Growth: 8% per year. Basis: CDC reports 7 million US children aged 3-17 (11.4%) ever diagnosed with ADHD (2022) and NSCH data put current autism at ~3.2%; add learning disabilities and the neurodivergent share is large. US K-12 homeschooling sits near ~3.1 million students; elementary (ages 5-11) is roughly 45% (~1.4M). Special-needs prevalence among homeschoolers is disproportionately high (a common reason families leave school), so ~20% neurodivergent gives ~280,000 target children. TAM: 280,000 families x ~$340/year on personalized planning (about 3 plans + a revision at this idea's $60-$150 price) ≈ $95M. SAM: only families reachable through online homeschool/neurodivergent channels (TikTok, paid coaching communities) who will pay for a done-with-you service, ~15% of TAM ≈ 42,000 families x $340 ≈ $15M. SOM is capacity-bound, not demand-bound: at 10 hrs/week and ~4 hrs per plan (minus marketing/intake time) this solo operator can deliver ~1.5 plans/week, ~70/year, at a blended ~$115 (plans plus $40 revisions, net of a 20% referral cut) ≈ $8K-$12K/year in years 1-2, so SOM ≈ $12,000. Consistent with the $200 startup cost and first revenue by week 4 at $90/plan.

Differentiation: The user's teaching, curriculum-design, and child-development skills are the product, not a feature. Because each 4-week unit is built from a one-child intake (attention span, sensory triggers, current struggles), the reasoning behind every movement break and visual schedule is visible and verifiable in the deliverable, which static printables (TpT, Etsy templates) and adaptive software (Time4Learning) structurally cannot show. The ability to explain complex things simply lets the user turn one real lesson into a TikTok proof clip, converting DMs into $90 plans. It is fully async and fits 10 hrs/week with near-zero fixed cost (under the $200 budget), unlike synchronous, business-hours competitors like Outschool and hourly consultants.

Competitors

Customer segments

• Recently-pulled families: Parents who withdrew a neurodivergent 5-11 year old mid-year after school failed and need a working daily structure fast.
• Stuck veteran homeschoolers: Families homeschooling 1+ years whose generic curriculum stopped working after a new ADHD/autism diagnosis or a recurring meltdown pattern.
• Coaching-community insiders: Parents already paying for homeschool coaching or neurodivergent-parenting memberships, reachable via referral partners for a warm 20% cut.

Sources

• Data and Statistics on ADHD | CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/data/index.html
• General Prevalence of ADHD in Children - CHADD: https://chadd.org/about-adhd/general-prevalence-children/
• Prevalence and Co-Morbidities of Autism Spectrum Disorder in US Children (NSCH 2020-2021): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11941283/
• 25 Most Popular Homeschool Curriculums For ADHD And Autism: https://adayinourshoes.com/best-homeschool-curriculums-for-adhd-and-autism/
• The Best Homeschool Curriculum for ADHD (pricing reference): https://brighterly.com/blog/best-homeschool-curriculum-adhd/

Parents homeschooling one neurodivergent elementary kid pay $60 to $150 for a lesson plan built around their specific child's meltdown triggers and attention span, because free printables keep failing and daily burnout is peaking right now.

Messaging angle: A 4-week lesson plan built around your child's actual meltdown triggers, not another generic printable that falls apart by 9am.

Pricing logic: $90 per personalized 4-week plan sits deliberately between the two anchors parents already know: Etsy/TpT 'custom' bundles top out around $40-$60 but are really fill-in-the-blank templates, while independent special-ed consultants charge $75-$150 for a SINGLE hour of synchronous planning during business hours. At $90 you undercut one consultant hour yet deliver a documented, named-child 4-week sequence async, which no printable seller offers. Start at $90 (not $150) to close the first 10 sales fast and build testimonials, then raise base price once repeat and revision demand is proven.

Funding: At a $200 startup cost against a $1,000 budget, self-fund entirely from personal savings and stage the spend; take on zero debt for a business this small and this quick to first revenue.

• Personal savings (staged): Spend only ~$95 upfront (Canva, form tool, tripod/light) to film demos and open intake; hold the remaining ~$105 (landing page, asset library) until your first 2 sales confirm demand. Covers 100% of the $200 with $800 of your budget untouched. Catch: discipline required to not over-invest in tools before a single parent has paid.
• Revenue-first bootstrapping: Fund month 2+ tool renewals directly from the first 3 plans ($270). Covers all recurring $45/month fixed costs from month 2 on. Catch: only works if month 1's free Reels actually convert 3 DMs, so treat the content as the real cost (your unpaid hours), not the cash.
• Pre-sale / founding-client pricing: Offer the first 3 buyers a $70 'founding parent' rate in exchange for a video testimonial and permission to anonymize their plan as a sample. Brings in ~$210 before you finish polishing templates. Catch: discounting risks anchoring your value low, so cap it at 3 clients and revert to $90 immediately.

Assumptions

• Each plan takes about 4 hours to build once the intake-to-template workflow is set, so 10 hours/week (roughly 40 hours/month) caps you near 9-10 plans/month; the projection stays under that ceiling with room for marketing and revisions.
• Month 1 is $0: the first 4 weeks go to intake form, template, and 3 Reels before the first paid DM lands, matching timeToFirstRevenueWeeks of 4.
• Cumulative plans by end of month 3 reach ~10 (0 + 3 + 7), reconciling with the roadmap day-90 milestone of 10 plans and acquisition's 11 customers by month 3.
• Gross margin ~72% reflects the 20% referral cut paid on coach-referred clients plus per-plan tool/asset costs; self-built direct-DM clients carry higher margin.
• From month 8 onward, part of revenue is the $40 follow-up revision add-on (repeat buyers), which lifts revenue without adding a full 4-hour build each time.

Each week you run a small batch of custom builds: capture leads from short-form video, send an intake form, assemble one personalized 4-week plan per paying parent in a Canva/Google Docs template, and collect payment before delivery. The rhythm is async evening work: film and post early week, build plans Thursday through weekend.

Tool stack

Delivery workflow

1. Lead replies: Parent DMs after a Reel or a coach referral; you reply with a Stripe link and the Google Forms intake.
2. Payment then intake: Parent pays the $90 plan fee first, then completes the intake so you never build unpaid; this kills scope creep.
3. Build the 4-week sequence: In under 4 hours you assemble movement breaks, a visual schedule, and short-burst tasks tuned to that named child using your Canva/Docs template.
4. Deliver the PDF: Send a shared Drive folder with the plan, a printable visual schedule, and a one-page 'how to run week one' note.
5. Week-one check-in: Automated email on day 8 asking what stuck; offer the $40 revision add-on if the child hit a wall.
6. Request proof: Ask the happy parent for a short testimonial or permission to anonymize a win for your next Reel.

Suppliers

Weekly time budget

• Plan building (delivery): 5h/week
• Content: filming and posting Reels/TikToks: 2.5h/week
• DMs, intake follow-up, referral outreach: 1.5h/week
• Admin: payments, template upkeep, pipeline: 1h/week
• Product: refining the plan template to cut build time: 0h/week

At ~4 hours per plan, 5 delivery hours caps you near 1 to 2 fresh plans per week (roughly $90-$270/week). The ceiling is your build time, not demand: the first thing to outsource is not the plans (that reasoning is the product) but content editing, hand your CapCut cuts to a $15/video freelancer so you reclaim 2 hours for a third plan.

Positioning: For parents homeschooling one neurodivergent child ages 5 to 11, NeuroNest Plans is the done-with-you lesson-planning service that builds a 4-week unit around your child's actual attention span and sensory triggers, unlike free printables you have to adapt yourself.

Name options

• NeuroNest Plans
• BrightBurst Learning
• AnchorLeaf Plans
• KindredPath Learning
• SparkStep Plans

Palette & voice

Logo concept (NN): Two interlocking puzzle-piece shapes forming an abstract nest, using the orange accent on the left piece and teal on the right. Set the monogram 'NN' in a rounded, friendly sans-serif beneath the mark, with the pieces slightly offset to suggest a plan clicking into place for one specific child.

Hypothesis: At least 3 parents homeschooling one neurodivergent child ages 5-11 will pay $90 upfront for a custom 4-week plan built around their specific child's attention span and meltdown triggers, before any plan exists. (budget $20)

Interview questions

1. Walk me through what happened the last time you tried to teach your child a lesson that didn't stick.
2. How many hours last week did you spend adapting or hunting for materials for this one child?
3. What have you already tried (free printables, apps, curricula) and where exactly did each break down?
4. Tell me about the last meltdown during a lesson: what triggered it and what did you do next?
5. How do you currently figure out what will hold your child's attention on a given day?
6. When adapting materials feels impossible, what do you do instead, and how does that feel afterward?
7. The last time you paid for something to help with homeschooling, what was it and what made you open your wallet?
8. Who or what do you turn to when a school day with your child falls apart?

Success criteria

• 3+ parents pay the full $90 upfront within 14 days.
• 8+ completed intake forms showing real neurodivergent-child details, not tire-kickers.
• At least 4 of 5 interviewees report spending 3+ hours/week adapting materials and describe it as a top-3 frustration.
• At least 1 referral partner agrees to send clients for the 20% cut.

Kill criteria

• Zero paid pre-orders after 8+ intakes and 3 community posts: interest exists but nobody will pay $90.
• Interviews reveal parents spend under 1 hour/week adapting materials, so the pain is too small to sell against free printables.
• Buyers demand unlimited revisions or per-printable pricing, pushing effective build time past 6 hours and collapsing your hourly rate below your day-job wage.

Audience-led social proof: post short TikTok/Reels videos showing a real movement-break lesson working on a distractible kid, then convert warm parents from neurodivergent-homeschool communities and coach referrals into $90 custom-plan orders.

Path to 100: Weeks 1 to 4 (to first revenue): build the one-page intake plus a template that lets you assemble a plan in under 4 hours, ship your first 3 TikTok/Reels demos, and DM 5 coaches; convert 1 to 2 warm DMs or a coach referral into your first paid $90 plans by week 4, matching the 4-week estimate and staying inside the $200 startup budget. Weeks 5 to 12: keep TikTok and community answers running as your top-of-funnel while referrals send pre-qualified families, aiming for 8 to 11 orders per month, which is the realistic ceiling at 4 hours per plan and 10 hours per week. Reinvest early revenue into the small commission pool and Canva/Pinterest, hold cold Meta ads until organic proves messaging (cold course/service traffic rarely converts under $150 CAC). Add the $40 week-one revision upsell to lift revenue per client without new acquisition, and once repeat and referral demand is steady, that ~10-per-month cadence reaches the first 100 customers in roughly 9 to 11 months while your effective hourly rate stays protected by the systematized intake-to-plan workflow.

Entity: Start as a sole proprietorship, add a single-member LLC once you clear a few paid plans.. NeuroNest sells your written lesson plans, not childcare or in-person instruction, so physical-injury risk is near zero and revenue starts at $60 to $150 per plan. A sole proprietorship costs nothing to form and lets you test demand; the main exposure is a parent claiming your plan gave bad developmental advice. An LLC alone does not cover that (claims about your own advice reach you personally); a clear scope disclaimer plus the professional liability policy this plan recommends is what addresses it, with the LLC as a second layer once revenue is real. Upgrade when: Form a single-member LLC in your home state once you pass roughly $5,000 in cumulative revenue, sign a referral contract with a coach, or start advertising outcomes publicly. This is bootstrapped and local-to-online, so your home state is correct; skip Delaware, which only helps venture-backed C-Corps raising from investors.

Setup steps

Licenses

Insurance

Contracts you’ll need

• Client services agreement: Defines deliverable (one 4-week plan), turnaround, revision limits (protects against endless tweaks, your main risk), and no-refund-after-delivery terms.
• Disclaimer / scope statement: States you provide educational planning, not medical, psychological, or therapeutic diagnosis or treatment for ADHD/autism.
• Privacy policy: Explains how you handle sensitive child intake data (sensory triggers, struggles) and that you do not sell it; important because minors' data is involved.
• Referral agreement: Sets the 20% cut, payment timing, and terms with homeschool coaches sending you clients.

Tax basics

• Plan income is self-employment income: you owe both income tax and roughly 15.3% self-employment tax (Social Security + Medicare) on net profit.
• Once you expect to owe $1,000+ in tax for the year, the IRS wants quarterly estimated payments (mid-April, June, September, January); set aside 25 to 30% of each $90 as you go.
• Startup costs like your $200 tools and formation fees are generally deductible; the IRS lets you deduct up to $5,000 of startup costs in year one.
• Track deductible expenses: software subscriptions, a share of home internet, and a home-office deduction if you have a dedicated workspace.
• Whether your custom plans are subject to sales tax depends on your state's rules for digital/service products; check your state Department of Revenue rather than assuming exemption.