Lessons Learned from Teaching That Helped Me Create and Launch a Tech Start-Up
If you would have met me last year, I was a 4th grade teacher who loves my job and loves life. Something was missing though. I wanted to devote more time to my kids and my work hours were holding me back. I also was tired of the hassle of booking birthday parties. Last year, I made the leap to solve both of these problems.
Fast forward to today, I left the teaching field and I’m successfully running a tech start-up that is shaking up the party industry, Venues N More. Venues N More is an online party marketplace that allows customers to book parties online. You can think of us as the Airbnb of parties. Let me tell you more about how being a teacher has given me an edge in the business world!
The first lesson that I learned as a teacher that has helped me tremendously in the business world is: build a community. As a teacher, I valued building a community in my classroom. In my opinion, this is the number one thing a teacher can do to ensure learning. Building a community helps students to take risks and achieve more than what they thought was possible. It also helps establish trust. As a business owner, I strive to do the same thing! I meet with and/or talk to each business owner. I get to know the owners on a personal level. I have the privilege of visiting venues which helps me to better understand their business model and establishes trust on both sides. I consider it an honor to go on a tour. I love getting to know the stories about their businesses so much that I started a podcast called: Party Planning Radio that highlights their listing on Venues N More as well as tells the story behind their brand. Visiting venues and featuring business owners on my podcast have done wonders to establish a sense of community within Venues N More.
The power of networking is my second lesson that I learned from teaching. As a teacher, I would get to know the family on a personal level. I was the teacher that would call just to follow up or just to tell good news. I was also the teacher that would strive to attend events outside of school to support my students. Today, I make the same bonds with different local business owners. I attend as many networking events as I can each week and I’m involved with my local Chamber of Commerce. I visit venues and get to know more about their business. I make it a point to get to know two new people a week on a first name basis, you never know how you can help each other in the future. The power of networking can propel any start-up!
My third lesson I learned in my second year of teaching: dream big. I vividly remember a conversation with my principal my second year of teaching. He sat me down and asked me to set a goal of a percentage of kids that would pass the science TAKS test (this was before STAAR test). My goal was 100% and I told him how I was going to get there. He argued with me and told me it wasn’t possible, I had this student and that student. I told him again, I will have 100% passing rate. After twenty minutes of back and forth, he finally wrote down my goal of 100%. I did everything I could to help my students out! I put little scientist all over the building with science facts that were hard to remember. I made 5 different small group lessons to hit all levels of students. I even pulled teachers to help me teach group that hated science (she later wrote me a letter saying how impressed she was with how much my students knew). Three days before the test, I orchestrated a big science review with fun games; we took over the entire library. I was dreaming big! I wanted to make sure that my students were prepared. A month and a half later, my results were in. 100% of my students had passes the test!
I was also dreaming big while creating Venues N More. I have grown Venues N More from an idea to a thriving marketplace for booking parties (n more) in just six months! I credit my success to: building a community, networking and dreaming big.
Want to learn more about my start-up, Venues N More? Visit: Venuesnmore.com. On the About page, I have listed all of my recent press releases, including: podcast guest appearances, local newspaper and magazine articles and more!
