“The Page Company was a happy accident,” says Jordan Page. Her husband, Bubba, had started a business in college, so initially her role was to support him. Even though they had both always been frugal, when they had their first child, they had a meager income. “We were living off credit cards and sweet dreams. It got real and scary when kids got in the picture,” she recalls.
Fun, Cheap, or Free
Page went online looking for information about budgeting, but she couldn’t relate to anyone she found. She also tried talking to friends about finances, but they didn’t want to discuss their mortgages or debt.
“I decided to do it my way and created ways to manage our money,” she says. “We paid off about $15,000 of debt in the same year that Bubba only made about $31,000. The interesting thing is that it wasn’t that bad.”
Page started a blog called Fun, Cheap, or Free as a hobby so that she could share all the tips and tricks that she was learning. But she worried that she wasn’t getting to the root of helping people solve their money problems. She wanted to quit, but her husband said, “Don’t quit. Do it your own way.” So, she did. “When I did it differently, it started to take off,” she recalls. “I talked about all the stuff that other people didn’t want to talk about.”
From Hobby to Business
After about a year and a half of blogging, Bubba installed Google Analytics on the blog site, and they discovered that hundreds of thousands of people were reading Jordan’s blog. Bubba thought that they should figure out a way to monetize the site. Initially, Jordan was resistant to turning her hobby into a business, but when Bubba explained how she could help more people by making it a business, she agreed.
Bubba started working with Jordan at the Page Company on the side in 2018. He eventually sold his business in 2020, which afforded him the opportunity to work with Jordan full time at the Page Company. Today, the Page Company’s mission is to build stronger families, and Jordan encourages people to define “family” in whatever way works best for their individual situations. The Pages focus on knowledge and tools to help save time, save money, and build stronger family relationships. They currently have two professional blogs, a line of budget and productivity planners, and online courses. They also host live events and retreats.
The Page Company currently has 19 employees, most of whom are work-at-home mothers. Jordan’s audience continues to grow, and today she has about one million followers on social media. She has been featured on Good Morning America, Today, Rachel Ray, and on many other media outlets, and The Page Company was also listed on the 2020 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.
Even with the incredible growth, Jordan says that 2020 was a time of focusing on family. The same week that the COVID-19 restrictions began taking place, Jordan and Bubba had twins—that’s 8 children within 10 years, with 5 kids under age 5!
“We learned to simplify during COVID-19. We canceled everything,” Jordan says.
Lessons Learned
When asked about the lessons that she has learned while growing her company over the years, Jordan shared four powerful insights:
1. You can build a mini-empire part time and still put family first.
2. Work comes third, behind God and family.
3. If you have a really engaged audience, know what their pain points are and what they want, and then build that for them—it works out.
4. The principles of budgeting, time management, and productivity apply regardless of your financial situation.
So, what advice does Jordan offer when it comes starting a family business and, particularly, working with your spouse?
“First, that’s awesome that you want to start a business with your spouse! Second, are you sure? If you’re going to do it, don’t do it alone. Get a third person as a moderator,” she says. “When it’s your ideas against his, that’s when it gets hard. Working with your spouse is the best, but it’s also one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Our marriage has been tested.”
She continues, “I remember one time I said, ‘This is not working.’ We decided to hire a VP of operations, and it changed our lives. It allowed us to be the dreamers and have someone else handle the hard stuff. We are now stronger than ever and absolutely love working together. It has been a huge blessing for us.”
The final piece of advice that Jordan gives is to create lifestyle goals first and business goals second. In other words, create a business that supports your lifestyle. How many hours do you want to work a week? What do you want your family dynamic to look like? What do you want your marriage to look like? “If 2020 taught us one thing, it’s that nothing is guaranteed,” she says. “Build a business to support your lifestyle, not the other way around.”
To learn more, visit funcheaporfree.com.
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