Nothing New Press

I never intended to start a curriculum business. I was a homeschooling mom with plenty on my plate already, LOL. I stumbled into the curriculum business accidentally, looking for a better, faster, more efficient way to get done what I needed doing.

I taught my children history using the Charlotte Mason “living books” method. I saved every curriculum catalog that listed living books for history, and picked up resources like Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson to help in my search as well. Whenever we started a new unit in history, I would get out all my catalogs and all my resource books, and laboriously go through them for the titles that matched our time period and my children’s grade levels. This went on for a year or so, every six to twelve weeks, until I wised up and began keeping book lists on my computer, sorted by time period and grade. When a new catalog came, I spent a few minutes adding any new books to the list. Those few minutes paid off great dividends when it was time to start a new history unit. I no longer spent hours going through stacks of catalogs, then when the unit was over, discover that perfect book for my 4th grader that I had somehow missed the first time. I simply looked up my book lists on the computer and printed out a page on the way to the library, saving myself hours of frustration.

When my friends found out I had these lists, the requests started coming in. When I began spending time and money copying them for people, I wondered if I had stumbled on a need, but where to go from here? When I started receiving requests for the lists from complete strangers from the four corners of the country, then I knew I had to start a business.

Those first lists evolved into All Through the Ages History Through Literature Guide, to this day our top-selling book.

We made our business pay for itself as we went along, simply because, like most homeschooling families, we didn’t have extra money! I borrowed $25 from my husband to start Nothing New Press, then paid him back when I sold my first book. I typed up the book on the computer, printed the pages out, and copied them off at a local copy shop. The first books were three-ring drilled and just slapped in a plain black three-ring notebook. No covers, nothing fancy -- they looked awful -- but I could get 4 books out of that $25, and that was my most important consideration.

Growing our business only as the demand for our books grew was the best thing we did in the beginning. We focused on the best content we could provide, at the expense of slick artwork and marketing, and in a few years we had grown enough through word of mouth to finally afford a designer for the covers and to have our books professionally printed. Extra money went into producing better books, not ads or employees or other peripherals at first. We still pay cash for everything, just as we did in the beginning, and have stayed out of debt. We do not earn the best profit margin for our books, because we have them printed in relatively small batches of 1000 books per run, but we are still growing, and that will change one day.

We learned to be content right where we were, even if it didn’t match up with where the business gurus out there said we should be. We did not despise the day of small beginnings. We are still content where we are. We have a flexible list of things to do as we grow (like advertise in TOS) in a flexible priority list, but we do not have one-year goals, five-year goals, and ten-year goals. Probably we have not grown as fast as we could have otherwise. But our business has not been a source of stress for us, either. It has remained our servant, we are not its servant. We enjoy life with each other and our children and grandchildren. That is the point of business after all.

Christine Miller   info@nothingnewpress.com

Nothing New Press    http://www.nothingnewpress.com

Blog: a little perspective   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/christinemiller

Comments

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9:51 AM, Jan. 27, 2006, posted by Amber

I pray one day I stumble across something so I can help others. I would like it to be creative and something to draw people closer to the Lord. I love LLATL, better yet my children do:)


God Bless,
Amber

I bought one of your first books!

11:03 AM, Jan. 28, 2006, posted by Anonymous

Hey, I bought one of those no frills, no cover books way back when! I still have it too!
You were successful because it was a GOOD product, even in its "unfancy" stage.

I love this-
"But our business has not been a source of stress for us, either. It has remained our servant, we are not its servant. We enjoy life with each other and our children and grandchildren. That is the point of business after all."

Amen! That's my goal too! Thanks for the reminder.

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9:00 PM, Jan. 28, 2006, posted by Anonymous

What fun to find you through A Little Perspective! Can homeschooling be done without home-business-ing? Not at my house! You are a great resource!

Great resource!

9:03 PM, Jan. 28, 2006, posted by MotherLode

I'm still figuring out this login system. But I think you are a great resource for homeschool moms who won't leave home to contribute to the family income while educating their children.