A 41-year-old teacher started a living room side hustle with her last $99 and now her business generates $1.9 million annually.

In 2011, Lisa Collum began her side hustle and spent her last $99 on five binders at OfficeMax.

She sold hundreds of her fourth- and fifth-grade writing curricula, with her 8-year-old operating the three-hole-punch.

Collum, 41, is the CEO of Top Score Writing, a Palm Beach Gardens, Florida-based company that offers K-12 writing curricula and consulting services to schools and teachers across the U.S. Her teaching approach is based on her experience helping fourth graders, many of whom were English language learners, write structured essays and see their writing test scores improve.

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In four years, her side hustle surpassed her $40,000 annual teaching salary and eventually became her full-time job in 2015. That same year, Collum purchased Coastal Middle and High School, a nonprofit private school in Lake Park, Florida, using funds from her business.

According to CNBC Make It, Top Score Writing had six full-time employees, ten part-time staffers, and nearly $1.9 million in annual profit last year.

When a school principal first asked to purchase a writing curriculum from her, she replied, "I have no business acumen and cannot write this down to sell it."

From schoolteacher to CEO

In her early 20s, Collum began her teaching career at the Village Academy School in Delray Beach, Florida. She observed that many of her fourth-grade students, who were English language learners, felt intimidated by the essay section of the state's annual evaluations. As a result, she spent her first year instructing them on how to create introductory, body, and conclusion paragraphs.

In her first semester, 95% of her students passed the state test, up from 38% the previous year, she claims. Each of the next two years, every fourth grader at her school was deemed proficient at writing, says Collum.

The dramatic increase in scores at a Florida school triggered two investigations by the Department of Education, leading to Colum's departure from her writing specialist role for the school district and her subsequent virtual teaching position after the birth of her third child in 2011.

Three days after she left her old district, principals from that district contacted her to inquire about purchasing her curriculum. She agreed, charging only $75 per binder. Her business expanded through word-of-mouth, as local principals shared their experiences with their colleagues in other school districts, and then online once Collum digitized her curricula in 2016.

The cost of Top Score Writing's curricula and teaching plans ranges from $125 to $625, based on the grade level and services provided.

A decade's worth of budding business instincts

Initially, Collum developed Top Score Writing specifically for Title I schools, which receive additional federal funding to support students from low-income families.

In 2022, Tina Volanti, a former fifth-grade teacher at Clovis Elementary, discovered Top Score Writing on YouTube and believed it could aid her students' writing abilities, which were disrupted by Covid. Her principal permitted her to test the program, and the students' confidence as writers improved significantly, according to Volanti, who retired this year.

Top Score Writing was introduced in schools with a higher concentration of "gifted" students, according to Collum. However, its formulaic approach to writing was met with mixed reactions among critical parents and teachers, who argued that a regimented education that prioritizes structure over creativity helps students excel in tests but not in actual writing.

Due to parent outcry, Collum has lost at least one major contract. Her typical response is that all students need to learn fundamentals, even top students are struggling more with writing than math or reading right now, and each Top Score Writing curriculum does touch on creative writing strategies toward the end of the school year.

She'll work with any school that buys Top Score Writing's curricula, she notes, and she's learned to trust her business instincts, developed over the past 13 years.

"Despite having data that my approach was effective, I struggled with self-confidence during the first five years, says Collum. Although I anticipate challenges in the future, I am now better equipped to handle them and learn from them. I always return to my beliefs and the potential of students to guide me."

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