We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexandra Ellison a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexandra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

First, you should know something about me: There are very little ideas I have that I haven’t already started executing in my head. It’s almost impossible for me to have an idea independent of a plan to execute. For this reason, I don’t always have the most ideas in the room; sometimes I only have one. But when everyone else is still brainstorming, I’m planning out a process for implementation.

In this way, my ideas can be dangerous; if I utter something, it’s likely I’m going to make it happen. I don’t have a lot of patience for unrealistic ideas or ideas that others don’t plan to execute themselves. My feeling has always been that if you’re going to share your ideas or offer advice, you should know what goes into the execution of that idea.

This is also a weakness because I realize that sometimes the best ideas are arrived at after a lot of bad ones are sorted through. Brainstorming exhausts me, but I realize it can be necessary.

My business didn’t so much start with a great idea or a plan but was born out of necessity. I had to leave my former job, and I thought I could offer a better service than they did if I went out on my own.

I had a two-month-old baby, and we needed two salaries. There was no cushion, no savings, and no investor.
My first move was to call the clients I’d worked with at my old company, let them know I was leaving and that I’d love to continue working with them (no non-compete). I started working just one day a week at a co-working space. We couldn’t afford childcare, so I could only work when my husband wasn’t (there was also a fair amount of bouncing my daughter on a yoga ball while I answered emails and built a website).

I reached out to area schools, letting them know about the counseling services I offered, and in the early days I contracted with schools in addition to working with private clients; this was how I supplemented my income and grew the business. As I got busier, I could afford some childcare, and I would do contract work in the mornings and private client work in the afternoon/evenings. When I went back to school to get my masters, I’d wake up at 5 am to do schoolwork before the workday began.

There’s a journal entry from those early days that says, “I just want to break $60,000 this year.” It was tough, and it wasn’t glamorous. When my other entrepreneur friends were out speaking and winning awards, I was spending hours in an office chair, just doing the work.

Alexandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m the owner and head guide at Throughline Guidance, a college and career guidance company that specializes in aptitude-driven counseling for 15-25-year-olds. We love working with clients at the crossroads in their education or their careers; we pride ourselves on bringing clarity to the picture during these confusing forks in the road.

I’m also the author of “Go Your Own Way: 7 Student-Centered Paths to the Best College Experience” and the co-author of “Your Hidden Genius: The Science-Backed Strategy to Uncovering and Harnessing Your Innate Talents.”

Everything I do is rooted in the foundational belief that everyone has gifts that, once discovered, can lead the way to a fulfilling life, if you allow them to be your guide.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

There have been too many close calls to count. As a business owner, I’m never totally at peace or think, “I’m good now.” But there was a time, about 2 years into my business, that I thought I’d have to shut down. It was during my masters program; I had received a small research grant to go to Switzerland. I was so excited to go on this adventure with my husband and daughter. I thought I could run my business remotely for two months while my sole employee stayed back at the office (this was before our whole operation went virtual).

First of all, it was way too premature for me to hire someone full-time. We simply didn’t have the revenue. There was a point when all of the money we were bringing in went to her salary. Rather than hire her once we had a huge caseload, I hired her thinking she could help build that caseload. What I learned is that being a practitioner requires a different skillset than doing sales and marketing. She didn’t bring in new clients, and in my absence, I learned she was even doing some free work on the clock.
I remember going to the grocery store to buy food for dinner with 10 euro in my pocket.
The credit cards were maxed out.
It was also the hottest summer ever, so that didn’t help.

I had to lay her off when I knew I wouldn’t make payroll. It was horrible. I felt like I’d failed. I felt irresponsible. I felt like I’d taken on too much.
But after that, in my desperation, I gained some clarity. I restructured my pricing to bring in more consistent cash flow, and I learned some important lessons: 1. Don’t hire until you’re bursting at the seams; 2. Don’t expect all of you employees to have a business-building mindset; 3. You can do all of the things but not all at the same time; I probably shouldn’t have gone on a research trip while I was trying to build my business.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The best strategy for growing my clientele was making my current clients happy. Happy clients refer. Good clients usually refer other good clients. This has been the key to my growth.
The other thing I did was contract with schools to supplement my private client revenue. School contracts rarely led to private clients, but the income helped in the early days.
Finally, I donated counseling packages to school auctions. Even though my business went virtual in 2017, donating to auctions got our name out there and helped us increase our local audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://throughlineguidance.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-ellison-88ba721a/
• Other: https://www.yourhiddengenius.com/

Image Credits

Bay Area Professional Photo