{Momentrepreneur} Meet Remedial Therapist and Learning Specialist Marina: "I have generated incredible leads by giving some things away for free."

This week we meet a remedial therapist, Marina, who quit her remedial school job to start her own business assisting learners learn in a way that suits them holistically. She works with a child’s learning routine and strategies.

Marina works a lot online to market herself, also through blogging and Facebook. She has also found that giving away certain things has brought her more business.

Tell us about yourself, a bit of background.

I studied teaching and special educational needs at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University all the back in the 80’s. My first post was working with profoundly mentally challenged children. All of my pupils were non-verbal and low functioning. It was the most incredibly humbling experience and it taught me a type of patience I never knew I had. Teaching these amazing children changed the way I taught for the rest of my life. Making me understand that each child develops in their own time and each child has the ability to succeed when given the right amount of care and attention. I’ve been in education for 25 years and have taught gifted children, mainstream children and academically challenged children.

What were you doing before you started this business?

I was a remedial therapist at a very elite private school and hating it. I was forced to work in a way, which I knew was counterproductive to learning. The school refused to change its stance on remedial intervention, so I bravely (or stupidly – lol) handed in my resignation and walked away with not one client or knowing how I was going to pay my bond, car, school fees etc.

Is your business full time or part time and why?

I work full time in my business. I have tried to build a practice before while still teaching at a school and I found that I never managed to give my business the attention it needed. I always placed my employers needs ahead of my own and landed up having minimal time and energy to grow my own business. While starting it up solo was scary, I mean there were months when I really did not know where the money was going to come from. The one month I actually couldn’t even pay my bond. But I persevered and it has paid off. I still have some scary months, especially when it is school holidays and most my clients are away but this drove me to think how I could make up the deficit and this lead me to writing my books. I have found that you will only really push yourself to grow your business when you are under pressure to make it a success.

How do you juggle the responsibilities of being a mom with your work?

Marina and her daughter at at the Eagle Sanctuary at Spier Wine Farm.

I am lucky in that when I started my business, my daughter was already in Matric, so she didn’t need too much attention from me. There were still things I needed to juggle like lifting her to and from school/college, taking her to photo shoots (she enrolled in college and studied photography about 6 months after I started my business) and so on. I made sure to plan each day, down to the last minute. I did all my planning the night before. I would first fill in the times when all my ‘mommy’ duties would need to take place and then I’d fill in my work obligations around that. I made sure to commit

Kristin and Marina using a Snapchat filter

to a minimum of 8hrs per day. So if I knew there was going to be a hectic afternoon of lifting and carrying, I would schedule to work in the morning, while she was at college, and then in the evening. This did mean that I worked some very late nights, but it was well worth it. There were days I would tell her to grab a bowl of cereal for supper, as I didn’t want to break with my writing or marketing…and she survived!! If I was busy with doing diagnostic testing or working with one of my children, she would have to wait for me at college until I was ready. Also, if I knew it was going to be a long photoshoot that I had to take her to, I would take my laptop with and do work in my car. However, I was always very clear with what work I would finish while waiting in my car, to avoid any time wasting.

Do you have a business plan? If so, can you share a bit about your strategy to make it successful?

I do have a business plan. My strategy centres around social media marketing, blogging, Google Adword campaigns and branding myself as a leading expert in education. Branding has been done through, doing talks at schools, and accepting speaking engagements through the WCED. I have done a lot of these talks for free, because it is about looking at the bigger picture and making valuable contacts. I also offer free education advice through email and via my website. I have generated some incredible business leads by giving some things away for free. I have to admit that I am behind on my blogging strategy mainly because things got really hectic due to moving cities, but doing giveaways through my blog has also driven a lot of traffic to my site. I am also prominent on social media – I find that I get a lot of leads through FB, as my target market is South African moms and that is where they are most active. I also belong to a lot of mommy groups on FB and offer consistent advice, which also leads to some valuable contacts.

How do you get clients/ market yourself?

I get new clients by doing my own marketing. My FB page, email campaigns. blog and Google Adwords drive a steady stream to my site. I have also had people contact me through word of mouth, as I mentioned above a lot of this has come through me giving free advice to people who then refer me to friends and colleagues. I do FB advertising every so often. I haven’t had huge success from FB advertising – I just haven’t managed to grasp how to make it successful. I do however pay a monthly fee to advertise on a very large Mom’s Group on FB and that tends to yield better results. I also advertise through school newsletters. I have found that if you look carefully, and think out of the box you can market your business on a limited budget.

What’s your biggest challenge right now?

My biggest challenge right now is building up my clientele once again. I moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg, so I am right back where I started. It is a bit easier, as I do have contacts at schools here in JHB, which I didn’t in Cape Town.

I also have found that I am at the stage in my online business where it is too big for one person but I am not earning enough to bring in a second person. This means long hours and there is always something that falls behind – and lately that has been my blog.

Also because of the move, I had a backlog of things which have piled up and I am trying to sort through getting that done, as well as trying to keep up with my present business demands. So my workload right now is a bit hectic.

Did you need a lot of money to start off? And how long was it before you made a profit?

I was lucky in that I was in education for 20 years before I stepped out of a salaried job. This meant that I had already gathered all the resources and tools I needed. I also was able to work from home, which eliminated the need for office rent. The only thing I had to was ensure I had enough money to keep the bills paid – as mentioned above, there were some very scary months but I really do believe that when you struggle, it makes you stronger and more determined to succeed.

What makes your business unique from other brands?

I believe in holistic education. So all my programmes take a child’s emotional, physical and cognitive needs into account. This is not a very common approach in South Africa. Holistic education means that if I am asked to diagnose a child’s academic issues, I will investigate their diet, emotional well-being and their cognitive ability to determine where they need help. The books I authored, on learning, also take a holistic approach. I never underestimate how much a child’s emotional well-being affects their learning. I am also a learning specialist and there are very few in South Africa. I analyse and determine how effective a child’s learning routine is and then show them where they need to work on improving their learning strategies. Being able to give parents a more rounded and holistic overview of their child, is what makes me different from other remedial therapists.