely priceless.

What do you stand to gain from starting your own business?

Financial freedom
More or full autonomy in your career
Making yourself proud
Building something from the ground up
Schedule flexibility
Work from home availability
Work where you want, when you want
Fulfilling and rewarding work that makes you feel excited to wake up in the morning

You can’t put a price on all that! When you make the choice to start a small business, you enter into this journey knowing that you truly NEVER know what could happen. If you would have told me when I started this business out of a college dorm room that it would one day become a full time income, I definitely wouldn’t have believed you. I believe small business success is attainable for anyone that’s willing to take action for their dreams and fight for the life they want to have. It doesn’t take luck or a special kind of person. It doesn’t take magic. I believe all it takes is a will to keep going and a consistent habit of taking action whenever possible.

But how do you start a business, or if you’ve already begun your entrepreneurship journey, how do you level up your business, when you just don’t know where to start?

When I first started, I was making a lot of frantic google searches, reaching out to others in my desired niche hoping they would respond to me, and getting nothing in return (and I can’t really blame them for it either!). What I really needed at that moment was a guide, a mentor, somebody that could help me figure out what I needed to know when I honestly didn’t know what I didn’t know in the first place. I needed small business education and mentorship.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, I challenge you to look towards small business education. It’s one of the best investments you can make in yourself and in your business not just for right now, but in the long term! The foundations you lay for your business right now are the building blocks you’ll use to propel your creative biz further.

Still not sold? Here are just a few reasons why investing in education for your small business is so important.

#1 You have to spend money to make money.

I’ve said this so many times and I’ll keep shouting it from the rooftops until everyone hears it! You have to spend money to make money! So much of the profit I earned in my first couple of years in business was invested right back into my company. I wasn’t always pocketing the cash or using it for a fun night out with friends, I was putting it back into the business to take care of things like education and start-up costs. I bought an online course that I spent over $500 on. But was it worth it? Yes! AND, I earned back my investment pretty soon after making that course purchase. I’m not afraid to spend money if I know it’s going to get me going in the direction I want to be in.

Be prepared to spend money and truly INVEST in you and your business. Sometimes instead of looking at a course and thinking about all the reasons you CAN’T afford to enroll, you need to evaluate the reasons why you can’t afford to miss out on the course material!

#2 Somebody else out there knows the answers to your question - consider an online course like a shortcut.

Sure you can spend years building up experience, making mistakes and learning things the hard way, but should you? There’s so much value in learning from somebody that’s gone before you. They’ve made the mistakes for you, they’ve got the experience to answer your questions fully. If you never invest in small business education, you can still have success, but it might take a heck of a lot longer for you to get there than it would have if you enrolled in a course and learned up front the proven strategies for small business success, keys to social media growth, how to have a successful product launch, etc. Taking a course from another successful entrepreneur is a great way to take a shortcut to success. It doesn’t mean guaranteed overnight success (because this doesn’t really exist) and it isn’t a get rich quick route, but it does cut down significantly on the time and effort it will take you if you’re constantly just researching with no idea what to actually look for or what to implement. Sure, slow and steady wins the race, but it doesn’t have to be THAT slow.

#3 You need a guide.

When you don’t know what you’re doing, you need somebody to turn to. Pinterest and google can only solve so many problems for you. There’s some information, key strategies, hacks, tips and tricks etc that successful biz owners can’t just share online for anybody to see. Sometimes the biz success secrets are so juicy, you can only access them by investing in a course. Knowledge is power AND profit! So many people are willing to invest in these courses for the same reasons you should be willing to do the same! It’s going to get you ahead in business, it will take the guesswork out of it for you, and it’ll give you confidence to move forward knowing you have a complete plan of action that’s proven to result in success. No more making guesses and praying something works. When you invest in a course you get to see exactly what works and how you can apply it to your own small biz journey!

The knowledge of small business success stories has serious value, because you can use their framework to make similar success happen for you, too! That’s right, I want you to look at this with the phrase “if she can do it, I can too” in your head. Because it’s true! Online courses give you access and guidance to the best frameworks for success and sometimes they offer networking opportunities through facebook groups and mentorship through monthly coaching calls for those enrolled. When you don’t know what next step to take, a course likely already has it laid out for you, which means you can take the guesswork out of your business strategy and follow the blueprint.

#4 You can get more time back in your day.

Now let me explain this one for you, you might be thinking “doesn’t taking an online course mean one extra thing to do for my business?” Yes and no. It does take time to go through an online course, but if it’s a self-paced course, you have the freedom to set the tone for how quickly you will be going through the course. So how does it save you time?

I’ve spent too many hours on google searching for answers that I never really found, reading articles that never fully answered my questions. You’d be surprised how much time you can waste LOOKING for answers from multiple different sources. And because anyone can put anything out there, it’s hard to know if the random WikiHow article or the reddit thread you’re reading is actually giving valid advice. When you invest in a digital course from a legitimate business owner, one that’s actually achieved the things you’re looking to learn, you’re getting proven and effective strategies for success that you can put into action, which means you cut out all the time spent aimlessly scouring the internet for information from multiple sources, and instead, you’re getting factual, evidence-based strategies and tactics all in one place from a single source.

#5 Get access to the full story.

I’ll be honest, part of being a small business educator and coach means showing people the “what” in free valuable content that anyone can access, but saving the “how” for the online course, the stuff you put behind a paywall. There’s a lot of amazing podcasts that I listen to, and I’ve gained so much from listening, but oftentimes, there’s more to the story. More to the strategy. That’s usually where the offer comes in to purchase an ebook, a course, or something similar. And behind that purchase is a treasure trove of valuable lessons, tutorials, and modules that can answer the bigger questions you’ve been asking yourself over and over. So while you can get PART of the story on a blog, podcast episode, or youtube video, you likely won’t be getting access to the full story until you make the decision to invest in the course and take your learning one step further. I promise, when you’re investing in your business with a credible educator, you’ll get the return on your investment!

The next time you spend another hour trolling the internet for answers to random questions that you may never get complete answers to, consider investing in an online course! It’s an investment that can kickstart your business and fast track your path to success.

If you’re a current or aspiring business owner, I challenge you to say YES to investing in your dreams, because it’s worth it! YOU are worth it!

Feeling called to start a small business or level up your current side hustle but don’t know where to start?

You might have a great idea in motion, or maybe you’re in your second year of business and ready to kick it up a notch. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since starting a business out of my college dorm room that turned into a profitable, full-time income, it’s that success doesn’t happen overnight and ALL OF US need help along the way. My new digital course, Passion to Profit: Turning Small Business Dreams into Scalable Income is coming out THIS MONTH, October 2022! My goal in creating this course was to cut through the noise, eliminate gatekeeping, and get right to the point. This is the information I WISH I would have had when I first started my business, and now I’m offering it to you in hopes that you’ll be able to use this to kickstart your progress in turning your passion into a REAL PROFIT!