“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
The infamous question everyone gets asked at least a million times in their lives. For most people, the answer to that question changes as they get older. It certainly changed a good number of times for me. The first answer I gave to that question was a Cheetah Girl, but I had to give that up once I was told it wasn’t a viable option. Throughout the years, what I wanted to be changed at least 10 times, but there was one thing I definitely never considered being, a business owner.
Graphic design has been a hobby of mine since middle school. I’ve always been the type to adopt new hobbies and lose interest in them within months. But graphic design is one of the few things I stuck with. Even if I stopped practicing for a while, eventually I’d make my way back to watching tutorials and creating new things.
It started as a hobby but eventually became my actual job. As someone who’s constantly haunted by imposter syndrome, I never in a million years thought my skills would be good enough to land me a job as a graphic designer. However, I did manage be employed as one and it was the first job I had where I thought to myself: “I could do this forever.”
Taking the leap from working for someone else to working for myself was a big and unexpected one. I blame the pandemic because like everyone else, being home with much more free time gave me the ability to consume so much more content.
As sad as it might sound, YouTube became my best friend and I constantly watched videos from The Futur, a YouTube channel that focuses on the business side of graphic design. I don’t think there was a day that went by where I didn’t watch at least one of their videos. Eventually, I watched so many videos that I felt like I could actually own a graphic design agency, and now I do.
I launched Intrstellr at the beginning of 2021 and it’s been an interesting journey. So much happened in such a short period of time. I dived into my company head first and was able to book three clients rather quickly thanks to referrals from friends of mine.
I quickly realized it wouldn’t always be that easy. I quit my previous job to run Intrstellr full time, but a couple months after my soft launch, I started a new part-time job. It seemed like a step back and I felt guilty I wasn’t working on Intrstellr full time, but sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move forward.
What I want to be when I grow up might change again and, maybe one day, I’ll decide being a business owner isn’t for me anymore. But for now, even with the bumps in the road, I can honestly say I’m enjoying the journey.
Being a business owner takes time management, marketing skills, communication skills and a lot of discipline, which has been the hardest part for me. Entrepreneurship is definitely not a path for everyone, and that’s okay.
However, if there’s something you’re truly passionate about and think you can make money from , go for it! Start small and stay dedicated to making a little progress every day. You never know what can come of it.
