Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in music education but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Cameron Dougall, Founder of Low End Nation Inc., located in Calgary, AB, Canada.

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

Low End Nation is an online bass guitar information and lessons site. Our customers are bass players of all skill levels that play a wide variety of music, who are interested in becoming better bass players and musicians, and who like to expand their knowledge of the instrument and the great players of the past and present.

Tell us about yourself

I started playing bass guitar at the age of 13 and fell in love hard with the instrument. I've been lucky enough to play and work with some of the world's best musicians, and I really wanted to find a way to pass what I have learned on to other players. Having taken the road less traveled often, I also wanted to help them avoid some of the pitfalls that were waiting for me so that they could focus more on enjoying the experience and find their own success. Low End Nation has also been a great way to bring bass players from all over the world together, and seeing the LEN community come together has really been inspiring for me.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

So far, I'd have to say growing the business and community to the levels we've reached while managing to move forward on multiple fronts. I'm also a working musician and have a fairly packed gig and touring schedule, and that can create obstacles to completing other work, however throughout the year, I've managed to keep our lesson and website content growing, improve our SEO significantly, interview some of the world's top bassists, design our merchandise and grow our Instagram following to 46k followers, all while continuing to improve as a musician myself. It's a lot to manage, but I'm proud of what's been accomplished over the past two years since I started Low End Nation, and we have a lot of exciting things coming in the new year.

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

Going hand in hand with my answer above, I'd have to say time management and setting priorities. When you're starting a business, there are so many things to do that it can feel overwhelming. Being able to recognize the priorities and maximize your time working on the most important things is crucial to getting things off the ground. Putting in the work but also realizing when it's time to take a break or find someone to help you is an important way to stay healthy, productive, and sane!

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

  1. Do something you love. I love music, the bass and everything about it. A lot of what I do doesn't feel like work, and I'm often up late working because I'm excited about what I'm doing. I love interacting with other people and musicians and learning as I go. I've tried doing something I kind of liked that paid a lot of money and I ended up being miserable. Do what excites you, and people will find you. It just takes time.
  2. Nothing happens as fast as you want it to. If you're starting a website, it can take months for Google to even crawl your site and for you to start showing up in searches, and then getting anywhere near the top of the search results is another story altogether. If you're opening a brick-and-mortar business, it takes time for people to find you and for the word to spread. Don't set up a plan as if you'll be rich overnight. You're better off planning on not seeing any profits for a year or more and knowing you'll be putting in a lot of work to get there.
  3. Focus and consistent effort are your friends. Identifying your priorities and focusing on your tasks will take you further than anything else. You'd be surprised at how much you can accomplish if you work on something for a couple of hours a day with focus. Minimize your distractions and focus on the goal, and you'll get there in no time.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://lowendnation.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lowendnation/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/low.end.nation/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camdougall
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-dougall-b2b975237/

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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