A Little Background
The idea of starting an online business was not new to my husband or I. I’d known for many years that I wanted more financial freedom. It’s been a lifelong dream to own a successful business of my own. I knew I couldn’t take the risk of quitting my day job or taking on debt to start a new venture. It just wasn’t possible with a family to support. Then I started hearing about how others were making a living online. I began considering how I would carve a space out online and make it a viable business.
When I first got stated, I’d look into how to make money online and quickly get overwhelmed with the details and just stop…I wasn’t at a place in life where I could start a business that wasn’t going to to be immediately profitable, or worse completely flop! I spent five years wanting to get started online, and today it is a huge regret that I hadn’t done it sooner.
Anyone who knows me, will attest that though I love helping and leading others, I do not like the limelight. I stay pretty private, and have a hard time being vulnerable and just talking about my struggles openly outside of close friendships or family relationships. It is definitely an area of growth I am currently working on. So when it came to starting a business and putting myself out there again, I was crippled by the fear of failure. I had started another business back in 2012 that just didn’t work with my lifestyle. Admitting that it wasn’t a good fit and shutting down was the hardest things I’ve had to do.
However, as my professional career has progressed, I became more skilled at running a business. My current day job involves operations for a social service agency. I’m a licensed therapist, but have chosen to apply this skill at an organizational level. Currently, I am in charge of all operations. I love leading people and implementing big projects. While I’ve been in this capacity, the company I lead has grown and flourished. I started to see my accomplishments materialize, and it reaffirmed that I have more to offer the world.
Don’t get me wrong, I am deeply satisfied by my job, and I make a pretty good living! I have no intention of leaving my day job any time soon, even if this business were to suddenly make an insane amount of income! However, I’ve always wanted to do more than just pay the bills every month. With a family of six, cost of living is not cheap. Even though I make a decent salary and my husband does as well there really isn’t much leftover at the end of the month.
After much deliberation, my husband and I decided to try a joint venture together. His support was the courage I needed to get in the trenches and try building another business that is my own. I finally launched The Priestley Project after spending at least a month finding clarity and defining “why” this was important to me. It set the stage for everything that has transpired after.
Our Why
My husband and I spent many years struggling financially, drowning in student loan debt, and stretching our paychecks as far as they could go. With four kids in the house, there are a lot of expenses! Although we have come a long way from wondering if we could make rent or buy toilet paper, it seemed that as our income grew so did our expenses. Even today with both of us making good salaries, we just don’t make enough to get ahead or completely break free of the paycheck to paycheck cycle.
Someday, we hope to have enough freedom to take vacations when we’d like and not stress about the financial impact. It has been a dream to own a second property in a warmer locale to escape to during the often brutal Midwest winters. Our family loves boating and water sports in general, and at some point an upgrade would be nice! I’ve always wanted to support causes I believe in and be able to give bigger and make a larger impact. I want my kids to grow up unburdened by student loan debt, and have a better start off into adulthood than I did.
For all of these reasons, I couldn’t give up on the dream of being a full fledged entrepreneur with a thriving business. Out of the depths of learning all there is to know about web design, marketing, content creation, and the power of mindset, came our mission. We want to help other aspiring entrepreneurs start their businesses online. We want to be a supportive boost and a one stop shop to getting started online and begin earning extra income that hopefully one day provides financial freedom.
What We Offer
All this information and backstory is great and all, but what does this have to do with our readership? Well, we want very much to help others mold and shape their own future, achieve their goals, and live life on their terms. We are online to provide no non-sense resources and an honest portrayal of what it is like to make money online. We don’t plan on doing it the same way everyone else in this space does. Sure, we could publish income reports or make claims about how our strategies have made us overwhelming results, but it isn’t who we are.
All too often we were promised huge results and then felt misled. Building an online business is very tough. I felt very invalidated by the claims to fame that many other online entrepreneurs in the coaching and business space were promoting. Whenever I’d see a claim that promised numbers or income, I would get excited, but feel quickly deflated when it just didn’t happen the way they explained.
There is no way to promise someone an exact set of results. Every business has its unique journey. There are times when someone gets lucky on their first try, but more often than not it is an evolving process of trial and error. We wanted to be different, straight shooters providing actionable advice, quick wins, and solid business principles.
We’ve coupled our professional skills and ability to produce change and want to put these skills to good use by offering a lot of valuable content. I have to say that having a great mentor has been the #1 source of motivation when things got tough, and believe me things do get tough when building your business online. At The Priestley Project, we want to serve as a mentor and coach providing a positive influence in your life as a new entrepreneur.
Currently, everything we are offering is free. Yup, I said free. Take advantage of this! However, we are developing our paid offerings for group coaching and online courses which will come in the near future. We are very excited for our course offerings and will have both free and paid avenues to advance your business knowledge and make an impact.
The Priestley Project blog is currently monetized by affiliate marketing. This helps us “get paid” small commissions by other companies we use when you take our advice on a product or service. Only products we personally use and love are promoted. There is no junk or scammy get rich quick schemes here.
If you want to support the blog because you found it valuable, share it and shout it from the rooftops! You can also use one of our links to when purchasing a recommended product or service. We also love talking to our readers, so feedback and comments are also welcome here.
We “Get it”
My kids are also so into the world of YouTube influencers, and really want to learn those skills. I thought why not teach my kids the principles of entrepreneurship and let them materially participate in this venture with us. We have truly made this a family affair which gives us a unique perspective in the business space. We balance family life with business and still work full-time jobs. We are a busy household that gets the struggle. We also want our kids to learn valuable skills that will serve them well later in life.
We care about our readers and will not promote spammy products or services just to make a buck! Anything promoted here has been vetted, used, and determined valid and useful to online business owners.
We want to know our readers personally and build a business we are proud of. We try to do that in the most user friendly way possible.
Our Hope for the Future
It is important for us to build a tribe of people that are like-minded. We want our information to help others. The ultimate goal is to build this business until we are able to declare we are debt free and financially liberated! This is also our hope for our tribe members and loyal readers. Let’s do this together!
Drop a comment and let us know if you are starting or planning to start an online business. We love to collaborate and help others along this crazy journey called entrepreneurship.
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