The Secret Life of an Academic Entrepreneur
And the fulfilling power of operating a semester-proof business
When I started my business in 2017, one semester after beginning my role as a full time lecturer at the University of Georgia, I never expected that the revenue generated by my business would surpass my annual academic salary.
I never intended for my business to be more than a hobby.
It was just supposed to be something to focus on and expand my life and hobbies OUTSIDE of academia (something I believe is necessary for all academics).
And to be fair; while my business is far from a hobby (it’s a legit company with payroll and team members), I still only spend hobby level time and energy on my business.
I typically spend only five hours per week working on my “side hustle”. Why? Because I love my job as an academic and I put in a lot of time and effort in making sure that my academic career is on track for promotion.
In fact, I was promoted to Senior Lecturer a year early! And it’s a promotion that might not have happened so early if I’d never created my business.
That may sound counterintuitive (more focus on business = more success in academia), but you’ll see why by the end of this brief letter/essay to other academics..
My business has changed my life. It’s changed my financial status, it’s changed my mindset, and it’s changed the way I approach my academic work.
My business has given me fulfillment in all of the major areas of my life.
I’m not a regular academic.
I’m a cool academic!
I’m an academic entrepreneur.
And if that’s something you identify with, or are working on identifying with, let’s take a quick and helpful journey together.
To begin, I’ll start with my biggest secrets to success.
I was very strategic about the type of business I chose to start. I don’t have a brick and mortar business. I don’t sell physical products. I don’t do fulfillment. Translation: I didn’t want a business heavy on logistics, high overhead costs, or complex systems.
I sell the knowledge that’s already in my brain.
I sell information products based on the skills and knowledge I’ve gained throughout my life.
If you are an academic, you have A LOT of knowledge. And you likely paid a hefty sum for some of that knowledge.
And as you likely know by now, you could be monetizing your years of schooling and training beyond the classroom and your research.
The best part is: you can do it in a way that makes you an even more valuable asset to your department and school.
It’s about finding a unique angle or way you can contribute to society, and building a business from it by implementing the secrets in this letter.
My unique angle was my approach to time management and productivity. (I mean, obvi I love this stuff! I’m able to manage both being a full time academic with a very heavy teaching load and growing a digital business that surpassed six figures per year.)
I started a business called The Academic Society and went all in on the key factors that made me a successful graduate student—teaching other graduate students to do the same.
I created accountability programs, digital courses, and ebooks to support my audience of graduate students.
And I set it up in a way that honors my boundaries.
Secret #1:
Set and honor healthy boundaries
One thing that my friends and family will tell you about me is that I have strong, healthy boundaries.
“The thing that I admire most about Toyin is that she will never do what she doesn’t want to do and she only does what she enjoys doing.”
And that is mostly true. I will do things that I don’t want to do. But only once! After that, I will outsource it to someone else, create a system or automation to do it for me, or eliminate it from my to-do list.
Speaking of only doing what I enjoy…
It’s how I chose my job as a Lecturer.
When I was a grad student, I found that I wasn’t resonating with my research as much as I did with teaching my classes. So, when it was time to start applying for jobs, I applied to liberal arts colleges that didn’t have a graduate program…so that I would only need to do research with undergraduates.
But then I was offered a tenure track position at a liberal arts college.
And I didn’t want it.
When I received the offer letter, I immediately got this sinking pit in my stomach that told me that I wouldn’t enjoy every aspect of the job. And after five years of working hard in grad school, I knew that I deserved a life that I loved.
So, I turned the position down…with no backup.
And that was super scary. People would kill to land a tenure track position right after grad school! But I knew that if one school wanted me, surely another would.
I depend greatly on my faith.
Plus, I’m great at time management so I had started applying for jobs months before other grad students had. I got that job offer in October! And by December, I had two more offers and chose the position that I have now where my only responsibilities are to teach (small classes) and mentor grad students and new faculty.
Two things that I absolutely love!
And when I accepted my dream job so many academics asked if I would apply for a tenure track position the next year! No way! I had to remember my values and boundaries to stand strong in what I really wanted for myself no matter what others thought!
So, if you are an academic with a side hustle (or desire to make an impact outside of your academic career), my first recommendation would be to set healthy boundaries and honor them.
Not a naturally boundaried person like me? Here are some questions to reflect on:
What are your values?
What do you love most about your job?
Are there any areas of your life where you would like to spend more time?
What are your long term goals? (How do you want your life to look in 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years?)
I think about these questions all of the time and they inform what I do on a daily basis.
At the beginning of this essay, I mentioned getting promoted a year early. Well, what I didn’t mention was that my promotion happened in 2021…
…during a pandemic
…while experiencing the worst semester of my life.
But also, that was the year my business surpassed $100,000 in yearly revenue for the first time! And I barely spent any time working on it. (Way less than the five hours per week I spend now.)
So, how did I make the most money that I ever made in my business while spending the least time and energy I’d ever spent on it?
Well, I’ve coined a term for it!
I’ve made my business semester-proof!
What is a semester-proof business?
It’s a business that remains consistently profitable no matter how busy the semester gets.
It’s a profitable entity that utilizes systems and automations so it can operate for you whenever you get super drained from an overwhelming time in the semester. (Think: first week of classes, midterms, finals, grant/publication deadlines, search committee duties, conferences, etc)
So, how did I know what to focus on in my business to make it profitable on so little time?
Here are all of the details about how I exploded my income in just one year:
Secret #2:
Build a semester-proof business
When I first started my business, I was so excited to create content and help the people that I knew I could help and make a difference in their lives. It was so much fun to have a fulfilling hobby outside of academia!
But after two years running my own “business” and making $0, some of that excitement started to fade. And I began to neglect my business, prioritizing my academic work and only working on my “business” when I was in the mood.
The reason I wrote business in quotes above, is because I really had a hobby. A side hustle hobby.
It was something that I did for fun and to help others but it didn’t make any revenue.
Also, I wasn’t reaching as many people as I thought I could, so I wasn’t even helping my ideal customer in an impactful way.
Take the Academic Entrepreneur Personality Quiz
Annalise Keating, Ross Geller, Ji-Yoon Kim, Ted Mosby: Which on-screen professor persona matches your teaching and business style?
If you are an academic with a side hustle, this may resonate with you.
I’m going to share the #1 reason you may not be making the impact and income you desire in your business and I’ll share how I exploded my income and impact while working less than I did when my “business” was just a side hustle hobby.
The secret that I’m going to share really changed my life! It’s what allowed me to achieve my academic dream life.
First, I have a few questions for you. On a scale from 1-10, how do you feel about the following?
How are you feeling about the results you’re getting in your business?
How are you feeling about the income and impact you’re making in your business?
If you scored less than a 7 on either question, you are probably doing the exact same thing I was doing in my business in those first two years:
binge-working
You know the cycle:
You get inspired by a good idea
You get excited about a piece of content on a topic that you are passionate about
You meet someone who is interested in what you do
Or you purchase an online business course and get super excited about diving into the content
And that launches you into a business binge where you spend all weekend working on your business…
Or you work all night for a couple nights one week.
But then academic life takes all of your attention and you don’t work on your business again for weeks; maybe even months.
Is this something that happens to you?
I used to do this all the time! And I would justify it because; I have a job!
And I love my job as a full time academic; I’m a senior lecturer and I can’t imagine my life not teaching math to students. So I felt fine treating my business like a hobby.
I didn’t need the income (even though I wanted it and it would improve my quality of life); I would be fine without it.
Most academics don’t have side hustles anyway; I’m already doing more than them! Lol!
But that was a limiting belief!
Just because your business is a side job and you love your full time job doesn’t mean you have to treat your business like a hobby.
Honestly, if I dug deep, I believed that I didn’t have the time to make my business more than just a hobby and that it wouldn’t be worth it to make it more than a side hustle.
Perhaps, you are feeling the same way?
Well, here’s the secret. I was sooo wrong! I actually didn’t need to spend more time to turn my side hustle hobby into a fully functioning, impactful, wildly profitable business.
In the same amount of time (really, less time) that I spent binge-working in my business, I grew my business from making $0 in 2018 to $100,000 in 2021:
So, what happened?! How did I go from making $0 in my business (hobby) to making profit and then from making $1400 to operating a six figure business?
I stopped binge-working on big projects like designing a website, building an online course, creating social media graphics, and designing elaborate lead magnets.
Instead, I focused on business operations that led to sales.
I remembered my evidence-based research background and started tracking which tasks in my business led to profit, created repeatable workflows, and set up systems to do the heavy lifting of my business for me.
Now, it takes me less than 5 hours to work on my business each week! I’ll work for a couple of hours on my non-teaching days and spend about an hour or so on the weekends.
That’s about 5 hours of work per week!
Is that more or less time than you thought it would take to run a six figure business?
Dr. Jessye Talley, engineering professor and early career faculty coach helping junior faculty prepare for a successful third year review.
Case study moment:
Jessye, one of my consulting clients, a fifth year tenure track assistant professor who just had a baby, only had 2 hours to spare each week to devote to growing her business.
So, we developed a plan, stream-lined her business with a simple sales funnel and content plan and now she’s been invited to speak at multiple events that align with her purpose and her business.
The big secret: Time is not the bottleneck you think it is!
You just have to know what to spend your limited time on.
Now, instead of spending my business work time on big projects that aren’t worth my time, I spend that time on profitable tasks that are 100% worth my time.
Not sure which tasks you should be working on? In my FREE video series, Plan Your Semester-Proof Business This Weekend, I’ll break down which tasks are worthy of your time and which aren’t.
This is what I teach other academics to do!
I started my business consultancy (my second business) in 2021, after other academics kept asking how I do what I do!
I kept being asked:
How did I find the time?
What does the backend of my business look like?
Where do I start?
How can I make my business semester-proof?
The answer to those questions begins with secret #3.
Secret #3:
Protect your time and energy
If you’re like me, you’ve probably lost track of how many times you’ve thought…
“This semester is going to be different.”
Or…
“I’m going to get ahead on my work, manage my time better and finally make ‘business tasks’ a permanent part of my weekly routine.”
🤡 Fast forward to three weeks into the semester, and you’re laser-focused on your academic to-do list:
>> Grading
>> Writing quizzes, tests and worksheets
>> Letters of recommendation
>> Committee work/service to the department
>> Departmental meetings
>> Research
>> ”Writing” papers
>> Academic Honesty meetings
Is it you, or does the semester get busier and more intense as the weeks go by?
That time you’ve set aside to work on your business? Your academic responsibilities know where it went - because they consumed every last minute.
From the outside looking in, the academic lifestyle seems super flexible. And it is!
But we know the truth:
Academia requires a lot of personal time and energy.
And if you’re spending all of your time and energy on academic responsibilities, you’re too tired (and too drained!) to grow your business.
And that’s the dilemma.
How does an academic entrepreneur make more money when your academic responsibilities pull your time and energy away from your business?
I know the feeling of having every intention to work on my business. But, inevitably, the semester becomes overwhelming. And I neglect my business - despite those best intentions.
This is a huge struggle for my academic entrepreneur clients.
Time is valuable - and it’s beyond important that you spend your time on the right things.
And build a business that supports you through the busiest semesters.
Finding this time during a hectic semester is a big challenge. You know that truth all too well.
So, let me drop an academic entrepreneur life hack!
Here are three ways that I squeeze in a little business time during a busy semester:
Non-teaching days: I set aside 30 minutes - 1 hour.
Office hours (when students don’t show up): This is the perfect time to work on business tasks! The time is finite, and it’s time you would’ve spent working with students (as opposed to class prep or research). No students? Get to business!
Exam days: When my students are taking an exam, I take advantage of the time to brainstorm new content or business ideas.
Don’t let your academic commitments consume every moment.
And when you use your valuable time to work on your business, you want to make sure that you are working on the RIGHT business tasks. The tasks that lead to profit!
This is what my academic entrepreneur clients come to me for! I help them organize their thoughts, create a custom business model based on their unique gifts, and give them a to-do list of business tasks that prioritize revenue.
My favorite thing about academic entrepreneurs are that they are brilliant, deeply connected to helping others, and are self-starters. When I give my clients a strategy and a game plan, they implement it right away and immediately start seeing major growth in their business!
So, if academic entrepreneurs are so great, why do they even need a business coach or consultant?
Well, one reason is accountability. It’s likely that you are the only person at your job or department who is pursuing entrepreneurship. And it can seem weird to bring it up to people who believe the toxic academic culture that says that your life must revolve around academia.
So, one thing that I provide to my clients is a sounding board. Someone to relate to. And someone who understands the plight of an academic entrepreneur.
But the second reason, and main point of this essay, is that academics are lifelong learners and researchers. And there is a lot of information online about how to build and grow an online business. And some of that info is conflicting.
So the biggest place where my clients get stuck is understanding where to start and which tasks and strategies should be implemented first, second, and third.
I’ve come up with an order of operations, of sorts, to give you a roadmap for building your own semester-proof business.
Do you remember PEMDAS?
It’s the order of operations that you were likely taught in your early mathematics classes. Parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.
Well, I’ve created PEMDAS for your business. And it’s called WECOT: words, environment, content, outline, tech.
It’s actually the 5-Step Roadmap that I created for my clients that expertly guides you as you build your semester-proof business. You’ll learn to :
Interview your ideal customers - learning the words they use to describe their struggles and the emotions they feel once their problems are solved (aka mastering your messaging!).
Position your offer to connect with those in your niche - making it obvious that you’re the person who can meet them where they’re at and help them.
Create captivating evergreen/hero content that pulls the perfect people to your offer (they won’t be able to resist!). And hint: you won’t have to spend all your time on social media with this type of hero content.
Map out your customer’s journey.
Build a sales funnel that makes sales for you on autopilot (a simple system that works!).
This is the exact roadmap that I used to make over $8,000 in passive income. From one $97 offer!
I teach this exact roadmap (WECOT Framework) inside of my workshop for academic entrepreneurs called Sales On Autopilot!
I really enjoy creating frameworks and methodologies for my clients because I love teaching!
But also, I’ve benefited from the frameworks and methodologies of other business experts! They have been instrumental in my journey to building a profitable business.
This is my final (and most crucial) secret! It’s my biggest secret for exploding my income as an academic entrepreneur.
Secret #4:
Invest in the right experts to speed up your business growth
I’ve shared above about how long it took me to start bringing in extra income from my business. It took two years before I made any money at all!
That’s a long time to devote to a side hustle with no monetary return on investment!
But now, when I look back, I face-palm. 🤦🏾♀️
I could have started making money in my business instantly!
Well, at least in the first 30 days of starting my business.
If I knew then what I know now about how to explode my income and expand my business, I could have reached my financial goals back in 2017. Back then, I was focused on investing time and energy into growing my business.
I was willing to put in the work! I was recording videos, writing emails, posting on social media, and sending DMs to potential clients.
And while this was helpful in gaining visibility and brand awareness, it didn’t help me increase my income.
Once I started investing MONEY into the right coaching and programs, I started to see sales roll in and my income skyrocket!
(Here’s that business revenue chart again for my brand The Academic Society.)
I can directly correlate investing in coaching or (a course) with the RIGHT expert to huge jumps in business revenue.
In 2019, I took a course on how to make your first $1000 in business and I actually implemented everything in the lessons. And I finally made my first $1000 in business revenue! I was overjoyed.
In 2020, I made the biggest investment in my business that I had ever made! I invested $8,000 in a yearlong group coaching program. That year, I made $60,000.
In 2021, I invested in another yearlong group coaching program. This one cost $10,000. And I gladly entered my credit card information because I knew that I was investing in an expert and a methodology that was proven and that I knew would work for me.
That was the year I got promoted a year early, won a teaching award, and surpassed $100,000 in business revenue.
Now, am I saying that the more you invest, the more money you will make?
No!
However, I do think that there is extreme value in learning from someone who has been where you are and has seen success in a way that you want to experience success. Also, putting a little skin ($$$) in the game to hold you accountable really lights a fire under you to actually implement what you learn.
There is something about the experience of investing in coaching or consulting that helps you think a little bigger and believe in your mission a lot more!
It's the confidence! It’s the leadership! It’s the roadmap! It's the accountability!
These are the secrets for exploding your business revenue and expanding your impact!
Wherever you are in your academic entrepreneurship journey, I have a place for you to get started!
If you don’t have a business yet, let me help you get started with a plan:
If you already have a business, I’d recommend my Sales On Autopilot Workshop and/or a one-on-one strategy session with me:
About the Author
Dr. Toyin Alli is an award-winning lecturer, six figure business owner, and business consultant for academic entrepreneurs. Click below to learn how to work with her to build your own semester-proof business.