Owner of Boss Your Salon, a coaching platform that supports the industry through business education, masterclasses and the renowned pricing calculator, Maddi Cook sees business through the eyes of the hairdresser. An ally, confidante, teacher and friend, her approachable manner and straight-talking skills are empowering a generation. She’s here to help Pro Hair readers with her exclusive series…
Ever thought about launching your own online course? Well, you’re not. alone! This can be a great next step when you’ve nailed your freelance business and want to keep it growing. Creating an online course lets you scale your impact – shifting from 1:1 client work to supporting dozens (if not hundreds!) of students at once. It can generate extra revenue and potentially even lead to a passive income stream that makes money while you sleep. The dream, right?
Let’s take a look at how to get started:
- Solve ONE Problem for ONE Type of Person:
Focus on something you’re truly experienced in and something that addresses a real need or challenge for your audience. Avoid making a general or ‘kitchen sink’ course – niche topics connect better with audiences and allow you to be specific in your marketing and teaching.
- Outline Your Content:
Break down the course into clear modules or steps, focusing on actionable techniques and practical skills. Remember, your course is like a recipe: you’re providing a method that others can follow to get a result.
- Start Small and Get Feedback:
When creating your first course, it’s wise to start with a minimum viable product (MVP). This means creating a simple version that covers the essentials. Launch it to a small audience first, gather feedback and refine it as you go.
- Be Patient:
Creating a course requires time and patience, especially for your first launch. Don’t worry if things don’t feel perfect. Your first version is about validating your idea and gathering data, and once you’ve validated the idea and delivered your curriculum, every launch after that gets easier!
- Be Smart with Your Money
These days, you can create and launch an online course for free (or on a super-tight budget!) until you have the cash flow to invest into a full course platform. Yes, you’ll learn a lot, but the tools out there are easier to use than ever. With a successful course, you’ll be able to create passive income where your students are enrolling and learning without you having to launch or teach live.
- Put in the Hard Work and Reap the Rewards
One of my course creator clients, Sarah, launched a course aimed at hairdressers that changed her life and the lives of hundreds of students. We worked on the launch plan, a live masterclass and the course curriculum, pricing and bonuses. With heaps of hard work, resilience and knowing her topics and her students inside out, she was able to generate almost a quarter of a million pounds of revenue from that one course in less than nine months, with £68k being generated in the first two hours alone.
Creating an educational course can feel daunting, but the rewards make it worthwhile. You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to have something valuable to share. Start small, focus on your niche and gather feedback, and you can create a course that not only helps others but builds your business and brand in ways you may never have imagined.
Read more on Boss Your Salon
