My Online Course Business Explained (& How You Can Do It Too!)

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I'm breaking down my online course business! Here's what is involved, the good, the bad and how you can create an online course business too 🙌

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I've been running an online course business for over five years now. And in today's video, I'm going to explain to you exactly how it works.

I'm going to explain the good, the bad and everything that is involved all the way from coming up with your idea to actually making sales. So, if you are interested in possibly creating an online course for yourself, keep watching.

If you're new here. Hi, I'm Louise here on this channel. I share everything I know about building an online business. So, if that is something you're doing definitely hit subscribe!

The Good & The Bad of the Online Course Business Model 💻

So my set is a little different today, and that is because I am on the road, which is one of the many benefits of this type of business. Now it's not all sunshine and rainbows, but that is something that is really wonderful about this type of business. It's completely remote. I can work from anywhere in the world that I want.

And over the years, I've really taken advantage of that. I've lived in Bali, in Mexico, I've traveled around to all different countries. And eventually settled here in Panama. And even within Panama, (well, I live here), there's tons of little surf towns where we can go and we can hang out for the weekend and work there.

Having that sort of flexibility of where I work is something that I always dreamed of.

So as long as you have your laptop and an internet connection, you can work from anywhere. That being said, sometimes you have to check if there's good internet there. That can be difficult when you have to do things such as calls, but that's another reason why the online course business model is so great because compared to something like one-on-one coaching or running high ticket group programs there really are a lot less calls with this type of business.

Let's talk more about the positives of this type of model…

So basically what you're doing is you're taking your knowledge and your skillset, and you're turning that into a product. Your online course. The benefit of this is that your actual involvement in delivering the product is significantly less than other product types. And honestly, in some cases you can create something that is completely self study and passive - and something that involves very little from you.

Because of that, it creates a lot of flexibility in your life. You can decide when you work. So what your schedule is going to be, when you take breaks, and if you ever need, you can simply just decide I'm going to take a mental health day and just take the day completely off.

Now that being said, it is a ton of work upfront. Creating an online course is no joke. Of course, there are ways of making it easier for yourself, which I will share on this channel, but it is a lot, especially at the beginning when you are doing everything in your business yourself.

So expect that at the beginning, you're going to have to put in a lot of work and then it gets easier over time because then you can start to build a team and you can outsource and you can get some help.

Okay, but I want to paint a really clear picture for you of what this actually looks like…

Now I love courses though, because the way I see it is that it's a digital asset that you are creating in your business, that you are then going to sell for years and years to come.

So rather than having to run live programs all the time, or simply work with people one on one and having an entire calendar filled with calls, or having to create new offers every two seconds (which can be really exhausting), rather than doing that you can take this approach and create something that is more of an asset. That is going to continue to support you and your business and life goals for many, many years.

I do believe that it is worth all of that work upfront. And we'll create a life full of freedom and abundance and flexibility.

Another huge positive of this is that you are genuinely helping other people because of the internet you can connect with. Thousands, if not millions, of people are online and you can put together an online course that, you know, will truly help them achieve a transformation and something that they are wanting to achieve. So I love it for that reason.

Yes, there are lots of different businesses that we could pursue but I always wanted to do one that would genuinely help others. So I feel that this model does that.

Okay, so now let me walk you through everything that is required. And if you have any questions at all, or you want to learn more about the pros and the cons of this model, then let me know in the comments below!

So how does this all work?

Step 1: Coming Up With Your Idea 💡

Firstly, you need to create your online course. And the way you're going to do that is you're going to take your expertise and your skills and you're going to package that up into an online course that will get others the same result that you have achieved, or that you've helped your clients achieve.

Now if you're like, I don't know what my course would be on, I don't have a particular skillset, then I would say that is something that you need to develop. You have to have that initial knowledge that you can share with others. So you have to have experience in a particular area or you have to have achieved that result. That is ultimately what you are selling.

If you're not ready for this model, that's absolutely fine. Just start building your skills, go all in on a very particular area. Once you've mastered that, then you can turn it into a course!

That being said, a lot of people are more of experts than they realize.

There's just a lot of self doubt that comes up when creating an online course. So just be mindful of that. Often we think that what we know is obvious or simple for everyone else. And that is not the case. Trust me.

So think about your knowledge and expertise, and then start to look for gaps in the market as well. So what are people not teaching? For example, for my first online course, I had developed the skill of being able to create Squarespace websites and to be able to do that really quickly and easily.

At the time, I noticed that everyone was teaching WordPress, they were making it way more complicated than it needed to be. So I created my first online course Website That Wows. Which walked people who weren't so confident in the tech stuff, it walked them through exactly how to create their own Squarespace website that actually gets them clients - and do it really quick.

From there, I've just repeated this process.

So anything that I've needed to figure out in my own life that really led to incredible results, I've packaged that up and created an online course.

So when I was growing my business and I needed to get more organized and actually develop systems, I did that in Asana. Once I built out that entire system, I packaged that in to my online course Uplevel With Asana.

After years of running an online course business and figuring out the simplest way to do that from both a tech perspective and bringing it to life, I packaged that know-how into my online course Passive Profit Accelerator. So once you know how to do this, once you know this process, you can keep repeating it again. And again.

I believe that there is so much opportunity here. So a lot of times people will think like, oh, it's already out there or you can learn it for free on YouTube, but there's something very different about taking an online course and getting someone's entire step-by-step framework. Just being able to follow that, like I much prefer learning this way.

Yes, I could spend hours and hours on YouTube trying to find the answer, or I can just go to someone I trust and learn their exact way that they followed to get that result.

Step 2: Sharing Free Content 📲

Once you've decided on this course that you are going to create, then you need to share free content on this subject. So that's where it all starts. That is why I share content here on YouTube. I also share it on Instagram as well.

This is how you are going to build visibility and authority on this particular subject. So basically we're matchmaking you and the people that are looking for this information. So that's what that free content is. And that is how they are going to discover you. I personally impartial to YouTube because then you are taking advantage of the SEO of this platform. And it's long lasting. Once you create a video that is going to benefit you for years and years to come.

So definitely worth it!

Step three: Growing an Email List 💌

Your next step is to grow an email list.

This is one of my number one priorities in the business.

That is what is ultimately going to lead to the sale of your online course. So you don't just want to have content on these free platforms - you want to create free trainings or free resources that people need to provide their email address to you in exchange to get that so that you can then follow up with them and offer your course.

So everyone says, build your email list, build your email list. It is very important and is very closely connected to the sales results that you're going to see in this type of business.

Step 4: Bringing in Sales 💸

So then in terms of sales, how do I bring in sales in the business?

From there, my two main ways of getting sales are sales funnels and launches.

So with a sales funnel, it basically is an automated email sequence that is connected to that freebie that gives someone a limited time offer to come and join you inside your course. That is one way that we do it. The great thing about this is that's really the passive side of this online business - that's how I will get sales when I'm sleeping, when I'm on the beach, hen I'm on a road trip… That is a really, really cool feeling.

It's not just all active, you having to show up for work each day, you can set up systems like that and those will do a lot of the hard work for you.

Next up are launches. Now while sales funnels are running in the background, launches are a more public, more active way of selling, but they are so impactful.

I would recommend that you do one of these at least one time per quarter. That's really where you're going to be able to get in front of everyone in your audience that you've built and let them know about the incredible online course that you have available. Cause not everyone is going to find their way into their sales funnel or purchase in that way. So give people another opportunity with your launches.

My focus as an Online Business Owner 👀

So as an online course business owner, my main focus goes into those activities. Creating really high quality online courses that people love. That gets some results, and that then gets me tons of testimonials.

The next is on free content. Getting out there providing value day after day and building that visibility. On that specific topic that your course is on and surrounding topics too. You can go broader than just your course topic.

Then my focus is on building my email list. There's so many ways that you can do that. I will share more videos as well on all these different topics, but that is one of my top priorities. And then making sure that our sales funnels are set up and performing well. The good thing about those is once they're set up, they're just running and they're good to go. So there's not too much that you have to do there.

And then launches. That's something that I do once a quarter.

Then on top of this, I need to think about the business as a whole and constantly I am implementing systems and streamlining it so that I can have even more freedom in my personal life and I can work less and less.

As you continue to grow that work honestly will become less and you can bring in help to support you so you don't need to be doing all of the things.

So that is my overview of how an online course business works. Let me know any questions that you have in the comments, and I will definitely be making more videos on this subject.

I also have more free resources coming for you soon. I'm working on them right now. Click the link below to join my email list and I will send those out to you there.

Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll see you real soon with another one!

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