The Big 2021 Review of my Online Education Business

Scroll through for more summer pictures!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links which are denoted with a star*. If you make a purchase through these links I get a small kickback, at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Happy new year! 2022 is here and with that a whole lot of hope that this will be the year where the pandemic turns around and eases off. In the meantime those of us with online businesses continue to change how we live and work in the 21st century. Here is my review of 2021, it’s lengthy so grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy this in-depth look behind the scenes of an online education business.

1. Highlights

Successfully migrated my website from 7.0 to 7.1.
Launched the new Squarespace Classroom course (now retired) teaching Member Areas.
Launched the undated Eule Planner (sold out).
Launched the free Calm Business Review on a bit of a whim (and it’s been a huge success)!
Contracted Shauna Reid as my studio manager, VA and strategist, and Chris Schwartz-Edmistento help with CSS + technical questions in my group. Love my small but mighty team!
Finally conquered my bookkeeping! Thanks to Quickbooks and Greenback it only takes me minutes now to do my books every week. It was a lot of work to set up but so worth it!
Participated in awesome webinars for International Women’s Day, Squarespace, and with fellow designer and friend Christy Price.
Took a lot of spontaneous time off during the summer which was beautiful last year. Scroll through the slideshow above for more photos.

2. Income & Expenses

Income Streams

Online Courses + Bundles
Eule Planner
Affiliate Earnings
Ask-Me-Anything (was closed for six months)
Miscellaneous (webinars, external teaching)

This was my fourth straight (and best) six-figure year. According to Rachel Rodger’s growth scale I am amongst 6% of US woman-owned businesses at this level. I am quite chuffed at what I’ve built in seven years, starting at $20K in my first year, especially considering that I have a relatively small audience, never used ads and continue to do many things myself.

Expenses

Have you noticed that six-figure marketers rarely talk about their overheads and expenses? Of course they don’t, it’s not nearly as sexy to say that of your six-figure income your actual profit is only 30%!

Last year my overall expenses (including payroll and taxes) made up 70% of my annual turnover. My net profit from my business was 30%, this is in addition to the salary I get. I am not exactly a frugal person, I don’t pinch the pennies and it’s important to me to pay people well, and I also reinvest a good amount on gadgets and technology. My business has never been in debt and given my personal history with managing money that in itself is pretty amazing. But there is always room for improvement for sure, like creating a new budget for my business! I have never actually had a budget. Which may be one reason why marketing is my lowest expense at 1%!! Makes you wonder how I even have a business without a marketing budget! That’s definitely one area I will be focusing on in 2022.

3. New products I launched in 2021

4. Top 10 Affiliates

I love the entrepreneurs and companies I recommend and after taking Christy's awesome Make Money with your Blog course I am slowly implementing her recommendations. I took her course in the summer and my affiliate income was 5% of my total revenue which is a great start. One of my goals for 2022 is to ramp it up and write more affiliate blog posts, there is definitely more potential here!

SQSP Themes: Awesome Squarespace Plugins.
Ghost Plugins: More awesome Squarespace Plugins!
Chris Schwartz-Edmisten: Fantastic Squarespace CSS Toolbox and Custom Layouts.
Squarespace Website Tools: Must-have Squarespace tools for designers and advanced users.
Disclaimer Template: Affordable Privacy Policy and other legal website documents.
Decor8 Courses: Renown design expert Holly Becker teaches growth + styling!
Make Money with your Blog: Generate affiliate income and convert readers to clients.
Scale with Templates: Scale your business with a Squarespace template shop.
Quickbooks Online: Changed my life! My bookkeeping only takes me minutes these days!
Moyo Studio: Beautiful mock-ups and stock photos.

5. Engagement Statistics

People are often surprised that I have a consistent six-figure business with such a small audience. In the past I stressed a lot over growing my subscribers and followers until I realized that the pace at which I am building my business is perfectly aligned with my personality and way of working. At my core I am a relationships person and the way I engage my audience is very much reflected in these numbers.

Social Media

Studio Notes subscribers: 3,350
Instagram followers: 2,435
Facebook Page followers: 882
YouTube subscribers: 318
LinkedIn connections: 295
Members in private Facebook support group: 502

Blogging + Newsletter

Newsletters sent: 29
Blog posts published: 23
Guest posts on other blogs: 2
Guests on my blog: 18

Podcasts + Webinars

Guest on podcasts: 7
Webinars hosted and co/hosted: 5

2021 Podcasts + Webinars →

6. Software & tools I use to run my business

Squarespace* for:
・Website
・Email marketing
・Online courses
・Commerce
・Scheduling
・Unfold for Instagram bio + planning
You can save 20% on your first Squarespace subscription with code KERSTIN
Apple suite of products:
・iCloud(for photos and storage)
・Mail(for all my emails)
・Numbers(for spreadsheets)
・Pages(for documents and PDFs)
・Notes (to communicate with my studio manager)
Eule Planner. I designed this planner specifically for online entrepreneurs and this beautiful notebook is what keeps me sane in my business! Includes charts for social media, blogging and finances, as well as a to-do page and two extra notes pages after each week.
Greenback to send commerce data from Squarespace to Quickbooks Online. This extension changed my life and made my bookkeeping so much easier and faster! If you want to check them out you can save 10% with the code KERSTIN10.
Quickbooks Online*. I’m on the Essentials Plan + Payroll, you can save 55% with my affiliate link. QBO was a steep learning curve but once I got it I fell in love with it! I do all my own bookkeeping and between Greenback and QBO what used to take me hours now only takes minutes. Plus, my accountant has easy access to it (they manage my payroll and handle the annual tax filings).

More tools + free stuff →

7. Courses I took in 2021

Susannah Conway’s Inside Story*
I first took this course in 2016 and Susannah revamped it for 2021. It is no exaggeration to say that Inside Story changed the trajectory of my business and is a big reason why I am where I am today. Susannah is one of the most genuine and heart-centered online entrepreneurs out there and her courses are calm, substantive and simply joyful. Another thing I love about Inside Story is the group, Susannah attracts the best people and many of my online friends are fellow Insiders.
Kate Scott’s Scale with Templates*
Kate, a Squarespace designer, is a great teacher and this is a thorough and well structured course. After taking it I decided against offering templates but only because I realized that I am already a step ahead with my Express course which is essentially a self-paced template course that requires no action from me when I sell it. But templates are great if you’re a 1:1 designer looking to scale your business, and Kate’s course will help you get started.
Christy Price’s Make Money with your Blog*
As mentioned above I took this course and loved it. Just have to find the time now to implement more of what I learned! My friend and fellow Squarespace designer Christy is a calm teacher who is very good at explaining everything, and the course itself is very well organized. If you want to add a potentially very profitable income stream to your business you need this course!
Olivia Hutto’s Let’s Go Canva*
Last year I rediscovered Canva so when Olivia, who is an awesome web and graphic designer, launched her Canva course I was all in! Her tutorials are easy to follow and I learned a lot! Thanks to this course I am much more comfortable with using Canva which I love but it can be a little overwhelming. Not anymore, thanks to Olivia!

8. Five lessons learned

1. Learning a new skill really well is worth the effort

Are you struggling with technology in your biz, like your website design or tech tools? In this day and age of short attention spans and social media distractions it can be hard to focus and learn a new skill. When I decided to use Quickbooks Online and Greenback for my bookkeeping I went through two weeks of hell while trying to figure it out. I finally realized that I needed to learn it properly. I am one of those people who learns by doing which in this case meant re-doing a whole year of bookkeeping (2019) three times. It was thoroughly overwhelming but I persevered and also reached out for help from Greenback and my accountant and eventually it all started falling into place. Now I love doing my books! What used to take me hours only takes me minutes, and I love having up-to-date reports available at the click of a button. So worth the effort, learning this skill turned a major energy drainer into a quick & calm task!

2. Trust your business

This has been one of my biggest lessons as a business owner. Despite having a business that’s grown every single year and turned over more than $100K for the last four years I still worry that it will all just collapse around me! That people will stop buying my courses and I won’t be able to pay my bills and it will be a disaster! This fear is in stark contrast with the part of my personality that believes that, one way or another, things will always work out and that we always have options and choices. I think a lot of this fear comes from having been securely employed most of my life, I am still getting used to being solely responsible for everything myself. Trust is not something you can learn or pay someone to teach you. When you are the business it is ultimately about trusting yourself… to show up, to do the work, and to do things in alignment with who you are. Once I understood this I started inviting trust in and that’s making all the difference and I feel much calmer and more confident about my business.

3. Take good care of your mental and physical health

Another recurring theme for many of us solo entrepreneurs: self-care quickly goes out the window as we spend our energy tending to everyone else. Q4 of 2021 was tough for me in this regard and I regained a lot of the weight I had lost in 2020. On this occcasion this was not due to stress or anything to do with my business, it was caused by a flare-up in my anxieties. My self-care for 2022 will be focused on trauma healing as that is at the core of my mental and physical health. I am working with a local EMDR therapist as well as an emotional eating coach who specializes in EFT tapping. I am trying new things! As for the weight I am easing back into my program, I started with quitting sugar and am already feeling the difference in my head and body. Everything is connected in life and I am grateful to myself for getting back on track with my health journey.

4. To scale or not to scale? The question remains open.

I spent the better part of last summer looking into options for growing my business. I dove deep into what it means to scale an online business. I watched lots of webinars by entrepreneurs selling ‘the scale’ and was overwhelmed with an unbelievable amount of funnel emails. But I also learned a lot about things like evergreen funnels and what it takes to run a growing business. Ultimately it comes down to this question for me: Can my business scale and stay calm? Looking at things through the lens of calm is changing how I approach everything, and that brings me to the final lesson:

5. I want to have a calm business

The concept of calm has weaved itself through my life like a red thread, it’s always been there. But it wasn’t until Susannah posted this slide in her Inside Story class, which I took in November 2021, that it hit me: My business is all about being calm in a hustle-driven world. That’s when I had the inspiration for the Calm Business Review and suddenly the theme of calm started falling into place. So what does it mean to have a calm business? To me it means having a business that…

… is well organized
… is lean in structure
… uses a simple technology set-up
… doesn’t drain me energetically
… is more about giving (through my products + service) than taking (money)

It’s funny, when Shauna and I started simplifying and streamlining my business last year we didn’t know that we were in fact creating a calmer business. The concept of the Calm Business is going to play a big role in my business going forward so watch this space!