Growing Our STEM Education Business To $45K/Year [Update]
This is a follow up story for VSTEAM Education. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 3 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
It's been two years since our last publication and VSTEAM Education is growing from strength to strength.
Our mission has always been to provide accessible and engaging Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) education to young people, and we're proud to say that we've made great strides toward achieving this goal.
Our primary goal remains to educate the public about social change through STEM education through our services.
Our main services are STEM Workshops for schools and after-school clubs. Additionally, our speaking events (Corporate & Educational) are also very popular and offer great inspiration in a variety of areas. We are pleased to report that our revenue has increased by a staggering 600% over the last year to 45k.
VSTEAM is thrilled to announce that we now have a team of five dedicated professionals working with us, including a new manager who has been instrumental in our growth. Our team is passionate about STEM Education and is committed to providing the best possible experiences for our students.
One of the most exciting developments in our business has been the addition of After school STEM Clubs which are proving extremely popular. These clubs are designed to provide ongoing learning opportunities (working alongside the National Curriculum) for students who are passionate about STEM.
We have received a great response from our community, and we're thrilled to be able to offer this type of ongoing engagement. We have grown from 2 children at our first very first club to now running five clubs within a matter of months. This has expanded primarily through word of mouth and is continuing to grow.
To manage VSTEAM we have built a dedicated in-house system dubbed the “VSTEAM Lounge” which allows us to manage inquiries, bookings, staff, automate admin, and carry out email marketing campaigns across the country and abroad and more.
The system has taken up thousands of coding hours but has made the operations of the business much easier to manage. We will also shortly be launching our new website vsteamedu.com. Coding is at the heart of our business growth.
Finally, think long-term if you would like your business to succeed. Sometimes it is necessary to have short-term setbacks.
The VSTEAM Lounge (Our new management system):
The New Afterschool Clubs Venture:
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Our biggest challenge has been getting the new system ready to manage the growing business whilst keeping up with the demand. We require more staff and we are confident that we will be able to do that very soon.
We had to adapt aspects of our business to cater to many Special Education Needs (SEN) schools. This has been a financial challenge as these events require additional training and support. We would like to keep our services accessible to as much of the public and children as possible whilst keeping them affordable.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
We are looking at ways to incorporate feedback from our events into the services we provide. This connection has been something the business has lacked for some time and we plan to implement a new system to achieve this by the next academic year.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
We now have the workshops and the educational content, the new website, the system, and the demand to make this business a very good success in the future. Our next goal is to recruit additional staff during the summer.
At this moment in time, we are focused on delivering the work we have and taking one stride at a time. It’s important to enjoy this journey for all our staff. In the near future, we would like to have more VSTEAM Clubs in other regions of the country as well providing some international engagements.
VSTEAM is a business but we are also an educational organization and our primary goal remains to educate the public about social change through STEM education through our services.
This includes sustainable development, AI, a resource-based economy, climate change, and more. We are confident as the business grows we will be able to be a big part of the social changes that will happen over the coming years.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
Artificial intelligence is becoming a big part of our daily lives and we are interested to see how it can feature in our business in the future. We are fascinated by ChatGPT and other similar technologies and the potential it has for a wide range of applications. We would like AI to be part of our business in the future as well.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their businesses?
It’s important to keep working at your business even during periods of slow growth and growing your ideas. Keep up to date with technology and implement them into your business where possible. Take advantage of all open-source technologies. This is important for a business to stay relevant. Be open to change.
From a management perspective teamwork is fundamental to us.You must workk as a team. Each member of your team will have something unique to offer. We are succeeding because we listen to each other.
Finally, think long-term if you would like your business to succeed. Sometimes it is necessary to have short-term setbacks. For example, we will soon be changing our business domain and we expect our traffic through search engines to decline but this is necessary as the business has evolved considerably and requires a new website.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are looking to hire additional instructors with a background in teaching, tutoring, or STEM to work on a part-time basis. They must be very flexible and willing to travel the country to various locations.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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