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Home Blog Ashleigh Longhurst; From Teacher to Entrepreneur: A successful journey
21Aug

Ashleigh Longhurst; From Teacher to Entrepreneur: A successful journey
By Sonia Goss | Blog, Podcast, Real Talk With Outperformers, The Outperformer, Brad Eisenhuth, Ashleigh Longhurst, Rainbow Sky Creations, Small Business, Entrepreneur | 21 Aug 2023 |

🎧 LISTEN ON SPOTIFY 🎙️LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS     🗨️WATCH ON YOUTUBE

Ashleigh Longhurst is an entrepreneur who has taken her business from a ‘side-hustle’ to a huge online business, Rainbow Sky Creations. She joins Brad in the latest episode of Real Talk With Outperformers, where they talk about her journey from teaching to creating a platform of training resources for teachers, the challenges that come with running an online business, her social media success and workplace culture. Here are some of the highlights from their discussion.

Side hustle to business

Ashliegh met her business partner, Alisha whilst working as teachers in an international school overseas in Dubai in 2011. At totally different ends of the personality spectrums, the two enjoyed working and travelling together. Fast forward to a few years later when they returned to Australia, Alisha became familiar with another online platform for teachers resources, Teachers Pay Teachers and asked Ashleigh to join her creating content to help teachers who are time poor and creatively challenged. As Ashleigh explains it, this platform is a marketplace for teachers resources in a similar format to Etsy. From there, Rainbow Sky Creations was born!

Differentiation defined

“Something in teaching that’s really important is differentiation which means caring for different needs of the students in the class.” Says Ashleigh and what Rainbow Sky Creations does, is offer content for teachers to provide this experience to their students through different lessons or the same lesson at various levels, to help them focus on their students’ emotional needs as well.

The challenges that come with an online business

“If you’re choosing something to do online, choose something that you’re passionate about, that you want to work in and then it makes it so much easier and it makes it enjoyable.”

Ashleigh believes that doing something you enjoy leads to better customer service, engagement and retention as people can ‘read’ that in the services and products you’re offering.

Driving Sales

A key parts of the marketing strategy for Rainbow Creations, is not only through Teachers Pay Teachers but mostly through their online presence, specifically Instagram and Pinterest and also through more traditional platforms like email marketing.

Ashleigh says that most of their success on Instagram comes from producing ‘trust-worthy’ content that demonstrates that she and Alisha know what teachers go through and where their challenges are.  Trust is important in the teaching industry especially for resource sales as the buyers/teachers don’t have a smaller budget than most available to use.

Strategies for success

Whilst Ashleigh admits that some luck has been involved in the success of Rainbow Sky Creations, she also believes that there are a few other key strategies that have worked in the growth of their business, like;

  • Data analysis and ‘doubling down’ on what works
  • Adaptability and ensure all prospects are covered i.e. parents during COVID
  • Authenticity in social media growth. Content is created by Ashleigh and the team at Rainbow Sky Creations
  • “You can’t be the jack of trades and do them all well”
  • Knowing your audience, who are you targeting and what do they want to see, specifically with Instagram, what’s going to stop people from scrolling when on socials, to view your content?
  • Clear branding and messaging
  • Consistency in content

A culture problem in the education sector

In a raw admission, Ashleigh talks about the culture issues occurring in the education sector around expecting more from our teachers but not taking away responsibilities when adding more. In another interesting point of view, Ashleigh believes that there is sometimes a disconnect between the roles in schools and the people in these positions in terms of their experience and skills. A great example she provides is a school principal who is an amazing teacher but isn’t skilled in running a business which essentially what the role involves.

This podcast although specific to the education sector, highlights so many aspects and challenges that businesses across any industry and of any size are faced with. Ashleigh’s insights are sprinkled with an authentic passion for her business, education of little ones and helping teachers be the best they can possibly be. To find out more from Ashleigh and Brad have a listen to the podcast or watch on YouTube.

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