Lynda Weinman and her husband, Bruce Heavin, may own one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation, but they say its start was anything but textbook.

“We didn’t set out by evaluating the market size, doing a business plan nor do a lot of things you probably teach your students,” said Weinman, co-founder of Lynda.com. “It was just a vehicle to practice our craft. When we couldn’t do it with clients, we figured out we would do it for ourselves and we just adapted to a series of different market conditions.”

Heavin told a standing-room-only crowd last Friday in the Fe Bland Forum on SBCC’s West Campus not to try this approach at home. The SBCC Scheinfeld Center For Entrepreneurship & Innovation presented “A Conversation with Lynda Weinman” as part of its Enlightened Entrepreneurship Series.

Lynda.com produces thousands of video tutorials on a range of programs that cater to each experience level for a monthly subscription fee.

The business has taken over most of the Carpinteria Business Park with offices also in Ventura and Ojai, where Weinman first designed her Web site and taught a class on Web design. The site’s original purpose was to answer questions about the books the company published.

“By virtue of being an Internet business, you are international and that’s never before been possible,” Weinman said. “To know you can sell to more people than you could ever reach before, that’s game-changing. I think there’s more opportunity now than there’s ever been.”

As her books on the largely untouched subject of Web design took off, Weinman started renting out parts of Thacher School in Ojai on weekends, which immediately drew a crowd.

But as the dot-com bubble burst, Weinman learned it’s important to be nimble and agile.

“After the dot-com crash and 9/11, it really affected the ability of our customers to come to classrooms,” she said. “So we put our videos online and started our online training library, which became the bigger idea” — its “best business decision.”

Heavin told attendees not to be afraid to fail.

“There’s a small chance that you walk out of college and be who you want to be,” he said. “You have to try things, fail and be persistent. When something isn’t right, don’t keep at it — switch it.”

Today, Lynda.com employs more than 200 employees and 300 authors who have created thousands of tutorials. Heavin said small businesses have to treat their employees well.

Although their start didn’t follow all of the business standards, Weinman and Heavin both had something in common — they do what they love.

“Working hard is a grind, and if your heart isn’t into it you will burn out,” Heavin said. “There has to be love. Your heart has to be in it or you will resent it.”

— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.