What It's About
An example of how to use a challenging experience to help others (and make money doing so).
Words of Wisdom
Prem stresses the importance of building trust with customers. “If you are honest, upfront, transparent and willing to help your audience before asking for a sale, it fosters immense trust in your business. Always ask yourself first, is this going to help my audience first and foremost or is this meant for my business' profit? Customers before profit.”
Fun Fact
The production company for TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé contacted Prem multiple times asking if his readers wanted to audition for the show. Prem is protective of his email list and didn’t want to do it at first. But he knew some of his readers watch the show, so he did an email blast and a few of his readers (the production company wouldn’t tell him which ones) even made it to the second round of auditions.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1571
A dozen years ago, Prem Kumar went through the long and frustrating process of filing for a fiancé visa so he could bring his future spouse to the United States. The couple initially hired a lawyer to do it for them, but that turned out to be a disaster. The lawyer was unprofessional, made a number of mistakes on the required forms, and ended up causing months of delays. At the time, there wasn’t a lot of information freely available online but he read forum posts and watched as many YouTube videos as he could find. Over the next six months, Prem became an expert on this subject and eventually secured the visa they needed. Ten years later, when he needed extra money for a down payment on a home, he went looking for a side hustle. After reflecting on his skills and interests, he realized that the fiancé visa process was a core expertise. After all, he’d been through that process himself, and he knew it was a big market with lots of people seeking help. To make things official and above board, Prem made Visa Tutor into an actual business with an LLC, got his bonding paperwork through New York State, and also got himself listed on the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It was more red tape, but once again, it was worth it. Prem’s first sale came from an ebook priced at $5. When that PayPal notification came in, he screamed to the top of his lungs “Whoa! this works! This works!” That night he was so excited to have made that first sale that he had a hard time sleeping. It now brings in an average of $2,000 to $5,000 per month depending on the time of year. Business dropped during the pandemic due to the lack of international travel, but he’s never seen a month dip below $1,800. Last year, Prem hired his first part-time writer and content moderator. In the future, he wants to expand to different visa types and immigration procedures. He’s even thinking of pursuing a joint venture with an immigration attorney, but the verdict is still out on that.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Prem and how he helps people with Visa questions at his website, VisaTutor.com.
- Prem used an email marketing tool called, Aweber to grow his email list. We also recommend and use Convertkit.
- To list and manage his online courses, Prem used, Thinkific.com.
- Stay-At-Home Mom Helps Immigrants Gain Citizenship with YouTube Tutorials: In Washington, DC, a stay-at-home mom and former teacher helps immigrants gain citizenship with YouTube tutorials.
- Q&A: How to grow a blog for couples separated by borders?: This longtime listener is an immigration attorney who’s starting a series of courses for couples separated by borders. How can she grow her blog?
- TBT: YouTube Tutorials Help Immigrants Gain Citizenship: In this week’s “Throwback Thursday / Where are they now?” segment, we hear from a woman who teaches citizenship classes and civics lessons on YouTube. Her business has sworn in a huge increase in subscribers and income!
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Resources
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