My Business Secret: The Unfair Advantage I Never Talk About

When I share my journey of starting a business after 28 years in education, I typically lead with the challenges and learning curves. But today, I need to come clean about something important: I had an unfair advantage—a business secret that gave me a significant head start.

The Secret Revealed

My "secret" isn't particularly glamorous or complex: I launched my blog at schneiderb.com back in February 2010, more than a decade before fully leaving my school position.

I published content about school marketing three times a week. I consistently showed up, shared insights, and built an audience during an era when ranking for education-related keywords was far less competitive than it is today. While I incorporated SchneiderB Media in 2011, I didn't actively monetize it until years later.

The blog wasn't a calculated business strategy at the time—it was simply my way of sharing knowledge and connecting with others in the field. Little did I know this foundation would become my most valuable business asset.

Three Critical Lessons From My Decade-Long Head Start

1. Your Timeline Won't Match Mine

If you're considering transitioning from education to entrepreneurship, please don't measure your progress against mine. My business didn't emerge from a standing start; I had already spent over a decade creating content and building my personal brand. This gave me an established platform for reaching potential clients and name recognition within the education space.

When you're starting from scratch, your path will necessarily look different. The landscape has changed, competition has increased, and audience-building requires strategies different from those used in 2010.

2. Value First, Business Second

When I began blogging, I didn't approach it as a business venture. I wasn't strategizing about monetization or conversion rates; I was simply teaching, sharing, and creating value without expectation of return. This inadvertently allowed me to accumulate a decade of goodwill and trust within the school community, which became invaluable when I finally launched my business three school years ago.

The relationships I built weren't transactional—they were founded on genuine connection and service. That authenticity paid dividends I couldn't have anticipated.

3. Recognition Changes Everything

During conversations with aspiring education entrepreneurs, I often sense an unspoken assumption that starting my business was relatively seamless. This couldn't be further from the truth (and I'll unpack those challenges in future posts).

However, I must acknowledge one significant advantage: When I made the leap, people already knew who I was. School leaders were familiar with my content, my perspective, and my expertise. This recognition didn't make building a business easy, but it did make it easier to get my foot in the door and have my calls returned.

What This Means For Your Journey

If leaving your school position for entrepreneurship is on your horizon—whether that's in six months or six years—here's my most actionable advice:

Start creating content and sharing your knowledge NOW.

You don't need to launch a comprehensive marketing strategy. Simply begin documenting your expertise in whatever format feels most natural:

• Create a focused blog

• Start a niche Substack

• Post consistently on LinkedIn

• Launch a small podcast about your area of expertise

The medium matters less than the consistency and value you provide. With each piece of content, you're not just sharing information—you're building recognition, establishing credibility, and developing your voice.

When you eventually make the leap to entrepreneurship, you won't be starting from zero. People will already have some familiarity with who you are and what you stand for. That recognition won't guarantee success, but it will give you a running start that pure cold-calling simply can't match.

Respectfully Unschooled,
Brendan