The First 3 Moves to Start Your Business Without Overthinking It

In this episode, Rachel Cicioni shares a straightforward, three-move strategy for teachers and entrepreneurs to start their business quickly and effectively without overplanning. Learn how to identify your offer, set up payment methods, and get visible to attract clients—building momentum from day one.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Why You Need to Start Now
00:54 You Don't Need to Be Fully Ready to Launch
01:41 Decide Your Offer: Focus on What You Do Best
03:21 Make It Easy for Clients to Pay You

09:46 Get Visible: Tell Everyone You're Open for Business
17:19 Summary: The Three Essential Steps to Launch
24:01 Next Steps: Pricing and Messaging
24:27 Upcoming: How to Price Your Services

Resources

Wave Payments

Google Voice

TikTok

Facebook

Instagram

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Teacher to Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Sissioni, former classroom teacher turned entrepreneur and mentor to educators building their own unique teacher businesses. This is a space for teachers who are curious about alternatives to the classroom, exploring private practice and other multifaceted work, and for those who want to know what success can look like beyond the classroom. I'm glad you're here. Now let's get into today's conversation. Someone wanted to pay you this week or next week for your service, could they? Well, if the answer is no, we're fixing that in today's episode. Last week we talked about the myth of being ready. And if you listen to that episode, maybe you're thinking, okay, I hear you, I don't need to feel ready, but now what? Well, this is your ready or not, here I go strategy episode. Today I'm going to walk you through the first three moves you need to make to start your business without overthinking it, without spiraling, and without turning it into a six-month-long planning project. And here's the promise if you do these three things, you are officially in business. Not almost, not someday, in business. That doesn't mean this is what your business is going to look like forever, but it means you started and you're open for business and you are getting paid as a self-employed teacher. Now, before we get into the three moves, I want to clarify something that I think is really important. You do not need to build your entire business right now. You don't even need to have a full, complete, fleshed-out vision of what your business is going to look like now or in a year from now. You do not need to have a full menu of services. You don't need to have a brand identity. You don't even really need to have a name for your business other than your name in order to get started. You don't need a five-year plan. You don't need quarterly business goals. You need a starting point. And that's it. Because this is the shift from last week. Remember, you don't become ready and then start. You start. And that's what creates the clarity you need to know how what you want the rest of it to look like. So move number one decide what you're offering for now. Not forever, but just to get started. And here is where a lot of teachers get stuck. Because you're multi-passionate and you have a lot of gifts, and you can see a lot of different ways that you can provide value to the students that you want to serve. And if you've been following me for any length of time and you've watched any of my YouTube videos or my content, or even taken the time to talk with me during a free consultation, you know how important it is to me that you ground your business in something that brings you joy. Remember, we're not leaving things that we dread doing in order to create something else that we're going to dread doing. But I do want you to start with one thing. And that one thing doesn't even necessarily have to be something that you're going to continue to offer long term in the future. But it does need to fit these three criteria just to get started. Number one, I want you to pick something that you are exceptionally good at, something that you can say, this shows off my teacher's superpower. Number two, something that you genuinely enjoy doing. It needs to be something that you look forward to doing and that you feel really good about doing. And that you, like I said, do exceptionally well. That exchange of enthusiastic, joyful energy, the way that you show up for the things that you genuinely enjoy doing and know that you're really good at, that's what's going to sell it when they come on those first calls with you. That's what's going to make them decide that's who I want to work with. And this third one is really important. Remember, I said three criteria. It needs to be easy to understand and does not require a lot of explanation. Because the easier it is for them to understand what it is that you are offering, the service that you're providing, the easier it is for them to say yes. I'm gonna let you sit with that one for a second. I refer to this as your bread and butter service. This does not have to be the backbone of your entire business. It doesn't even have to be something that you offer forever, like I said. This is just your starting point. And for a lot of teachers, especially this time of year in April, this might look like tutoring and it might look like test prep. We've got final exams, and not all of our lovely students have been giving their best effort all year long. So there is a very real need for some extra support. That is a place where you can step in and provide value. University students will be needing help as well. And our elementary students may also need some help reaching those end-of-year benchmarks. So think about where you can step in and provide some value. Where is it that there is a need that you are uniquely qualified to meet that again meets those three criteria of you're exceptionally good at it, you genuinely enjoy doing it, and it doesn't need a lot of explanation. Just to give you some context, I personally started with both teaching and tutoring. I only had two teaching students, and that was not enough. So when I needed to expand to get more students, I started also offering tutoring. And I let the other teachers in my area that taught my content know that I was available to help. I also told all of my family and friends. So that way, if they knew anybody who had a child that was struggling in my content area, that I was available to help. I messaged on Facebook and in Facebook groups that I was a part of. And I was able to get those tutoring students. Now, I don't really offer tutoring anymore. I mean, it's still on my website, but it's not something that I promote. I don't actively look for tutoring students. I might do a couple over the summer, but that's really not something that I offer anymore. So this first service that you offer doesn't necessarily need to be something that you continue to offer year after year, but it was something that I offered that allowed me to leave my other job and go into my own teaching business 100% as my main source of income. All right, move number two. Make it possible for someone to pay you. You need to get paid. And so we do need to have an avenue by which they can pay us. Now, here are some things that I see all the time. I need a website or I need branding or I really want everything to look professional. They you think that having this professional appearance online is what is going to get people to know, like, and trust and want to share their time and money with you. And that's not necessarily true. First of all, it takes a really long time in order for your website to even get indexed properly for it to come up on search engines. So that is definitely a long game. And I didn't even have a website for almost the first year and a half I was in business. In fact, it didn't even occur to me to have a website until somebody asked me if I had a website. So you don't need all of that. And while branding is really fun, and I definitely enjoy spending time on my branding and picking out my fonts and my colors. And I had my daughter help me with my logo. You don't need that either. You just have your name, which is luckily connected to your bank account. And now you need a way to get the money that they are going to pay for their service to that bank account. Here's what I do and what I still do, and I wish I had done sooner. I use WAVE.com to create very nice professional-looking invoices. And I can email directly from WAV to my clients. And so they get this professional-looking invoice, and they can even pay me through WAVE. Now, all of these different payment processors are going to charge a percentage in a credit card processing fee. So whether you use something like Fenmo or PayPal, um, Stripe, it's all about the same with the percentage. What I like about using WAVE to generate the invoice is that I can also mark it paid and they will get a paid receipt that they can then turn in for their own tax purposes. In some places throughout our country, they can submit that for some type of reimbursement, or they can put that toward vouchers, or they can put it toward even like a health savings account as a childcare need. So they have that documentation that they can use. And that's another reason that I really do like having an invoice for them. It's not necessary. You don't have to have it, but it is free. So I think it's worth checking out. I'm not affiliated with them. I don't get any kickbacks. And like I said, it is free. I wish I had used it sooner because I was paying for a service to you do that. My husband actually got it for me for Christmas of my very first year in business to help me with it. It was very sweet. Other than that, um, as soon as I learned about Wave, I kind of got rid of it. Also, if they're paying by cash or check, Wave does a nice job of still creating that paid invoice for them that they can have. And then when you are ready to update your branding, you can easily go in and update your invoice to reflect your new logo that you came up with later and your new branding that you came up with later after you started already being paid for your skill and your expertise. So for step number two, if someone says yes to working with you today or tomorrow, can they pay you? And if the answer is no, then that's your next step. And number three, tell people. Oh, I know this is the scary one. Telling people, this is the one where it starts to feel uncomfortable. Now it's visible. Now it's out there. Now people can see you, but you know what? And you know this. They have to see you. That's the only way they're gonna know. I refer to this as brand awareness. They need to know you exist, they need to know you're available. Otherwise, there's no way for them to even think about wanting to work with you or not. So don't overthink it. Tell everybody. My very first posts, because it was during COVID, so there weren't a lot of places open. I couldn't put out flyers. I I love flyers. I actually recommend flyers. I think about a quarter page, quarter sheet of a sheet of paper is just about perfect for a flyer. So any local businesses you know that like to support other local businesses, go ahead and put your flyer up. Let people know that you're available and that you exist. But for me, it was 2020. So that wasn't really an option. So I just posted everywhere, and I mean everywhere: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. I started a TikTok just so I could do that. Next door. And I posted often. And it was mostly like French teacher for hire. If you know anybody who wants to learn French, I'm available. And it wasn't beautiful and it wasn't elegant, but it worked. Because once all of my family and friends knew, and granted, I'm I'll do this as friends in like quotes, because on Facebook I had a few friends that I'd never met. They were just requests that were friends of friends, and I liked the friends that they were friends with. And I thought, okay, maybe I'll like them too, and accepted that friend request. So I've actually gotten paying clients from friends of friends that I've never actually met. I wouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd, even necessarily, because the profile picture is usually of their cat. But they have sent people my way. And I will just get a DM that said, hey, so-and-so told me about you. I would like to learn French. What do we do? My first question is usually, are you local? Because if it's local, then we could meet somewhere. If it's not local, then we schedule a Zoom or a Google Meet to talk and make sure that their expectations of what they want is the same as my expectation of what I'm going to provide. And then if they match and I would enjoy working with them, I extend the invitation for us to work together and we would go from there. My point in all of that being, it doesn't need to be a full marketing strategy with brand and content pillars and all of these other things. You don't have to overthink it to get started, but you do need to start building awareness that you exist. And if this makes you uncomfortable because your whole online presence isn't polished and gorgeous and perfect yet, I want you to think about movie studios and Netflix. Because they will start marketing way before it's even done, way before the season is finished. They're letting you know coming soon. The movie studios will tell you next fall, next year, in fact, that this film is coming. So that way you can be aware of it. And then when you see it, like, oh yeah, I remember that. I wanted to go do that. I wanted to go see that and get it on their to-do list. So a lot of what you're doing, yeah, you're gonna, those people who are like, perfect. This is perfect. I definitely, my kiddo needs help with this right now. But you're also planting all of those seeds that are gonna come back later of, oh yeah, I remember that. I remember her or him. I remember that person. I remember that so-and-so knew somebody or knows somebody that can do that. So you do need to get out there. It doesn't need to be perfect. In fact, just this afternoon, I was talking with another teacher client who, and I know, I don't, I know I giggled. I don't mean to make small of it because I had the same exact thing of putting my face out there. And I used to always make sure that I had great lighting and that I had a full face of makeup on, and that I actually had my hair on. And if you're watching this episode on YouTube, you can see that I have my hair up and I don't even have any makeup on. So that is something that I've gotten over. I was telling her, and I even mentioned it a several episodes ago when we were talking about marketing, that we want to know people. People want to work with people. And even she noticed that whenever she did a reel or a post that had her actual face on it, it got a lot more engagement and it traveled a lot further. Now she's further along in her business. We've been working together for a while. And so we do have a whole brand and strategy, marketing strategy for her. But I felt it was important to mention that because you're being visible, not just your business and what you have to offer, but it is important for you to be visible and you can still post from your car. Like I create posts that are even in the car pickup line when I go and pick up my daughter from school. But we do want to see who it is that we're working with. And parents want to know who they are paying and choosing to work with their children. So again, don't overthink it. You can even practice in the mirror or do some video of yourself, and you don't even need to be talking to camera. You can just have some video off to the side somewhere of you working at your computer. They can see you in profile, they can see, you know, part of your face up front, however you want to put it, play around with different angles. Get some just action shots of you working. You can even pretend to be working on Zoom with somebody else, with a coworker or a friend or a friend's child, and let that be a little bit of your B-roll for your post, and then just put some text right over top of it. They're not really going to be analyzing what you look like if that's something that you feel a little self-conscious about or a lot self-conscious about. Put some text right over your face. Put a semi-translucent box right over your face and put some text on top of it to make it more readable. But the fact that you are willing to show up and be visible is huge, especially right now with all of the AI. And remember, it doesn't need to be complicated. We've got our bread and butter offer that's something that we are exceptionally good at, and we feel comfortable telling people, hey, I am awesome at this. So if your kiddo needs this thing, here's what it is. And here's how you can get in touch with me. And you can put your email or you can put a Facebook message or link or some way for them to get in touch with you. Personally, I like to use Google Voice again because it's free and it protects my own personal phone number. But if you go to either my friend Shoe or the private practice teacher, you'll see my Google Voice number right there for people to contact. And they can either contact me via text, which they have, um, or they can leave me a voicemail and I can get back to them through there as well. But the important thing is that you are building this awareness and you are getting people talking about you and what you have to offer. And then they will start connecting and those connections will grow. It really is a ripple effect, but you do have to get out there. Okay. Now, I hope you're not overwhelmed. Remember, we've just got those three things: your your bread and butter service, how they're gonna pay you, and then getting visible, getting people just aware that you exist. And you can do that by connecting with area schools, putting up flyers, and just by letting all of your family and friends know, and don't be afraid to let them know periodically that I mean, even weekly that you're doing this or more, especially if you're using social media. People don't have much of a memory on social media, so don't be afraid to do it multiple times. If people get tired of seeing it, they'll just scroll past it faster. You're really not bothering anybody by doing that. Now, let me save you a lot of time and energy of the things that you do not need to have right now. You can build these later. Number one, you don't need a website. I I was teaching privately for a year and a half before I had a website. You do not need to spend a ton of time and energy. You definitely do not need to pay somebody. Sorry for all the people who do that, but you don't have to pay somebody to create a logo for you. Now, if you have a friend or family member, Barb absolutely did that. Her daughter is a graphic designer and she created a gorgeous logo for her. Um, I Hank Erica also has a close friend or family member who created a beautiful logo for her. So if that's something that you want, by all means, you can do it. But you don't have to do that. My favorite logo, and the one that you see here, if you're watching this on YouTube, was created by my then six-year-old daughter. And it's my favorite. I like it way better than the one I paid$65 for. Not only do you not have to do this, I'm advising you against doing this next one. Do not create multiple offers at once. Start with your bread and butter offer. Then, once that is moving and you've got some traction on that, then add another one and you can spend some time and energy on that one, then add another one. But do not create a bunch of offers all at once. Every time I've had a teacher that I've worked with want to do that, want to create multiple offers at once, it has really slowed down the growth of her business. So this is an area where I'm really going to tell you slow yourself down, bread and butter offer, then a next offer, and then a next offer. The marketing gets really hard, the attention gets really hard, your message gets diluted. Don't do it. And do not wait until everything feels ready or just right or good enough. You only need those three things. Then you're started. Once you've started, what you create after you have started will be so much better and be so much on target. And you won't have to spend time revamping and tweaking and going back over things that you already created because you'll be creating your next business assets from a place of experience. Whereas if you tried to do all of that in the front end before you launched, before you got yourself out there, you wouldn't be doing it from experience. You would be doing it from inexperience. And then once you had the experience, you would have to go back and redo all of that anyway. I hope that makes sense. And when it comes to branding, this one is so hard because it's fun, but it's so hard to get teachers to hold off on this part because it is the fun part. And it's where we can get some of our creativity out. And it's really low risk compared to that visibility part. But when it comes to your branding, I want you to think of it as like decorating your classroom. Is it nice? Absolutely. Does it add to the experience? Could you still teach and get results without it? Of course. So can you still teach and get paid for your skills, experience, and expertise without it? Yes, you can. And that's what I want you to do. And you'll be really impressed and surprised by the clarity that you get from working with these first couple of families. And then when you ask them to help you or to describe what they like about working with you or why they've decided to move forward with working with you, as you build that relationship, a lot of times, once the teachers I work with start working with those first few families, they get really clear on who their ideal customer is. Why these people have chosen them, what parts about working with them really resonate with the families. And then that helps them create so much more targeted and clear marketing moving forward from that point than what we would have spent a lot of time and energy on previously. So we really do get a much better result if we wait until we get some more of that information and experience as a business owner working in this way with people. And then one more thing I really want to say for my multi-passionate teachers, it's okay for you to think about all of these other things that you want to offer. So if I go back to the teacher that inspired me to create last week's episode about readiness and availability, she has got some awesome dreams for her business and what she wants it to be in the future. I mean, within the next year, within the next five years, within the next 10 years. It is amazing. And I cannot wait for her to create all of it and bring it to life and the way that it's going to serve people is awesome. And it's hard for her. And it's hard, it's been hard for a lot of other teachers. We want to just jump right in and make all of our dreams come true. But there's a reason that we want to start with these bread and butter services. And then everything that you create afterwards will be better product because of it. So do not try to offer everything at once. When you do that, two things usually happen. Number one, you dilute your message. And we are in an attention economy right now. And if your message is too diluted or too vague, nobody will hear it. No one. And you number two, overwhelm potential clients. So even if people do hear it, they end up with some analysis paralysis. Remember, the beauty of this bread and butter offer is its simplicity. And that the easier it is for them to understand, the easier it is for them to say yes. And then once you start working with them and generating income, then we expand. So in closing, if you have been waiting to feel ready, these are your next steps. Pick your first offer, make it payable, and tell someone. And then tell lots of someones and then ask them to tell more someones. That's how it starts. You need a skill, someone who needs that skill, and a way for them to pay you. Don't overthink it. Now here's where we're going next. Because once you have done those three things, the very next question becomes okay, so how much do I charge? So I won't make you wait for that. That's exactly what we're going to talk about next week is how much do you charge for different types of services? And more importantly, what does your pricing actually communicate about you, your business, and what you have to offer? Because pricing is a lot more than just a number, it's a message. And so next week we're going to break that down so you can price in a way that actually supports your business and the life that you're trying to build. Until then, I hope you have a great week. Thank you for listening. If today's episode resonated with you, please share it with a colleague or leave a review. This helps the conversation reach other teachers who may need it. You can learn more about what I do and how to work with me at the privatepracticeteacher.org. Best wishes always.