How I Replaced My Income as an Entrepreneur
It started in February 2022
I had been working for my parent’s company as a digital marketer and my parents knew that I wanted to start my own business. They decided to use their resources to help me (I am forever grateful) by offering to continue paying me for the remainder of the year while I worked on replacing my income with my own business.
I experimented with different offers
Failure taught me 10x faster than success would have…
I created an offer called the Investor Cohort, a 4-week cohort course where I taught primarily women I know my investment strategy. This taught me that I’m capable of selling four-figure offers. It also taught me more about selling and teaching, and what my preferences are.
Note: I want to thank my friends who said yes to this offer and spread the word to their friends: Stef Caldwell, Lauren Partch, Lauren Tierney, and Emma Terrazas.
After the cohort ended, I tinkered with expanding the offer into a company. I experimented with this for months and even offered the Investor Cohort again (no one purchased). This was actually a huge blessing because it taught me a few important lessons quickly:
Selling B2C takes a long ramp up time of trust-building that I simply didn’t have time for
I don’t particularly enjoy selling B2C when it’s a high-ticket offer
I wasn’t very excited to teach the cohort again and something about this business felt amiss to me
I was grateful to abandon the website, lead generation quiz, and all the other things I had built. They taught me lessons and served their purpose. I was happy with leaving it all behind
I transformed the company into something I’m more excited about
Instead of selling expensive cohort courses on investing, I’m writing for free on Substack about financial freedom. The newsletter is called Good Fortune and allows me to:
Research and learn about financial freedom
Share what I learn
Build an audience
Experiment without a high cost (Substack is free)
Write (my favorite thing in the world!)
I was able to transition the project from “income replacement experiment” to “side project experiment.”
I felt liberated when I started to embrace being a multi-hyphenate
I used to think that I needed to find my “one thing” in my career that would unlock my purpose and fulfillment. Ironically, once I let that go and embraced all the things I love, I felt the most purpose and fulfillment! I’m proud to write feminist thrillers and write several newsletters and write content for startups (more on this below). I realized my “one thing” wasn’t going to be one company. It was writing. And I like to do it in so many different ways: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, newsletters, Twitter one-liners, journaling etc. I write for myself and I write for others. It’s the through-line and skillset that carries all of my projects. It is beyond liberating to embrace all the projects I want to work on and see it as a good thing.
I hired a business coach
I’ve found incredible value in having a coach. I felt isolated while trying to build and common sense told me that I would get farther with someone in my corner who had walked this path before me. Being a solopreneur doesn’t mean you have to do the journey solo.
I ignored good advice because I was blocked
My coach, Taylor, actually suggested in the springtime that I consider offering my content and SEO services to companies. I felt an ick feeling around it, as if it would be boring. I also didn’t want to return to a skillset I had left behind at a job I was at in my early 20s. For whatever reason, I didn’t want to return to that skillset that the people at that company had taught me. It was very ironic when we ended up circling back to this idea and it ended up being the one that would help me replace my income.
The journey unraveled exactly as it was supposed to. I had to look back and see: ‘Oh, I was blocked back then.’ And then celebrate how cool it is that I’m no longer emotionally blocked on this anymore.
I turned down a full-time job offer
I felt a lot of fear about my income “ending” at the end of 2022. I started to doubt if it was feasible for me to replace my income as an entrepreneur in the 6 months I had left in the year. I applied to jobs and interviewed. This process was extremely informative and explorative for me. It reminded me that I’m a great interviewer and I’m capable of landing a great job. I also gained immense clarity:
I didn’t want to accept a full-time job offer. I didn’t want to work 40 hours per week for one company. I wanted to preserve what I had found this year: freedom.
I saw a Twitter post and became a service provider
By luck, I saw a Twitter post about a Growth Strategist contractor role at DemandMaven. I applied and got the job. It’s hourly pay. My boss, Asia Orangio, asked me if I wanted to be paid as an individual (I’d be a contractor) or paid as my LLC (I’d be a service provider). This was news to me. I never really understood the difference between these terms. Suddenly, my LLC (Kasia Collective LLC) was invoicing her company each month. In my free accounting software called Wave, I could now see recurring revenue - woo!
I started to understand what I’m good at, enjoy doing, and how to monetize it
The DemandMaven role has been a huge blessing. I began learning about the Growth Strategist role and noticed it wasn’t for me. I took a huge risk and was extremely transparent with my boss. I told her I wasn’t enjoying the role and asked if there was any other work at the company I could help with. As a result, I started helping with the content side of the business. When I started working on content for the company, I remembered how much I love it and how good I am at it.
I also started to understand DemandMaven’s business model as an agency. Rather than start a marketing agency, I realized I could start a content marketing agency. That’s how my company, Narrative, was born.
This was the same business idea my coach, Taylor, had discussed with me months earlier. Timing really is everything. It all clicked into place.
I asked potential clients a few questions
Taylor recommended that I do customer discovery interviews, so I posted in a business group called Trends Classifieds on Facebook. I didn’t phrase it like a customer discovery interview. Instead, I said something like:
I’m starting a content marketing agency and I’d like to ask business owners what would make them choose an agency over a full-time hire and what their budget looks like. If you’re available, comment your email below.
I collected four emails and sent off my questions. After collecting their answers, I then said:
I’m putting my website and packages together now. When it’s ready, are you interested in me sending it your way?
A few people said yes, and a few weeks later, one of them became my very first client.
I saw the path forward
As an entrepreneur, there are few moments more exciting than discovering you’ve found an offer that people genuinely want and need.
I charge a few thousand dollars per month per client. For each client that signs on, they’re agreeing to a three-month minimum.
As an agency, I can choose to hire more writers down the road and can handle as many clients as I choose to (and can find!)
There is never 100% certainty in business but this is where I’m at now. I’m looking for more startups to connect with who are interested in content marketing. Selling my offer is easy because I understand its value so completely. I’m not a natural salesperson, but wow, this has been a huge breakthrough!
I celebrated tiny victories
My coach, Taylor, encouraged me to celebrate every step of the way. I even celebrated when the Investor Cohort didn’t sell the second time. I booked massages, treated myself to days off at the beach, and bought myself self care gifts.
Next steps
Are you trying to replace your income as an entrepreneur or already have? I’d love to hear about it.
