Interesting that you and Jill have raised the aspect of timing – from slightly different yet complementary angles – and, of course, you’re both right: it’s a vital aspect of the whole picture.

The sale of the course in chunked down modules might well do fine – I can see how that would work – I didn’t mention in the post that I gave that a go – but maybe the time wasn’t right back then and may be now…

I know that the results of those going through the majority of modules without a trainer to help them make the best use of them in their world and their individual circumstances would probably be patchy at best because you’re talking about changing (often ingrained) habits and replacing them with new ones and new skills that take time to get to grips with, let alone master.

You’ve certainly given me food for thought

This is brilliant of you to share that obviously painful experience with us – thank you.

I can see how the route your company took, on more than just the face of it, seemed like a sure winner.

I’d wager that if more of us were willing to pool our mistakes as well as ‘wins’ we’d help each other a heck of lot more and, in so doing, learn from others and save ourselves from expensive mistakes!

I think you’re offering something that may well be of benefit to a number of our clan here so happy to provide an extra platform in the form of a guest post 😉

These days, people are now more hungry for paid, downloadable info-products in small chunks. So if you digitised the course and sold each module in an individual fashion through an online shopping cart on this site to your email list, it would probably do very well now.

Promoting how each module would help the reader enables a much more focused (and easier choice).

So, 6 month’s worth of her salary later, plus a few thousand in accrediation fees etc, we became a fully fledged ILM centre. We underestimated the additional admin work required to run such a programme. Another member of staff worked pretty much full time on doing this. In the end we ran two ILM programmes, both of which were very successful for the clients. And on which we made a loss of probably £30,000 – £40,000 between the two of them.

This would have worked well if we were a college running multiple programmes with hundreds of students because we could have spread the costs much further. As it was it was a complete disaster, which had seemed to make a lot of sense at the time. Many clients who came to us for ILM courses ended up wanting bespoke courses anyway so we could include just what they wanted without all the hassle of assignments and projects and moderating and goodness knows what.

It’s not the only reason that company failed, but it was a big contributory factor.

Another thing to add to the mix though: it’s often about timing. What’s current and what’s sexy. And that changes so quickly.

That’s where I am at the moment. I’m first to market with a new concept that some business people already understand, but many see as soft fluffy stuff that doesn’t relate to running a business. But the tide is turning and businesses need to be ready to shout not just about their products and services, but authentically show they are ethical and value driven.

An interesting position to be in: both our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity.

If I understand you correctly,…

I think the problem here is that the person who IS coughing up and “paying the premium” probably doesn’t have enough experience or knowledge to judge whether what’s on offer is regurgitated fluff or real life experience and knowledge.

The one who steps back to question the offer probably already recognizes it as based on phoney foundations. So the courage there might be: “Okay, their stuff may be inferior to what I could provide but at least they’re out there offering it – I guess I put up or shut up”… 😉

Do you think that there’s a chance SOME who read this will learn from the mistakes we’re sharing BEFORE they commit the time and energy to the wrong half of the equation? 😉