There’s a stigma against building a business with your partner, and I’m not really sure why. It was Willow’s and my dream to do this. I learned about the online space before Willow, and I quit my job before him too. I paved the way for our business. The doors opened for me, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I never wanted it to just be me while he was still working a shitty job that he hated. We have friends who work normal, corporate jobs, and I honestly wonder when they see their significant other during the day. We get to spend so much time together running our business. It’s been the dream, especially pre-COVID when we could travel all the time. We wanted the freedom and the ability to travel. Why would you not want to do that with your partner? Nothing is ever perfect, so I want to get real about expectations and share what it really looks like to be in business together.
We legit share clients so we are intertwined to the full max. We probably work more because of this. I’d imagine we would talk way less about business and work less if we weren’t 100% in this together.
I saw those two things hand-in-hand. I saw the freedom. Anything was possible for you. I was working for a marketing agency and learning a ton at the time. But, I also had a nagging boss from 8:00am until 7:00pm every day of the week, all the time. I was remote so I was teased with what it was like to work in the online space. I worked on my computer from wherever I was, but I better be available all the time, right when my boss needed me. I saw Becca not having that pressure at all. She had clients who gave her so much praise. I wanted that, and I wanted to do it with her.
I always knew it from the beginning because it would be fun and we could travel. I thought Willow would have that same freedom when he got that remote marketing job. I was building something that I was so passionate about and was so happy doing. I loved how I spent my days, and my clients were amazing. I saw how miserable Willow was. He was really unhappy working for them. He didn’t feel appreciated or valued. I knew – because I was already doing it – that it was possible for him to be more fulfilled in his work. Willow would spend more hours of his day working than I did. He was being under-paid, under-valued, and wasn’t as happy in his work as I was in mine. I spent so much time listening to him complain. This had to stop because we needed to be on the same page.
I went into the agency world because I knew I wanted to get into marketing. I had a lot to learn, and getting into it would be the best way to learn. I knew it wasn’t my end goal to work for a marketing agency, though. It was where I was going to learn a ton, and then leave and join Becca. I didn’t know I wanted to be my own boss. I thought I liked the idea of working for someone else who had the ideas if I could still enjoy what I was doing. It took me a long time to get the confidence to do it for myself and feel like I was capable. There was a long time when I liked the idea of being an employee and being paid to, in a way, just show up.
We were in San Francisco for a while. In August of 2019, Becca had been dreaming up Bold x Boho and putting in so much work. Then, for the last 3 weeks leading up to the launch, I knew there was an end in sight. I was helping Becca with little things to create Bold x Boho. She was working from probably 9:00am to 2:00am 6-days-a-week. It was a grind. At the end of the tunnel though, there was a light of passive income. It was the thing we had always dreamt of. For this 3-week period, we were probably putting in 70-80 hours per week. I was still working my full-time hours at the marketing agency and helping Becca all night.
It only took me 3 weeks to leave my job after Bold x Boho launched. We had a huge launch on Pinterest, and it did more than we thought it was going to. It was just the time. The conversations aligned for me to put in my notice. Doing the math helped give me the confidence to leave the marketing agency. I was making $25/hour at the agency working 40 hours/week which is $4,000/month. That meant I needed to sell 8 of our $500 Bold x Boho templates per month. So doable. I knew that what I was able to do on social media would easily sell 8 if not 10, 20, or 30. Debuting our brand on Pinterest, we sold about 20 or 25 in the first couple of days organically. I saw that and felt like, “I’ve got this in the bag.”
This also helped me to see that Pinterest was a strength of mine to build my own business. I was doing it for brands at the agency. I realized so quickly that what Pinterest held for businesses of any size was being so slept on.
Prior to that, there was an easier separation between work and home. I could turn of Slack and turn off my computer and be done. It took me a little bit of getting used to with Becca literally being on 24/7 and being so all-in on the business all the time. She never takes breaks. But, now I’ve been doing the same. I’m in the business all day, and I can’t imagine it any other way. It gives such a sense of fulfillment, and we get to experience that fulfillment together.
I have friends and family that legit don’t understand what Willow and I do. The big wins we have in our business aren’t as celebrated. They’ll be like, “Okay, cool. Congrats, but I don’t know what that means.” But with me and Willow, when something happens it’s such a bigger celebratory thing. We know what it means. It’s a blissful state of being able to talk through problems, clients, and wins together. It’s beautiful.
No. Becca and I were together for 6 years prior to going into business together. The boundaries, communication, being able to work through problems were dialed in. We were at a point in our relationship where there wasn’t any real fighting. There was no toxic shit. We had worked through that already. We had worked through the big hurdles of being in a relationship.
When we started working together, I saw it as one of those make-it-or-break-it moments. If we could make being in business together work, then, holy shit, we can make anything work. Then, we fucking did.
The inspiring life that you can create by being in business with your significant other makes all the cons seem so miniscule. If you have been thinking about going into business with your significant other and you can work it out, then it’s worth it.
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Your fave soulful, free-spirit designer & mentor. I'm a 24-year old web designer, podcaster, educator, and spicy-marg drinker with big ass dreams. Starting all from a Macbook air and a 560 sqft apartment, I've turned a small one woman show into a multiple six-figure design studio.
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