“I found myself twisted in the front seat of my truck, laptop on the center console frantically typing. I had five minutes until a prospective client meeting and I was praying, ‘Dear God please let my cell phone connection be stable enough to take this zoom call,’” Manja Horner recalled.
Like so many, Manja is an entrepreneur who can work from anywhere. ‘Anywhere’ at that moment meant working from her car. In a down-filled parka. In the sub-zero temperatures of Canadian February.
“My back hurt, but I could suck it up for the next 30 minutes as long as I secure this client. My two-year-old was napping in the back, and I kept wondering if whispering would come across as odd to these guys from New Jersey with the online academy. But I couldn’t risk my son waking up until the call was over.”
Stuffed behind the steering wheel with a toddler on the fringe of waking up just five feet away, Manja reconsidered entrepreneurship. How did her dreams of entrepreneurship end up here?
Entrepreneurship looked sexier on Instagram. The “work from anywhere” vision — the beautiful chair overlooking azure blue waters — seemed a far cry from Manja’s reality.
But this unsexy picture was the reality of Manja’s parenting-meets-entrepreneurship in early 2021, a year into a global pandemic.
“When I became an entrepreneur, I had a vision of my business where I was parenting and income passively rolled into my bank account,” Manja recalled. “I had a vision of actively working myself out of my own business.”
Instead, Manja found herself stuck in project-based work, doing what she had always done: produce training.
“At that moment,” Manja said, “I knew I needed to stay true to the vision I had for my company, Boost LD. I needed to help other women – including myself – skip the one-track road to burnout as a service provider. I needed to help women create sustainable passive income sources that had an exit strategy.”
Most business owners crave a passive income revenue stream. For those with online businesses, passive income often feels unsustainable and unattainable. Service-based business models quickly lead to exhaustion and burnout. Constantly launching and relaunching online courses and coaching programs will wear out anyone.
What’s the solution for a mother and entrepreneur who wants to balance and prioritize her life over her business? That’s what Manja wondered.
To find the solution, Manja looked at other industries and creators. Walt Disney. Spinmaster Toys, the makers of the show ‘Paw Patrol’ that Manja hears playing in the background of her home office. How are these industries creating sustainable and scalable growth? Simple, they use licensing models.
Inspired by the idea of licensing her content, Manja created a product that she could sell again and again. For Manja, burnout came from repetitive sales efforts and repetitive client services. If she could eliminate those two aspects of her business, she could create sustainable passive income.
“That realization changed my life,” Manja said. “I didn’t accept that client, the guys from New Jersey. Instead, I invested more time into creating my learning product, ‘Your Greatest Work Learning Design Course.’ My program is a self-paced course that teaches wanna-be course creators, online business owners, and coaches how to create a learning offer that will transform their students.”
Manja’s program is operated and maintained by Manja and her team but with little-to-no sales effort and no active facilitation. The program has been integrated into business and sales coaching programs of other entrepreneurs through licensing fees.
Licensing models are well suited for proprietary methods, highly specialized content, partnerships, and ‘off-the-shelf’ corporate training offers.
“I’m actively working on working myself out of a job,” Manja said. “My business can grow while I focus on the things that I care about doing the most. I can focus on creating new programs, being the creative visionary that I was meant to be, and helping women while speaking on large global stages.”
Want to find out how you can too work yourself out of your business by building more passive income streams? Join Manja's featured talk at the annual Women Thrive Summit - a global women empowerment event hosted by the Women in Business and learn how to build 'Passive Income with Integrity by Creating Value-Based Learning Solutions' - book your ticket HERE.
Manja Horner - Education Consultant, Speaker & Facilitator, founder of Boost LD.
Manja is an ex-corporate learning experience designer with degrees in Business and Education. After almost 20 years of showing up in some form as a teacher or curriculum designer, Manja has become a fun and friendly trusted advisor to entrepreneurs who are growing and adding educational offers and services to their business.
She gets big results for her clients with her innovative and collaborative idea generation. How? She gets her clients to think differently about their customer's learning experience and helps entrepreneurs sell their content in the way that works best for THEM.
Manja is very curious and thinks outside the box. She absorbs information at an alarming rate and has an uncanny ability to make information accessible for entrepreneurs and their clients.
This mom of three thrives on the stage as a violinist, podcast host, facilitator and presenter.
She gets big results for her clients with her innovative and collaborative idea generation. How? She gets her clients to think differently about their customer's learning experience and helps entrepreneurs sell their content in the way that works best for THEM.
Manja is very curious and thinks outside the box. She absorbs information at an alarming rate and has an uncanny ability to make information accessible for entrepreneurs and their clients.
This mom of three thrives on the stage as a violinist, podcast host, facilitator and presenter.
WRITTEN BY
Raimonda Jankunaite