Online Unit Study Business: A Great Deal For All

Teresa Lilly, has been in business for over ten years as a successful online curriculum provider. She is an experienced homeschooling mother of three who has been working from home creating unit studies. Teresa has such a passion for her work that she’s already inspired her son Shannon to start his own enterprise as well! (You can see Shannon’s banner below.)

Be sure to read her whole story — she’s made a very generous offer to others who may be interested in joining the online curriculum provider business, as well as giving away samples of her online magazines.

Once I decided to homeschool my three children, who at the time were six, five and three, I began the endless search for good deals on curriculum. I was well known at all the book fairs, looking for deals as well as selling books that I bought at garage sales all year long just to resell to make enough money to buy my curriculum.

As my children grew older, I wanted to utilize history and literature unit studies, but found that they were too expensive. One literature unit study, which covered only one short book usually cost between $9.95 and $18.95. That did not include the companion book or the copies it would require for all three children.

I found this to be outrageous, and refused to buy them. But I did look them over, and realized that as a certified teacher and as a freelance writer, I was able to create my own unit studies.

The first units I created were 12 American History Units. Instead of basing them on a book, I created a short story, historically accurate for each unit. The rest of the unit was based on the information in the story.

In the beginning, I too went the route of trying to sell these in hard copy form. I found out why unit studies cost so much, and after only a few sales I put this project on the back burner.

Then several years later, my son taught me the glory of PDF files, and along with the In Design program we had, I was able to transfer the 12 American History units onto the computer and into PDF format.

This began a fun and exciting career for me. I was able to create my own units, for my children to use, and at the same time I began to sell these units online. At first I only sold them at my own website, but soon started to branch out into homeschool curriculum online stores.

Over the next five years, I developed over 250 unit studies. It has always been my goal to keep them at a reasonable price. I sold my units for $5 or less, and always suggested that homeschoolers allow their students to read the information in the PDF format on the computer and then write their answers in a notebook rather than printing out between 20 and 200 pages. I have taken on several writers, who do some of the work on the units now such as reading the book and writing the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How questions.

I was able to create these units while the kids were studying or in bed. Each unit did not take more than a few hours to create, and once I had a pattern for some, it was even less time. So that I could help out some other writers, I also spread the work around. I hired some wonderful ladies, who read the books and write many of the questions for the units, I then put the whole package together. This way I did not lose out on any precious time with my kids. Also, running an online business is great because with a cart system, most of the work is done automatically, and I don’t have to be present all the time. The online business runs itself, and I just play catch up once a day to make sure that all the orders have been completely filled.

My son set up the whole store for me using a Cube Cart System and 2 checkout for the credit card payments. We also offer Paypal. He does this for others, for a reasonable fee and you can contact him at http://www.infectedbybugs.com. (As you can see, running a business is contagious!)

Recently, I felt inspired to lower the prices on all my units, to help everyone during the financial crush we seem to be in as a nation. So at HS Highlights I sell these unit studies for $3 each. This is not a reflection on the quality, but on the desire to give homeschoolers the ability to enjoy unit study work, without giving up their budgeted money for their main curriculum.

I have also ventured into creating an online magazine for kids and one for ladies, as once again I was frustrated by the price of subscriptions to magazines I felt had little to offer. KidzWonder is a monthly magazine, which has between 50 and 100 pages each month. Each issue offers a unit study in it, as well as lapbooks and mini booklets. I have also reduced the price for the lifetime subscription to $3 for this magazine.

Whatever Lovely is a magazine that woman who like old fashioned things or just want a lovely read, can enjoy. This magazine is Christian based, and is bi-monthly. Again, the life time subscription rate is only $3. Both magazines guarantee a full year worth of issues, and as I put out more than one years worth, the subscribers do not ever pay another fee.

Yes, I make money this way; enough to consider this a part time job from home. At the same time, I feel good that I am giving the homeschool community a great deal.

Lilly has graciously issued an open invitation to other homeschoolers who wish to get started in this business. She is willing to review unit studies by other homeschoolers, as well as helping them to sell their units online. You can reach her through email or by calling (210) 219-4339.

In the meantime, you can visit her websites and check out her free samples.