“If you can only conceive of yourself as a professor, then you have condemned your labor to the mercy and whims of others”*.

I am so excited to share this knowledge with you! I want you to understand that you, yes you, are already entrepreneurial and can DO this! You can start a small business–it’s possible.

In this newly expanded two hour interactive webinar, I’ll walk you through the basics of starting your own small business. We’ll talk about ways to re-cast yourself from academic to business owner, and the psychological obstacles to the transition, and then the nuts and bolts of setting up a business–from a website to invoicing to advertising. Particular focus on using a website/social media/newsletter for marketing. This new, longer version includes content from 20+ other scholars who have made their own small biz transition, and many other updates/additional content, including the shame/shaming around business that permeates the academy and how to identify and overcome it. We end with amazing inspirational stories.

I. Getting Used To the Idea

• The pain and grief of the post-ac transition
• COVID economy
• What is entrepreneurialism?
• Academia, dependency, and risk aversion
• Imagining your niche
• Skills vs. outcomes

II. New: Shame and Shaming

• How and why academics “despise” business
• What that judgment conceals
• How to identify that shame in yourself
• How to overcome shame

III. Updated: The Nuts and Bolts

• Steps to starting a small business
• Concept –> Brand –> Name
• Unique Value Proposition
• Creating a simple website/blog
• Establishing credibility
• Setting rates and policies
• Simple ecommerce resources
• Show me the $: Invoicing

IV. Updated: Finding Your Market

• Getting and keeping clients/customers
• Firing clients
• SEO and basic internet marketing
• Blog vs. newsletter
• Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other Social Media

V. Updated: Growing The Business

• Overcoming the fear of self-promotion
• Money: not the enemy
• Being your own boss

VI. New: Covid Considerations

VII. New: Inspirational Stories!

This two-hour webinar has been enlarged and expanded to provide even more intensive advice, include advice shared by 20 other scholars who have made the small-biz transition.

[*Nate Kreuter, PhD, in Inside Higher Ed, 2016]