Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Becca Harpain, Founder of InsideTheSquare.co, located in Vancouver, WA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I teach people how to create and customize Squarespace websites.

Tell us about yourself

I am a self-taught website designer who started sharing tutorials about Squarespace on my YouTube channel. I got a great response from the Squarespace community for putting my content out there. Once the requests started coming in, I began posting a new tutorial every Tuesday. Fast forward three years, and I am now a full-time online educator! I absolutely love the Squarespace community that I am a part of. I get to work with amazing self-starters and problem-solvers who want to create a website that is so much more than a template. Squarespace is the platform we use to launch our designs to the world, and being a part of this collaborative and creative community is incredible. I feel so lucky to be supported and inspired by the people who use my content to create a website they are proud of.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

One of my biggest accomplishments as a business owner was an amazing moment I had in my inbox. I got an email from one of my subscribers who had been watching my weekly tutorials for months and was about to launch her first Squarespace website. She watched my step-by-step tutorials every week with her 6-year-old daughter. She emailed me to proudly let me know that her daughter was signing up for a coding summer camp! After watching my tutorials week after week and then watching her mom successfully apply what she learned, this girl wanted to be a coder just like us! Knowing that I not only helped a Squarespacer confidently create a website she was proud of but that I inspired her daughter too!? It was one of my biggest accomplishments.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Learning how to ask for help is one of the hardest things about being a business owner. When you start a business as a solopreneur, having an I'll-figure-this-out mindset is essential. But once your business grows and you realize you can't deliver the quality of work you want to at the volume that your audience needs, it's so hard to let go of any aspect of your business. It took me over a year before I was comfortable hiring a VA. Once I did, I was able to hand over the responsibilities that were distracting me from doing quality work. I finally had the time to focus on creating the content my audience wanted. My business grew so much faster once I was willing to ask for help!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. You have to mess up before you get it right. I still make spelling mistakes and have the occasional broken link in my emails. Sure, it's frustrating, but the only way I was able to grow my email list to 20k was actually to send emails! It will not be perfect, and you need to do it anyway.
  2. Be consistent. Making the decision to post every single Tuesday is the foundation of my business success. This consistency is crucial to connecting with my audience and proving that I am reliable and trustworthy. Make a plan to create content consistently.
  3. YouTube University is all you need. There are so many amazing people in the world who have learned how to start, grow, and run their businesses, and they share this information on YouTube! If you want to learn how to do anything literally, start there. From business advice like how to grow an email list to step-by-step tutorials on creating your first Squarespace website, YouTube has free content that will help you. All you have to do is be willing to learn.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://insidethesquare.co/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insidethesquare/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkinsidethesquare/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/insidethesquare/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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