Maria Peagler, SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com
SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com, a Georgia-based business launched in 2010, offers online social media training on your schedule, 24/7, helping small business owners achieve maximum impact for minimal effort.
‘Ah ha’ moment that led to launching the business: I’m a long-time technology author and trainer, and I was so successful using social media for my own publishing business, I found myself helping others who wanted to know how they could do the same. It was challenging for small business owners to get away for training, so I developed online classes that they could take on their own schedules, and build their social media presence as the course assignments. Students love the fact that they ask me questions and I’m actually online to answer them!
Ideal customer: Small business owners, freelancers, and solopreneurs who want to use social media but don’t know how to be successful with it.
First customer: I met a local interior design gallery owner who has a location in an upscale, outdoor mall, and noticed he wasn’t using social media or publicity in any way. He was investing a lot in advertising, but didn’t have time or the expertise for a DIY social media campaign, so I developed one for his company. It took off from there.
Measuring success: I was the first author in my industry to develop a blog tour to promote my book, and after two weeks I went from being an unknown to #11 in my category on Amazon. When I founded SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com, I earned more revenue in one month than I had in the entire previous year.
Biggest struggle: Overcoming lack of funding for my business. The economy hit its lowest point when I was getting ready to market my book, and my husband’s residential home business needed my marketing budget to stay afloat. I no longer had a budget, but I did have a warehouse full of books I needed to sell. My social media promotions were far outperforming my traditional marketing and trade show advertising, so I focused my efforts there. The book is now going on to its third printing and I founded a social media training company to help others enjoy that same success.
Surprise!: How carefully you need watch your financials. I’m not a math person and I don’t enjoy doing spreadsheets, but I force myself to know where the money is going and keep a close watch on gross and net profits. I consult with my SBDC advisors to keep me on track with this.
Promoting sales: If you don’t start with a quality product, all the promotion in the world is wasted.
What you wish you would have known: It takes money to make money. Don’t be so frugal. You neglect to spend money on the things that matter. Networking is everything. Much of success is not just talent, but who you know, who they know, and how you can leverage those relationships and their knowledge to help everyone move ahead.
What keeps you up at night (business wise!)?: How to spread the word, get the message out.
Ever tempted to throw in the towel and just get a job?: Are you kidding? They can’t afford me!
Biggest goal: To grow awareness of SocialMediaOnlineClasses.com, enabling small business owners to wrangle the “wild west” of social media for success.
Pricing: Do your research before you make a decision on pricing. Women have a tendency to undervalue their skills and pricing, so never sell yourself short.
Funding: Initially I funded my business myself. When I needed additional funding, my hometown bank turned me down. I persisted and got wonderful advice from a SCORE mentor, who helped me secure a small business loan. The ironic twist? The bank that turned me down eventually failed and was taken over by the FDIC, while my book is now going on to a third printing.
A few good tips: Learn first, then execute. Social media is a fabulous method for small companies to compete and win against behemoth companies with much larger budgets. However, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube all have their own etiquette, and it’s important to learn how to get started the right way and chart a course for success. Too many of my students are using a Facebook page that someone else set up for them and they have no idea how to use it and can’t even log in. Ask your clients what social networks they use, join it, and then listen and watch what others are doing.
Must-read online resource in your industry: SmartBlogs from SmartBrief. They have excellent case studies for entrepreneurs and industry-related reports for every conceivable business. They enable their newsletter for smartphones, making it easy to read when I’m not in the office.
The absolute best part of owning my business is: helping talented entrepreneurs achieve success beyond their wildest dreams with social media.
If I had to start over again, I would: have done everything the same way. You have to fail first and often before you can succeed. Beethoven often changed his symphonies 60 or 70 times before they were complete. There is no such thing as a perfect or easy route to success.
I never imagined: financials would be so difficult.
If standing on a rooftop facing crowds of aspiring or struggling small business owners, I would shout: “Social Media Worked for Me, and It Can for You Too! I’ll Teach You How!”
