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My Two Cents<\/a><\/p>\n \n Personal-finance columnist Charlotte Cowles asks the nosy, revealing, sometimes uncomfortable questions about money so you don\u2019t have to.\n <\/p>\n \n Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Getty Images\n <\/p>\n Are you wasting your potential working for the man, plugging away at your dismal dead-end job with nothing to show for all your sacrifices? Then you should take this business-development course, which will help you take your idea \u2014\u00a0no worries if it doesn\u2019t exist yet, you\u2019ll manifest it later! \u2014 and spin it into a multimillion-dollar company that you can scale within mere months. Behold this lady, a graduate of said course, who turned her ceramics hobby into a $5,000,000 juggernaut in three years and now lives in Italy with her family, dog, and a bunch of olive trees! This could be you!\u00a0<\/p>\n Or so it goes. Have we reached peak business-development-course saturation? It\u2019s hard to say \u2014 but gauging by the onslaught of influencers and \u201cbusiness leaders\u201d hawking classes online, we must be close to it. To be fair, some are legitimately useful and well run. But others are a huge waste of money, if not downright predatory. Here, three entrepreneurs share their stories of business-development-course failures and advice for avoiding them.<\/p>\n \u2014Amber, 35, a hypnotherapist in Arizona<\/p>\n I first got sucked into this entrepreneurship program a little over a year ago. An influencer I follow, who\u2019s a motivational speaker, was doing a live speaking event in Arizona, near where I live. So I bought a ticket to see her, for $99. And the event was hosted by this program that markets itself to entrepreneurs, helping them set up their own companies.<\/p>\n At the time, I was in the process of trying to start my own business. I had inherited some money from my grandmother, and I wanted to use it to create something that would provide an income for my family. I had also recently gone through a lot of change in my life. In my 20s, I was a mortgage loan officer. I made a ton of money, but my mental health was terrible. I went through a divorce and started partying hard. Then I suffered a disc injury in my spine. Ultimately, I went on medical leave and entered an intensive outpatient program. That got me off of substances, which was great. But I had to figure out what to do for my career. I didn\u2019t want to go back to mortgages \u2014\u00a0I tried, but the alcohol and drug culture was too much. Instead, I wanted to do something that helped heal people. I\u2019d been through my own healing experience and I wanted to find a career where I could help others in the way that I had been helped.<\/p>\n Then I got pregnant with my son, and soon after that I received the money from my grandmother. It was about $250,000. I tried to date my son\u2019s father, but it went so poorly that I knew I would do better on my own.<\/p>\n In the midst of all of this, I went to this speaking event. In addition to the influencer I follow, they had other big names \u2014\u00a0celebrities \u2014\u00a0that made the whole conference seem really legitimate. Of course, now I know that these speakers just got paid to show up. But in the moment, I got caught up in the energy of the room.<\/p>\n When one of the founders of the entrepreneurship program made his pitch, I was like, \u201cYes!\u201d His big selling point was that they would help you set up a LLC using a special tax structure that would help you save money in taxes and invest in your business. It seemed like a great idea, and it was totally new information to me. I was like, \u201cOh, I need to learn more.\u201d There was a lot of pressure; I got a discount for signing up for the next event right away. But I wanted to be part of their community, making big moves \u2014 wealth breeds wealth.<\/p>\n Once they knew I was interested, I started getting pounded with ads. Their marketing was nonstop. And at the next event, they made the hard sell. For $4,000, they had a third-party financial-services company set up an LLC for me right then and there. And they also offered a yearlong membership to their business-coaching program for another $50,000. The membership sounded really useful. It included weekly calls with tax specialists and other entrepreneurs. It also included a seminar about public speaking, to teach you all about sales. The guy who was running it was like, \u201cI can make you a star. I\u2019ll teach you how to build a platform and become a best-selling author and get speaking engagements.\u201d For that level, he was charging $250,000. And I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m saying this, but I almost went for it. Compared to that, the $50,000 program seemed like a great deal.<\/p>\n I know that a good mentor can change your life. I have one now, and I\u2019m currently in training with her, learning to do somatic therapy. I thought this coaching program could be like that \u2014\u00a0learning how to create and scale a business, working closely with someone who cared about my success. But it hasn\u2019t been like that at all. The weekly phone calls are worthless. They\u2019re essentially spam \u2014\u00a0half the time they just call from an unknown number and my phone blocks it. They\u2019re not one-on-one or anything like that; they\u2019re just calls where you listen to someone talk.<\/p>\n As for the tax structure, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s applicable to me at all. It\u2019s called ROBS<\/a>, and it involves using your 401 (k) to invest in your company, which saves you money in taxes. But it\u2019s risky and involves sinking all of your 401 (k) in your business. I also don\u2019t think it\u2019s relevant to the kind of company I\u2019m trying to build. Most accountants have no idea what you\u2019re talking about when you bring it up. This program tries to get you to work with their accountants and use their financial services, but when I did some research, the people they work with have terrible reviews.<\/p>\n Another red flag is that everything negative about this program seems to be scrubbed. Whenever I\u2019ve researched it and found something that seems like it could be a bad review, like on Reddit or somewhere, it\u2019s been archived.<\/p>\n At this point, I\u2019m not sure what to do. I feel stuck and in over my head and embarrassed that I got fucked over like this. I recently texted one of the founders asking for at least some of my money back, but he hasn\u2019t responded. If someone came to me and was like, \u201cHey, I got nothing out of this program you offered,\u201d I would be like, \u201cOh my God, I\u2019m sorry. Let me refund you.\u201d It\u2019s just a good business practice, you know? Do these people not have a conscience?<\/p>\n The money I paid them \u2014\u00a0over $50,000 \u2014\u00a0isn\u2019t going to put me under. But it\u2019s a big deal to me, especially as a single mom, and I wish I could have invested it properly. I\u2019m finishing my yearlong hypnotherapy certification and I\u2019m starting to get clients. I really want to get this business off the ground, and I can\u2019t believe I got bamboozled in this way.<\/p>\n \u2014Emma, 40, entrepreneur and consultant in Maryland\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve run my own businesses for over a decade now, and during that time, I\u2019ve taken a couple of online courses that have been really useful. The first one was Marie Forleo\u2019s course, back in 2012. She\u2019s sort of the OG in this space, and she\u2019s legit. I think I paid $2,500 for her course, and it was a good value. She\u2019s the perfect fit for anyone who\u2019s starting a business and doesn\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing. And that was me, so it was helpful. She\u2019s very clear that it\u2019s an introductory course. She isn\u2019t like, \u201cYou\u2019ll make $100,000 in your first month of business.\u201d She\u2019s giving you the ABC\u2019s. I love her. I still follow her and get her emails ten years later.<\/p>\n Two years ago, a friend and I both got targeted for a course on Facebook ads. At the time, we both had businesses selling products online; mine was textiles. We went back and forth on whether the course was scam-y or not. It cost $10,000, which is no joke. That\u2019s a lot of money. But the guys who run it have a very strong Facebook-ads game. And their spiel is that they teach small-business owners to create and run their own Facebook ads, so that you don\u2019t have to pay a marketing agency to do it and mess it up. I had firsthand experience with that: I threw a ton of money at a digital-marketing agency, and they lost it all. But the Facebook-ads platform is wildly confusing and very scary to look at unless you know exactly what you\u2019re doing. It also changes all the time.<\/p>\n The first step in signing up for the course was this extremely intense sales call. And the sales guys were very good at what they do \u2014 a little too good. They used this technique of making it seem like if you continue down the course that you\u2019re on, your business is doomed to fail. But they\u2019re here to save you. They\u2019ve got a silver bullet. You\u2019re an idiot if you don\u2019t do this. And if you do, everyone wins. I got swept up in it. I was like, Oh my God, this is going to save my business.<\/p>\n Once it started, though, I was less impressed. At no point did I get one-on-one time with a single soul. I was just watching these modules, and then I\u2019d get on these group calls once a week, which went on forever. And I was like, \u201cWait. I spent $10,000 for this?\u201d<\/p>\n I did learn how to use Facebook ads, and I could do them today. I feel very confident in my ability to be successful with them. However, there was one key point that they never mentioned, which is that if you don\u2019t have product-market fit, Facebook ads are not going to work for you. My own products were not a good fit. And as the course went on, I saw a lot of other people in it who were in the same boat as me. I\u2019d be on these group calls and see how desperate they were. They were on their last dime and they\u2019d spent $10,000 on this course, which was money they should have been spending on something else.<\/p>\n The other problem is that even after you take the course, you still need more money to pay for ads. And they recommend spending $3,000 a month. So assuming you do have product-market fit, and you also have another $3,000 to spend every month, learning how to use Facebook ads could really help you. One person in the course went from $10,000 a month in revenue to $100,000 a month. But they made it seem like that happens to everyone who takes the course, when actually it\u2019s a very small minority.<\/p>\n Ultimately, I had zero success with my ads. I tried lots of different things. And even though they had been like, \u201cYour product is perfect for this! We got you,\u201d it was clear that that wasn\u2019t the case. So I felt misled, and that left a bad taste in my mouth. I did learn a skill, but it wasn\u2019t worth $10,000, and it definitely didn\u2019t save my business. Not long after, I shut it down. Now I\u2019m doing growth consulting for other small companies.<\/p>\n As an entrepreneur, I still get targeted for these types of courses all the time, and even if some might be helpful, I think a lot of them overcharge. They also give you a false sense of urgency. Like, \u201cIf you sign now, you get $500 off.\u201d They use that tactic where they break down the price of everything that\u2019s included, and they\u2019re like, \u201cThe value is really $30,000, but you\u2019re getting it for $2,500!\u201d Like, stop treating us like we\u2019re idiots. If any of this were true, then you\u2019re not charging properly. You can get a kit to create those materials on Canva and just throw your picture into these five slides. It just feels so dishonest.<\/p>\n \u2014Tara, digital-marketing entrepreneur in New York<\/p>\n During the pandemic, I had this fork-in-the-road moment of deciding whether to stick with my traditional corporate marketing career or pursue a more entrepreneurial path. I got a job offer from a big consulting firm, but I decided to turn it down and pursue my own businesses instead.<\/p>\n As part of that, I decided to launch an online course myself. I have an M.B.A. and over 15 years\u2019 experience working in PR, communications, and business development. So I created a program to help other people who wanted to pivot, find their vocation, and use communications to build their business. It was essentially about personal branding \u2014 how do you position yourself and put yourself out there? I was at this point in developing the program and really wanted to give it my all, so I invested in another online course about creating online courses, which was $5,000. I felt like I needed this education, but ultimately it was incredibly redundant. And that was really disappointing.<\/p>\n I chose the course I took because it was a slightly less expensive version of a different course I was interested in. Both were offered by coaches I was following. Now I realize that they were both probably targeting each other\u2019s audiences. It\u2019s an echo chamber \u2014 the more content you\u2019re consuming from coaches, the more you\u2019re convinced that you need to learn what they\u2019re teaching you. And they frame the messaging to make you think that they have something you don\u2019t. Meanwhile, it\u2019s just clever copy that\u2019s poking at your insecurities. The word mastermind has become so overused.<\/p>\n The course I bought had this nine-step approach, and I didn\u2019t even finish it. It was driven by some metrics that felt unrealistic, and they highly advised against advancing to step three if you didn\u2019t hit the metrics from step two. A lot of other people in the course were stuck and struggling with it too. It was $5,000 for the year, and you had access to group calls and office hours. But if you weren\u2019t able to get to that next step in the process, then the content was pretty much moot. They also kept saying in feedback calls, \u201cHey, it\u2019s a really difficult time to sell online courses right now.\u201d So that was discouraging.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t complete the steps, but I did launch my own course. I charged between $700 and $800 for a four-week program. I created content that people could watch and consume on their own, and then there was a weekly group call. The feedback was really positive from everyone that participated, but it was taking a lot of my time and I couldn\u2019t scale to the point that I\u2019d hoped for. I don\u2019t want to call it a failure, but it didn\u2019t meet my expectations in terms of monetization. I\u2019m happy that my knowledge resonated with the people who did pay for it, but I just don\u2019t think it was the right time. And if you aren\u2019t putting money behind the promotion, it\u2019s hard to cut through. I put a couple of paid ads here and there, but nothing like what you see from some of the more popular creators these days.<\/p>\n Now, when I look at other creators offering courses, I find the messaging so tacky. It\u2019s like, \u201cI make this much money in a year, and I\u2019ve started X number of businesses.\u201d And you have no idea if that\u2019s true. But somehow, psychologically, it does create intrigue. For me, the course I took was a huge waste of money. It was the worst investment I ever made. And, unfortunately, it\u2019s completely skewed my interest in investing in things that might support my growth. They promise you the sun and the moon and all this money. But as an entrepreneur, I know better. I do my own business plans myself, and I have my own P&L projections. It\u2019s really nice to see what\u2019s possible, but it\u2019s not always reality.<\/p>\n Email your money conundrums to\u00a0mytwocents@nymag.com<\/a> (and read our submission terms here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n