Let’s Talk with Kerry Beck!

Selling homeschool curriculum, books and helping parents raise their children to be leaders, instead of followers.

8 years for Curriculum Connection, 23 years of having our own businesses.

For me personally, I work about 15-20 hours/week.   My 18yo & 20yo daughters help us with shipping, bookkeeping, continuity memberships & offline mailings.  I also have an assistant who helps us from her own home.

Quiet time of Bible devotions &  other readings.
Fix breakfast & eat
Around 7:30 Walk with my dog, then shower
By 9am, I’m ready to work.  I try to do tasks such as writing articles, emails & sales letters in the mornings.  This is also a time I can research and work on new niches we will explore.  Until lunch time, I alternately work at my desk & do housework.  It’s important to me that I don’t sit at a computer for long periods of time to reduce having back pain.
After lunch I run errands or work on less thoughtful activities for our business. These include checking email, twitter, keyword research, recording workshops for our Christian Parenting Insiders Club which goes along with some of our curriculum purchases.

I  I spend most of my business working time on marketing and developing new products such as our Parenting Insiders Club.

5  5. How long did it take your business to become profitable?

Our business made a profit the first year, but we chose to reinvest our profits into the business the first 3 years.  After that time, we started paying ourselves.  On  a side note, having our business in our home, allowed us to write off some business expenses such as the extra telephone line, internet services, computers/printers.  It also allowed us to take vacations that the business paid for since we were speaking at homeschool conferences across the country.  Even though we may not have seen a paycheck, we were able to reduce some of our family expenses by allowing the business to pay for them.

Homeschool curriculum is EXTREMELY competitive so I would encourage your readers to publish their own products.  It’s not really as hard as it may sound.  My first product I wrote & published in a month.  It’s a package of digital product so I don’t have to inventory or ship anything to my customers.  When they buy my Raising Leaders or Advent package, they automatically go to a website that has all the links to the ebooks and audio workshops they just purchased.Publishing your own products also allows you to take home more of the profit.  Look for a specific niche in the homeschool market and develop something others want in that niche. Ask other homeschoolers what their needs are. . Don’t assume you know because you are not your customers.  For me, I wrote Raising Leaders, Not Followers as a Christian perspective of a popular homeschooling book, A Thomas Jefferson Education.  I was receiving at least one email a week asking why I sold Thomas Jefferson Ed because it was not Christian.  After dozens of emails, I concluded there was a need for Christian version of Leadership education as explained in Thomas Jefferson Ed.  I wrote 3 ebooks and recorded a few workshops and that was the beginning of my Raising Leader package.  When I sell one set for $37, I get to take home about $30 (after credit card & shopping cart fees).  When I sold products by other authors, I would only get about $14.

When I pulled my Christmas Celebration Ideas package together, I had other homeschool stores asking for my Star of Bethlehem Bible Study.  I decided to expand that study and put it together with other ebooks, activity books, recipe books and audios that will prepare my customers’ hearts for Christmas.  The primary book is Star of Bethlehem, but I package it together with 14 other ebooks & mp3s.  That way I can charge a higher price and receive more profit.

What I want to emphasize is I listened to the market to decide what I would publish.  I’ve always wanted to write a Bible study about the Tabernacle or Christian soldier, but never followed those ideas.  My target market never told me they wanted those materials, so I looked elsewhere.  I stayed within my passion (homeschooling), but I listened to others to see where the needs are.  At homeschool conferences, I often have someone come up to me and tell me they are writing a reading or science or math curriculum that is different from anything else on the market.  They think this curriculum is life-changing, but they forgot to ask if anyone else is interested in that curriculum.  They are usually not listening to their market.  They are doing what they want and will have a hard time in the extremely competitive homeschool market.

My thanks to Kerry for being willing to share with us.  Visit her at her Homeschool Curriculum website.