We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brandi Jenkins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brandi below.

Hi Brandi, thanks for joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I definitely wish that I would have started my business sooner because if it had been up and running during the start of the pandemic that definitely a would have been an opportunity to help students with disabilities and their parents as far as making academic gains during a huge transition period or maintaining progress that was made prior to the pandemic. It also could have helped more parents and teachers at a time when students didn’t have access to certain materials in the classroom that help them understand information presented to them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I really got into designing curriculum due to a need for leveled material in my own classroom. But when other teachers at my school or other friends that were teachers at different sites saw my work they encouraged me to put it on Teachers Pay Teachers because they felt like it could help others, especially teachers who were new to the field.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I currently utilize Teachers Pay Teachers, which is essentially the Amazon of instructional materials. Some of the pros are: it’s a site that many teachers already know about, they are able to pivot to meet the needs of sellers and buyers, and it’s easy to use. There honestly aren’t any cons. The site does exactly what it needs to do.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Not yet but I definitely would like it to. It’s no secret that the field of education is not one that people get in for the money. I would like this to turn into my full-time career so that I can make classroom visits to mentor other teachers or even become a keynote speaker at events such as the Autism Summer Institute.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Ausome-Edscursions
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ausomeedscursions/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/AusomeEDscursions/