"Don’t underestimate the knowledge that you’ve gained from your current experience and how you can leverage this to build your own business" with Kristine Thorndyke
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Photo Credit: Brianne Hooker
Kristine is a teacher turned entrepreneur. She’s working to spread access to reliable and affordable test prep and academic advising for students pursuing higher education through her business, Test Prep Nerds.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I am from a very small town in Indiana and graduated from Indiana University in 2013 with a degree in marketing and international business. Immediately upon graduation, I took a sales job in Los Angeles, and found myself extremely unfulfilled by my work.
I’d always loved traveling and did a ton of it during college through various travel abroad programs and found myself bummed that I really didn’t have any more time to travel or explore, as most of my personal leave was spent going home to visit family or taking a personal day for general rest and mental wellbeing. So, after 12 months, I decided to go teach English for a year in China. The initial idea was to teach for 1 year, get it off my chest, and come back to work in the 9-to-5 again. Once I started teaching, however, I was extremely happy with my work-life balance as a teacher and the extended time for travel, reading, and general wellbeing.
Since then, I have lived and worked in China, the US, and have also spent a year traveling in South America while building my online business.
What inspired you to start your business?
The catalyst for starting my business was when I was gearing up to take the LSAT while abroad in China (yes, I wanted to be a lawyer way back when) and found it difficult to find a good LSAT prep company that was all online and on-demand. I didn’t want to see a live instructor, as time change would be super difficult to find a mutually agreeable time for class. By word-of-mouth, a friend told me about a prep company he had used, and I took the LSAT that summer.
I didn’t end up going to law school, but did find myself interested in the business of education as well as how these prep companies could reach more people instead of relying on word-of-mouth, like I had experienced. Coming from a marketing background, I started freelancing for test prep companies, doing their digital marketing and blogging. I was able to see how much traffic I could bring to these companies and the power that this had on getting the right prep to an audience who otherwise may not have been able to afford expensive test prep products in-person.
Since then, I launched my own company that not only directs students to the best products through my blog, but I also offer my own free practice and advising for students. I love working with students and helping them to demystify testing and the application process, because I have experienced the difficulty of trying to make these important and difficult choices while abroad with very few resources.
Where is your business based?
My business is based in Indiana and our audience is mostly American.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
In order to start my own business, I first and foremost had to get my blog up and running, as this is my main means of reaching my intended audience. I needed to set up the analytics for my Wordpress site, structure my website and what kind of categories of blog content I wanted to produce, as well as put together the design of my website.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
I’ve spent a significant portion of my time working in digital marketing for companies and have learned how to utilize Google search for audience reach. For me, I blog and am able to optimize my pages using SEO best practices. By utilizing organic search for my main source of traffic, I am able to guarantee that I spend less time worrying about marketing and more time worrying about whether I am putting together the most comprehensive test and admissions information that my students need.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
My biggest challenge was when I first launched my business and my boyfriend and I decided to be “digital nomads” for a year in South America. I was having a good year of profit with my company, so I quit my freelancing work to just focus on my own business. Unfortunately, I had made that jump into my own company too soon, before I understood the cyclical nature of test prep (students prep for most tests in the spring/summer and aren’t seeking prep products or advice during part of the school year). I had a really low few months of revenue and had to budget really hard during that time.
The lesson I learned from this challenge is that being your own business or freelancer means that you are not always guaranteed the same paycheck each month, and setting aside money for emergencies or low months is extremely important for financial and mental wellbeing.
How do you stay focused?
This is a big one for me. Personally, I work best in the mornings and am pretty worthless by the late afternoon in terms of working on tasks that require strategy or deep thinking. Now, I make sure to block off my mornings for work and make sure all other activities or engagements are planned for late afternoon or evening.
Each day, I have a to-do list that I work through, and this to-do list is broken up into smaller, micro-tasks that help to keep more daunting tasks manageable, as I chip away at a bigger challenge piece-by-piece.
It would also be remiss of me to leave out that I drink my fair share of coffee during weekday work sessions.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
Where I set myself apart from competition is by actually utilizing and testing out any test prep products that I recommend to my readers. I think it’s critical that I am 100% confident in a product before I would recommend it to other students.
I make sure to block off a section of time each day to answer student questions about their current prep routine as well as assist them on building their own study plan. This personalization and integrity is what makes my business stand out among the pack.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
I utilize blog, Pinterest, and email marketing to grow my business. Each time I publish a new blog post, I will share it on my Pinterest profile as well as send it in my weekly newsletter to my readers.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Don’t underestimate the knowledge that you’ve gained from your current experience and how you can leverage this to build your own business. If you’ve ever found yourself thinking “If only I had XYZ, this task would be easier” or “Why isn’t there an XYZ for people like me” then you probably have a business idea that you can run with that serves a need.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
My favorite app is Libby. I connect my local library card with this app and I can access the entire library of audio books.
My favorite blog Mr. Money Mustache. I found this blog when I was trying to budget during my time in South America and he inspired me to seek a life of financial independence.
The best book I’ve read recently was Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. I took so many notes on ways that I could be a more effective negotiator and was actually able to utilize what I’d learned in negotiating higher rates with partners.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
The tool I use daily is ClickUp. My team and I dispersed around the world and are able to manage projects and tasks using this software. I’m not naturally a super organized person, so this helps me to delegate and manage tasks that I’d normally just do myself.
Who is your business role model? Why?
My business role model is Tracee Ellis Ross. Although I’m not in the entertainment industry, per se, I really enjoy her candid look at being authentic to yourself and pursuing projects that you personally find satisfying. Sometimes I feel that, as a female, we have fewer role models who have blazed a path that is uniquely their own and not predetermined by others.
How do you balance work and life?
For me, setting aside one day a week where I’m not allowed to use my computer (with the exception of Netflix) has been really important for me to create space to relax, shut-off this urgency and need to feel productive, and generally reconnect with life. I’ve found this to be vital for an entrepreneur to avoid burnout.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
Depending on my mood, my decompression may be going on a long afternoon walk with my dog while listening to a podcast or audiobook, or it may be settling down into a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
In the next six months, I hope to have launched a TEFL video course for people who want to teach abroad. I already have the content that will be shared, but need to learn the ins-and-outs of creating video content. This will be a huge learning curve!
How can our readers connect with you?
Readers can find me on my blog Test Prep Nerds: https://testprepnerds.com as well as our Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/testprepnerds/