Hey Michael! Love your work!
When I started, I reduced the “day job” hours and worked on the pet brand part time. I was earning enough to get by, and put every other hour and dime into the new company for the next year or so.
Financially it was a bit tight, and although I had less scheduled time working for someone else, I ended up working way more than full time overall.
Creatively, it was amazing! I finally got to work on something that was important to me, and that I had total control over. In a strange way, design gets harder when someone else isn’t giving you the boundaries.
Because I was (and still am) running the brand solo, I’ve had to learn a TON about sales, marketing, operations, manufacturing, and finances - all of which were tough, interesting, and ultimately made me design new products much better, taking all the elements of business into account.
It’s certainly a roller coaster of ups and downs, but I am happy to be in control of my own business and still get to make stuff that I care about.
Do you have some new ideas cooking that you’d like to make/sell?