My Entrepreneurial Journey
To any of you amazing women who are looking for advice and wondering a little more about my story, I’m writing this post for you so you can hear more about how I got started and tips for anyone who wants to start a business.
I became a branding and website designer a bit on accident so it’s not a true this was my dream kind of story. I knew I wanted to be my own boss and in control of my future – that was always obvious to me. I actually planned on going into physical therapy a majority of my life and wanted to own my own practice. After graduating business school I had a few more pre-req classes I needed to get done before applying and went to Florida for the summer to get my yoga teaching certification (which I planned on incorporating into my PT practice). By the end of my teaching certification, it was more and more clear that PT was not my path. I struggled with this decision probably more than any other decision to this day. After all I had been set on PT for so long!
In the end, I knew it wasn’t going to make me happy and my parents wouldn’t let me bum around being a yoga instructor by day and cocktail waitress by night so I got a marketing internship at a nonprofit in Florida. Soon the internship turned into a job and I was following the path society lays out for us. After a while I was working 60-80 hour weeks, underpaid and underestimated because lets be honest there’s no way a 21 year-old could actually know what she’s doing (massive sarcasm).
I always felt like I was fighting – fighting for people to have faith in my abilities or to believe that I actually knew what I was talking about before they saw results. Don’t get me wrong it was an incredible opportunity. I learned more in those two years than I would have elsewhere, had opportunities I never would have gotten at a larger organization, and made connections with incredible people. I built systems from the ground up, managed budgets, traveled, threw events, learned graphic design, how to work a website and all sorts of other things that largely contribute to where I am today.
All of that being said, it took a toll, mentally, physically and emotionally, until I couldn’t do it anymore and quit. I had enough and decided I was going to start my own business where I could be my own boss and I will be so happy. Of all things I started an e-commerce sustainable clothing store - I love fashion and wanted to make eco-friendly fashion accessible so that’s what I did. The week I set to launch my store Hurricane Irma hit my home in the Keys sending me into a not-so-great situation and mindset that inevitably didn’t give me the launch I was hoping for and lessened my excitement moving forward with my store.
To make the most of my time I started doing freelance work via Upwork. My clothing store wasn’t taking up much time and was mostly running itself aside from packaging orders. With the freelance work I was making pennies at times, but again I was learning a ton and loving creating while helping small businesses. I started getting more clients and raising my prices every few weeks then I started getting referrals and repeat clients to a point I was working all day and unknowingly started a whole new business!
After a year of this I got to the point where I knew I needed to go all in with design or not. I made it official and created Stay Collective Co, began getting clients sans Upwork and I sold my clothing store to someone in a Facebook group (literally). The more and more I worked with clients, the more they realized I did actually know a thing or two about business and wanted mentorship which is how I started this path in addition to my design work.
A couple of years later I started Mari Leigh, to combine my love for helping entrepreneurs with spirituality with healing gifts. But this is a story for another post…
Although my journey is not the traditional entrepreneur route, I love it. It’s stressful at times. You’re in charge of your income, your success (and failures), and your schedule (which can be a downside for some). You have to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and your worth on top of figuring out how to balance life/work.
To anyone who is looking to start their own business no matter the journey, you just need to get started. Start somewhere – anywhere! Read as much as you can, listen to podcasts, absorb the information and start applying it. You’ll learn as you go because you’ll have no other choice if you want to keep going. Let go of what people will think of you (I know that can be a big one and it’s easier said than done), but who cares! Chances are those people are thinking “Dang. Look at her go – I wish I had the guts to start a business and follow my dreams.”
You’ve got to start though. It won’t be perfect, it probably will never be perfect. You’ll always have new challenges and things to work on, but that’s part of the fun.
I hope this shines some light & helps you on your journey.
XX
