How I Started My Business
If I had a dollar for every time someone has offered to take me out for coffee and learn how I started my business, I would have thousands of dollars. Ok, ok…at least a few hundred. Whole Foods fancy olive bar, I’m comin’ for ya.
While I don’t have an MBA, I have managed to run a successful, 6-figure design firm for 5 years and counting, now with a small but mighty team of brilliant, heart-centered badasses from interns to collaborators and co-conspirators who get about this business of play, every day. We have defied all small-business logic and soared above the doom and gloom statistic that 49.7% of small businesses have failed at the 5-year mark. Woot!
I feel beyond grateful every day to run my own shop and in honor of the 5-year anniversary of Altogether Human, I’m finally putting pen to paper (err, digital text to google doc?) to share the story of how I started my business. Pour yourself a hot cuppa, slap on those blue light blockers and let’s gooo!
Chapter 1: Get Disappointed
I know, I know - every good success story starts with an inspirational chapter title like that, right? But the fact of the matter is that I had been let down and disregarded by a job I had previously loved. I experienced some run-of-the-mill maternal bias (“we didn’t think you’d want that assignment because you just had a baby!”) some remote work bias (“you can’t possibly stop traveling this much and do other things, even though you just had a baby”) and even some good old fashioned classism. I was told at an annual review that I didn’t have the “right pedigree” to be promoted into a role I really wanted and knew I could shine in. Pedigree. Like a dog. Woof.
As a new mom, I knew I never wanted my daughter to be treated like this and if I could show her a better way by starting my own company, then I would. Being a strong example for my daughter (and now my son!) has always been and remains my big Why.
Takeaway: Focus on the big picture for Why you feel the way you do. Usually, your emotions are pointing toward something that is deeply important to you and listening to them can point you toward your big Why.
Chapter 2: Get Mad
If you think hearing alllll of the above made me mad, you’d be right. But not so mad that I quit in a fiery rage. Instead, I let my anger fuel me (I am an Enneagram 3 after all) into exploring other options while I saved up as much money as possible.
Takeaway: get mad strategically. Don’t be angry for the sake of it, instead, use your anger and channel it as fuel to get you out of a toxic place and into a better one. Emotions are neutral - you can use them for anything. Use yours to fuel your rocket ship, not burn your house down.
Chapter 3: Get Curious
Others had gone before me and made the leap into independent consulting, so I interviewed them all, asking questions like “how do you set up an LLC? How did you land your first client? What do you like and hate about the solopreneur life? What’s easy and what’s hard for you about it?” Everyone has their own journey, but asking questions of as many people as I could find helped me to collect themes for getting started. Namely, that I needed to get an LLC so that I could get paid, that I needed to know what I wanted to offer and to what kind of clients, and I needed to leverage my existing skill set to do something to bridge the gap between old job and new, thriving business. I decided to leverage my skills as a facilitator and a content-updater (which I learned was actually called “instructional design” and as soon as I knew that, I became a thousand percent more hireable) to partner with a managed services firm that would send facilitators for hire to big clients, like Facebook.
Takeaway: ask questions! Of everyone you meet! Look for experts everywhere in your network, including your family, old roommates and friends of friends. Be shameless in your quest for information because - sing it with me now - the more you know!
Chapter 4: Get Brave
It was hard to tell my corporate job I was leaving, but it was made easier by remembering my big Why. It was also hard to be out there on my own. I had nightmares that I was drowning in a pool and there were no lifeguards to help me (thanks for being soooo very on-the-nose, subconscious!) and I was also worried that somehow my former job would come after me for reasons unknown. Hello anxiety spirals. So I got brave and…went to therapy. Seeing a therapist helped me realize that my fears and anxieties were normal, that my life was in the midst of a big change and that it would settle down again, and that I could always go back to a “normal job” if I needed to. A few years into the entrepreneurship journey, I got a master coaching designation and worked with a coach for almost a year, which was life changing.
You don’t have to go it alone on the journey to build a business. Help comes in the form of mentors and advisors, yes, but it’s also essential to keep your mental health as a top priority. The best and worst part of running your own business is that nobody else is there to catch you when you take on too much, need a break, have a mental health day, or drop the ball. You are the ringmaster of the circus and those are your monkeys. The way I, personally, stay excited instead of daunted about this ringmaster life I have chosen is by caring for my health: therapy, coaching, prioritizing sleep, eating well, not doom scrolling, and practicing exquisite self-care with exercise, limited screens and water. And, of course, a stockpile of dark chocolate hidden in my office closet away from my kids. Mwah hahahah.
Takeaway: The journey of entrepreneurship is not for everyone. IF it is for you, make sure you put support systems in place to keep yourself well.
Chapter 5: Get Some Advocates
Once I joined the managed services firm and started facilitating for hire at some big companies, like Facebook, I had a big client name to boost my credibility as a small vendor, which was very helpful. I also started with low, looooow prices. I needed to give to get - and make it attractive for someone to take a chance on me. When I had new content to try, I invited teachers and non-profit workers to take a full-day class completely free in exchange for their feedback. It’s wise when starting out to be low cost/high value and turn early advocates into raving fans.
As I began to post, chat and reach out to people I knew to share what I was doing, I was shocked to find that friends and former clients were willing to be along for the ride. Their early support was more beneficial than they will ever know, and they were the key to letting me eventually leave the managed services firm to cultivate and manage client relationships of my own.
Takeaway: Tell people what you’re up to! Know where you are in your business-building journey and don’t be too self-important to offer a discount, trade or freebie. Relationships are more important than price in the beginning (in my experience.) If you are great at what you do, the money will come. The relationships with your early advocates are priceless.
Chapter 6: Get Education
I have always followed my interests and noticed that what gets traction year over year in my business tends to be where my passion has ebbed and flowed that particular year. The first year in business, most of my income came from the managed services firm I worked with. Year 2 it was building manager training with one big client. Year 3 was the year of coaching, where I got my master coaching certification and was also hired to build an internal coaching program for a unicorn tech startup. When you stay hungry and keep learning, you have more to offer your clients. I have clients who have been with me since the beginning now who say “What have you designed that’s new? We’ll buy it!” The best way to serve your clients is by staying curious
Chapter 7: Stay Connected
I never, ever exit a client without a heartfelt thank-you note. I never let a referral go by without a heartfelt thank you note. I never onboard a new client without a welcome gift and a thank-you note for beginning the journey with me…are you getting a theme here? Gratitude goes a long way toward sealing the connection between you and your clients. I truly love my clients and I want them to always know that, even if they are off to other projects, the pitch didn’t work out, or our work together is finished. Staying personally connected to clients is about more than sales - it’s about prioritizing relationships in a world that can feel highly transactional.
I also always need to stay connected…to myself. Right now, this journey of building my own biz is the best thing I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t trade my freedom, my time or my autonomy over my life for any price. Being CEO has allowed me freedom to be the best partner, mom and person I can be. That said, there might be a world where Google wants to hire me to build the most incredible learning experience of my life, or an incredible job opens up in a country overseas that could give my family the experience of a lifetime. I’m no fortune-teller, but I believe in re-assessing year over year to make sure it’s still working. If the day comes to shutter this business, I’ll know it. And I’ll be grateful for the ride and excited by what’s next because I’ll know it’s the right thing. Or - what I hope for more - is that I can hand this business over to my children someday if they want it
Key Takeaways:
Stay Curious. If you ever feel like you are THE expert at what you do, may I humbly suggest you have drunk too much of your own Kool-Aid? Never stop learning and growing, knowing that you have much to offer and much to learn. A curious mind is a powerful tool.
Stay Engaged. Follow what interests and engages you - this is the perk and power of running your own business! If you aren’t interested in what you do, how will you get a client interested? Pay attention to your own barometer of interest vs. boredom and keep things fresh for yourself.
Stay the course. This might seem in opposition to the above, but when you are truly passionate and care about what you do, remember that passion is only half the battle. You can be as jazzed as you like, but you have to follow that up with action. Make the course, plan the strategy, write the post, design the workshop, build the retreat, DO THE THING. I have a sign on my desk in vintage old timey font, “Nothing feels better than doing the work” and it’s true. And adorable. I think a lot of small businesses fail because they spend more time working ON their businesses instead of IN their business. Think cute Pinterest boards, buying Zoom crowns and talking about what they intend to do instead of actually sitting down to create. Creating isn’t glamorous. In my work, I am in creator mode when I put on my huge, old Bose noise canceling headphones, I have no makeup and big blue-light blocker glasses (that are also prescription…sexy) and stretchy pants. I play classical music and talk to myself and go deep into a cave of my own creativity for hours at a time. Nothing about that is Pinterest-worthy, but the output is usually the scaffolding for an awesome experience, a well-written blog post (at least, I hope - you tell me!) or a facilitation guide that will ensure everyone who is being facilitated ends up having a good ol’ time. Do the work.
Stay open to alllll of it. Maybe you’ll be an entrepreneur forever, maybe you won’t. By staying connected to people, caring deeply about your clients and paying attention to your own intuition, you can build the life you’ve dreamed of and it won’t look like anyone else’s but your own. And that, my friends, is the greatest gift of all.
