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Feature Friday - Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest Maps

Thank you, PRMama, for this opportunity to share about Knowledge Quest today on Feature Friday.  This coming June will mark the end of our 5^th year in business.  Let me just say that it has been an incredible journey.  I would like to share with you how our business has come into being and where we are headed now.

 

The year was 2001 and I had a 2^nd grader, a kindergartener, a 9 month old baby and another one on the way.  We were homeschooling our children and life was busy, needless to say.  Earlier in my life I had thought about how I would love to have my own business, but this certainly was not the time.  I wasn’t looking to start a business… rather, it happened by accident. 

 

The year before, my friend had recommended that I read a book called The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.  I was very impressed with the idea of studying history from the beginning and progressing through it chronologically.  This made terrific sense to me.

 

I also liked the idea of incorporating geography into our history studies.  The authors recommended that your students color “blackline” maps of the region and time period that they were studying.  Great!  Trouble was… these were difficult to find.  I was not satisfied with the selection of blank maps that I could find. I searched internet sources, shopped at the local teacher supply store and browsed countless catalogs.  Blank, or blackline, maps are nearly always drawn by current political boundary divisions.  How could one find a map that encompassed the area conquered by Alexander the Great, for example?  I found myself scouring historical atlases for the best map and having the children trace them for their notebooks. The problem... tracing paper is so thin and the pages were easily torn out of the notebooks by mistake. The solution... I needed to create my own historical blackline maps for our homeschool use.  Mind you, these were just going to be for my kids.

 

Some friends of mine saw what I was doing and wanted me to copy them for their children as well.  Then, long story short, I wound up talking with Susan Wise Bauer on the phone and she asked if she could use some of my hand-drawn maps as illustrations for her new book The Story of the World.  She explained to me in a rather apologetic way that they were just starting their publishing company and she didn’t know yet if they could compensate me, but she could definitely place a link from her website to mine!  My website?  I didn’t even have one!

 

Well, I got busy and put together a packet of ancient maps for Susan.  Then I got busy figuring out how to put up a website and actually sell something from it.  My husband agreed to the idea and we had 500 sets of our Ancient Blackline Maps printed at  our local print shop.  We sold them all within a couple of months.  Encouraged, I produced a medieval set, as well as new world and modern.  I couldn’t believe how well these were selling.

 

We learned how to burn a CD, so we decided to put the Complete Set of maps on CD.  This became our bestselling product and we had many curriculum writers interested in incorporating these maps into their curriculum.

 

Over the next couple of years, we put some efforts into “polishing” our products and our website.  Neither our products nor our website look quite as homespun as they used to, but we still try to maintain that friendly, homeschool touch in our service and customer support.

 

Two summers ago, Knowledge Quest had reached an impasse.  The business was growing.  I had four kids that needed my attention, a husband away at work full-time, and customers calling and e-mailing at a rate I couldn’t keep up with.  It would take me all afternoon to fill orders and I found myself putting the kids in front of the TV just so that I could get it done without interruption.  Many days, my husband would arrive home to a very messy house, breakfast dishes still piled up by the sink!  This is not what I had wanted for my family.  We had some decisions to make… Should we let the business go, sell it, hire someone?  What should we do?

 

My husband worked out an arrangement with his employer to start work two hours early and get off two hours early in the afternoon.  He would race home from work and help me get the orders for the day packed and to the post office.  This was a tremendous relief to me.  The following summer, he took four months off from his job so that we could travel around the country attending homeschool book fairs.  Not many months later, he left his job completely and became the other half of Knowledge Quest.  He and I share the business responsibilities, but we also share the teaching responsibilities with our children (by the way, we now have five).  This arrangement is working out very well for us right now.

 

We have learned some amazing things along the way:

 

1. eBooks and products in downloadable format are great!  Customers are happy because they get their information right away.  We are thrilled because there is no package to ship.
2. Internet marketing is fun!  We have set up a website – www.KQBusiness.com – to share with you the variety of ways that you can market your product and business on the Internet.  Feel free to sign up for our newsletter full of tips and advice on how to promote your business online.
3. Newsletters instill confidence in your business!  Your customers get to know who you are.  I meet people all the time who say that they feel as though they already know me.  So be real and do not discard that contact information.  Start sending newsletters to your customers.
4. People still love something for free!  Offer your visitors a sampling of what you have to offer.  Catalogs are not considered an item of value.  But your best 10 tax tips are.  Or the first chapter of your book (cliff-hanger, of course).  We offer a sample map packet to those that visit our website and a free CD to those that visit our bookstore table.  Our World History Sampler is located on our home page and on at least five other pages of our website – www.KnowledgeQuestMaps.com.
5. Good old fashioned customer service still goes a long way!  Go out of your way to make your customers satisfied and if they still are not, offer a return policy.  Do not allow your feelings to be easily hurt and try to see things from the customer’s point of view.  We get our best feedback from customers who give us great ideas on how we can improve our products.  What a valuable resource!  Give them what they want.
6. Include your children!  We pay our children when they are working for Knowledge Quest.  They have grown their savings accounts quite significantly this past year.  They have learned to tithe.  This work also provides them with spending money to spend on the things that are not essentials.

 

Having a home business is not always easy, but it can be rewarding.  It is also a daily reminder to us that it is the Lord who provides.  This is a good place to be.  Are you thinking of starting a small home-based business? The first step to take would be to pray.

Ask the Lord if this is a venture you should pursue. Also, determine what it is that you want from your home business.  Is it extra spending money, a social outlet, a supplemental income, or income to replace a full-time career? Be honest with yourself and your spouse and the Lord about why you want to start a business. Next, determine how much time and money you have to invest in this business and stick to your budget. Decide as a couple/family if your plans are doable or if they will detract you from your primary calling. Next, draw up a plan, gather advice from Christian business people, find a mentor, and set some goals for yourself and your new business. If everything is still a go, then start your business with confidence and yet with an attitude that you have much to learn. Stay open to godly advice and wise business counsel. And finally, visit our website at www.KQBusiness.com where we strive to provide valuable business information for new home e-businesses at an affordable price - free.

 

My e-mail address is Terri@KnowledgeQuestMaps.com.  Feel free to write to me anytime or visit my blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/KnowledgeQuest. 

 

Take care and God bless,

 

Terri Johnson
Knowledge Quest, Inc.
www.knowledgequestmaps.com - try our maps free!
www.bramleybooks.com - we are looking for authors for our new book
www.kqbusiness.com - free newsletter for small and home businesses
Read my blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/knowledgequest - homeschool tips for the whole family
877.697.8611

 

 

 

 

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