We recently connected with Carolina L. Mery and have shared our conversation below.
Carolina L. , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
I’ve thought about whether being a business owner is what I really want 8 million times.
There are so many times I thought to myself that if I just had a 9-5 job, that I wouldn’t have the amount of responsibilities that owning a business requires.
I could go home and not have to think about work,
I wouldn’t have to worry about staff issues, figuring out what to do when business was bad, I could go on vacation and not have to check in with the office, I would have a steady paycheck whether business was good or bad, I wouldn’t have to make tough decisions, if I didn’t like it anymore, I could just get another job, I would get sick days, etc.
And then I remember why I love owning my own business…
I get to dedicate my time to building something that I genuinely love, in a way that I believe is a win-win for the school and for the students.
I get to decide who I want to work with.
I get to decide our mission and how we will treat our clients.
I get to decide what hours I want to work, where I want to work, and quite frankly if I want to work that day.
I get to work at 3am, 3pm or whatever time I feel like working.
If I need a day off, I get to make the decision to take it off without asking anyone.
When I don’t like a policy or a way of doing something, I get to change it.
I realize that I could potentially have an amazing relationship with a team at someone else’s company, but when you own your own business you get to hand-pick your team, if you wish.
There is no limit in revenue potential.
I get to structure the business how I want.
When you own your own business you work a lot up front, it’s a huge investment, but as the years go by and your business becomes more profitable, established, and able to run without you, you get to work less and less each year.
There are a million reasons why owning your own business is amazing, but I would say that for me personally, the most beautiful part of owning my own school, is that we have created a beautiful community of Spanish teachers & students, and that is priceless.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
¡Hola! My name is Ana Carolina Francisca Mery Letelier, but you can call me Caro! I’m from Santiago, Chile and have lived in the US since I was 10 years old.
Language was always a very important part of my life, as I spoke one language at home and another outside the home. However, my experiences learning languages were not the best.
I studied English for a few years in South America and yet when I came to the US I couldn’t communicate. I had the same experience with French in my teenage years. So basically 6+ years of study down the drain.
When I decided to open a Spanish language school, I knew that I wanted students to LEARN Spanish, not to STUDY it. And that meant that conversation would be the only way to go.
Learning from books and flashcards can be a good supplement, but to learn to speak another language, you must actually practice speaking and listening to it.
Imagine wanting to learn to drive by just reading a book. You can learn to drive by getting behind the wheel and never opening up that book, but you cannot learn to drive a car by just reading the book and playing a video game about driving cars. You would have to practice the real thing in order to learn the real thing. The same goes for languages.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
PBO (Pura Buena Onda) is a community. We have many ways that we keep in touch with our students! We, the students & teachers, get together for a monthly event so that we can spend time in a completely social setting, away from class.
We also have a daily conversation starter on our Facebook page 365 days a year, so we have the opportunity to get to know our students through the variety of questions asked and their fun and interesting answers.
Our Spanish classes are also conversation based, so we often get to know our students on a deeper level, since we talk about anything and everything. No topic is off limits!
Everything about PBO is meant to engage with our students, so I would say that our school is fairly unique.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When Covid came, as with many businesses, we took quite a hit. We were a 98% in-person Spanish Language School and before Covid, very few students were open to online classes. When we were quarantined no one had a choice, so we switched to 100% online Spanish classes.
The 1st 3 months were really rough, but then things really started looking up.
I am happy to report that our school has doubled in members since Covid started and we’re doing better than ever.
We now also have the pleasure of having students from all over the country and a sprinkling of students from other countries.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://purabuenaonda.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purabuenaonda/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spanishclassessandiego
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/56670107/admin/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClh1Qoao__KDmctTkQNNp3A
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pura-buena-onda-san-diego?osq=spanish+classes
- Other: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/purabuenaondaspanish