2021 was mostly about proof of concept for us. We organized the first bootcamps, created the first course, and helped some students discover localization and project management.
We learned to crawl.
Now it’s time to get up on our feet and start walking. In this final article, I’ll talk about 5 goals that I have for 2022.
Become #1 for beginners
Are you interested in localization? Or you’re already part of it and you want to transition into a different role?
Then Localization Academy should be the first on your mind.
I created the Localization Project Manager course based on a simple philosophy — distill the essentials of a job and pair it with maximum practicality. Let people discover what the job is about in weeks rather than years. And without breaking the bank.
Following these values, we will be creating new courses this year: localization engineering, testing, vendor management, sales. At the same time, I’ll keep tinkering with my LPM course just to have the first-hand experience that we can use in the development of other courses.
Our focus will remain on beginners because that’s what’s in line with our mission. I’ll gladly leave the more advanced training to others.
Build an actual company
My ex-manager used to say this a lot: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
If we’re talking about making decisions, sure. But when it comes to getting things done, I am SOOOO slow!
Every Monday I look at my backlog across different “departments” and select a few that I should work on that week. The problem is that I’m filling the backlog faster than I can finish the stuff. It’s killing me.
The solution? Put together a real team so that it’s no longer a one-man show. I don’t need a lot. Just someone to take ownership of the key parts of our business: course development, marketing, and content production.
It will take some time until I can hire someone full-time. Right now our revenue is far from predictable (or even stable). But I know that building a team is where most of the profits should go to.
Grow a community
The word “community” gets thrown a lot. I’m not sure what it means for you, but this is my take on it.
Although I recently stopped doing daily live sessions with the students, I still wanted to have some interaction with them that maybe goes even beyond our courses. I’d like to create a place where our graduates can continue their growth and learn from each other.
I had this idea for a long time but delayed it because I was scared. Scared that people wouldn’t want to join a community of 0 members and no activity.
At the time of this writing, I’m happy to say that we have our first members on our Discord server and it’s not completely dead.
The initial focus was to support new students as they go through the course. But the main goal for this year will be to create something valuable for the people who finished our courses and give them a reason to stay. Maybe you’ll see some of them in a new upcoming content…
Find our growth engine
I had a few shots at paid marketing and conversion optimizations. It didn’t work.
With no advertising in place, most of our traffic comes through SEO and content. I’m still surprised that these channels actually yield somewhat consistent results and even bring people who are willing to surrender their credit cards.
Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t have proper BI set up, but at the moment the growth is “just happening”. It’s not very controlled.
As I mentioned before, we want to grow a community around Localization Academy. So there’s definitely a potential for a viral growth engine. But I would still like to crack the CAC and LTV games. At our current price tag of $97, I think there’s still room for making paid work.
Create an all-in-one platform
While the previous goals focused mostly on individual students, this one is related to companies.
A few months ago I realized the main source of income for us. It was mostly the work we did for companies. And even though this may change with more courses added to the mix, creating value for companies is still a top priority for us.
Why? Without companies supporting our vision, there’s no chance to transform education.
We know that bootcamps work for companies, for students, for us. But the whole experience, especially for the companies, is stitched together by using multiple existing solutions.
That’s great for proof of concept. But it can be vastly improved.
I can’t wait until the day when I’ll start building our own platform that serves as ATS, assessment platform, and course delivery. Everything in one place to help you find the talent you need.
I don’t think it will be that difficult, it’ll just take some time. And maybe, if you’re interested, I’ll stream the whole creation.
