Who you would be working with.

I run an online language-learning business. What I can do is look at what you make or teach, work out who pays for it, and help you get from one to the other.

Who this is for

This is for people who run a small creative business: dance and music schools, ceramic studios, photographers, theatre makers, and anyone else who makes or teaches something and wants the business side to work.

How I got stuck

In 2018 I left a startup job after four years and went travelling. After two weeks I felt lost. For about a year I jumped between projects and finished very little. I was still lost when the pandemic started.

Having more options did not help me choose one.

What got me out was choosing one thing, DailyNata, a language-learning business, and working on it in small steps every week until it existed. I work with clients the same way now: one system at a time, in small steps.

Owners of small businesses get stuck in the same way, with too many options and no time to pick one.

Background

I grew up in Iran and have lived in France, Malaysia, the UK, Spain, Poland, Japan, Peru and Portugal. I now live in Amsterdam.

I have a degree in IT and a master's in business innovation. I spent four years at a startup and trained as a coach in 2017, while I was still there. Since 2018 I have been building my own things.

I run three projects of my own. DailyNata teaches European Portuguese through short stories, quotes and jokes. Bom Dia Portugal is a free Friday email about what is happening in each region of Portugal. DamGoodDutch sends free Dutch lessons by email twice a week. I built most of the tools that run DailyNata myself.

How I work

I listen, then I repeat back what you said and point out where two things cannot both be true. I also point out what is going well that you no longer count.

I ask direct questions, including the ones you would rather skip. For example: what did you earn last year, divided by the hours you worked?

Between sessions I set up the systems. In each session we check them together and choose what to improve next.