What I Learned in My First 6 Months of Entrepreneurship

Shedding Identities

I’ve had roughly fifteen dance recitals in my life. One of the skills you learn is how to change quickly between numbers. Sometimes it’s easy. A quick shedding of the outer layer and voilà. Other times, it involves a bit more shedding, a bit more magic. Meanwhile, the audience is entertained enough to not think of the rush and the nerves hiding off-stage. They only see the smiles, and while they didn’t witness the frenzy, they recognize the transformation.

Goodbyes are bittersweet,

and so are beginnings

February break, 2020. I went home to visit my mom and stay out “in the woods” for a bit. A retreat if you will. But with almost a hundred essays to grade. That break, as the essays loomed over me and the winter chill surrounded me, I evaluated my life.

I started saying things out loud to my mom and on phone calls with my brother. “You know, I gave teaching a solid run. Seven years in the classroom… and if I really think about it, I haven’t left the classroom since the age of 5. Since the age of 5!! What else is out there?! I want to explore what else is out there.” They listened, and at the end of break, I went back to teaching.

A month later, the pandemic hit. I retreated back to my mom’s home to teach my middle school students remotely from my childhood bedroom. The irony did not escape me, but all I was focused on was making sure all my loved ones and I were safe.

Remote teaching quickly removed all the parts of teaching that I loved, all those little moments that only teachers truly understand. Some students didn’t have the appropriate means to access their education, and the majority of the ones who did show up, didn’t turn their cameras on and I talked to my own reflection. When I wasn’t planning virtual lessons and learning new technology and grading the giant influx of work, I was calling parents and setting up one-on-one meetings with students who fell behind. No one knew what was happening and the regulations changed constantly. There was zero stability.

For months, I questioned what my next direction would be. I finally made the difficult decision to leave the classroom. I knew I wouldn’t be coming back the following year for both many personal reasons and many global reasons that I won’t get into here.

But I knew it was the right decision for me because after I made the decision, an impossible weight lifted.

My initial plan was to leave NYC so I only looked for jobs that weren’t based in NYC, and ideally ones that were remote so I could live wherever I wanted. After a handful of interviews that just felt “off,” I started venting to some friends. In some of these conversations, my friends asked if I had considered turning my photography into my full-time job. I hadn’t. At first, I thanked them for their kind words and brushed off the suggestions. But the more people suggested I seriously consider it, the more I seriously considered it.

Then, things just kind of clicked. And once I made up my mind, I went full-force.

A couple of hours after I decided to “just go for it” and register as an LLC, this beautiful double rainbow sprang up. And, yes, I love reading into symbolism.

What I Learned in My 6 Months of Entrepreneurship

These lessons were collected over the most recent weeks and were typed in true word-vomit fashion.

“If you’re going to do something, do it well.”

I quickly became stressed about laying a solid foundation. If I was going to make my side hustle my main hustle, I needed to know the art and the numbers. I needed to stay the course. But understanding how to lay a proper foundation was frustratingly difficult. Where do I start?!?! was the constant question for those first few months. I had lists AND lists of what to do, but I didn’t know if things needed to be done in a certain order. Like if I did B before A, would my business collapse before it stood? Very quickly understanding that I wasn’t an expert or a do-it-all person was very beneficial. It allowed me to take a step back and evaluate where my skills ended and someone else’s began. This allowed me to hire people with more experience very early on and it was with this momentum and confidence that I was able to move past the debilitating overwhelm of decisions.

Understand that you can always change course.

The paradox of choice can make us immobile. Am I hiring the best person? Did I choose the best CRM, the best bank company, the best business insurance? I felt like if I jumped into something prematurely, I was going to be stuck with it forever. Someone told me early on that it’s better to choose something now if I have the option to change it later. And so that’s what I did. I started doing things knowing that I could switch it up later if I wanted to. Nothing was set in stone. I guess it’s like dating for marriage vs. dating for right now with the potential for more. This shift in mindset was THE biggest thing that got me out of the never-ending research stage and into the action-taking stage.

There will be a transition in identity.

After being with hormonal middle schoolers for the last seven years, I had almost forgotten what it was like to talk to adults all day. I’ll be honest with you, it was a strange transition. Not only because I started talking to only adults, but because I was talking to adults about business things. I kind of felt like an imposter. Who was this new person? I very much liked this imposter.

Be nice every chance you get.

There are nice people out there, tons of them. And if you thank them genuinely and treat them kindly, they usually become even nicer. And nice people are who you want when you’re starting a business! So many times I had to call one of many different state departments, and a grumpy-sounding person would answer the phone. I would be genuinely nice and 9 times out of 10, their tone would completely change. They would start laughing. They would go out of their way to help me out. And when I got someone who just wasn’t nice, I would think to how snappy I get when I’m in a bad spot and I would extend some sympathy. (Special shout out to the lady who walked me step-by-step through what I needed to do so I didn’t have a lapse in health insurance.) I think people inherently want to be nice to people, but they want to be nice to nice people.

Always pay it forward.

Karma is real and the flow of energy is real.

Niche down.

This one I only recently learned, but one I had been hearing the entire time. It wasn’t until I put myself in a potential client’s point of view, that I realized that I wouldn’t even choose me as a photographer if I did ABC and XYZ. So I niched down into brand photography to help position myself as an expert in the field. This helped my business tremendously. (Shout out to my brother for getting me to even think about brand photography. I didn’t even know it was a field until he told me that his business would benefit from photography and the wheels started turning.) A few months of heavy research later, and here we are.

Become very clear on who you are serving.

By niching down into brand photography, I realized I wanted to empower women and BIPOC. I want to help small businesses, the dreamers, the entrepreneurs. I want to help plant the seeds and I want to see them grow. Staying focused on this bigger-than-just-me vision, I was able to start curating a community that reflects my values.

You don’t need tons of “followers” or “views” or any other vanity metric; you just need the right ones.

If you’re speaking the right language to the right person, that will always mean more than speaking the wrong language to the right person or speaking the right language to the wrong person. Quality over quantity every time.

You will get a lot of (unsolicited) advice.

It’s up to you to decide which advice you want to take and which advice you want to trash. I also recommend you evaluate its source. As a female entrepreneur, men have told me their “expert opinion” out of the blue… while women have been a bit more tactful. Do you think that’s a coincidence? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”

At first, your ego may want you to be the smartest one in the room, or the most successful. But that’ll stunt your growth. Hard. If you’re the brightest one in the room, move rooms. Level up. You should constantly be in awe wondering how someone is doing something. It also serves as a reminder that if that person can achieve that, you can too.

Mindset over everything.

I’ll never forget when I cried to my accountant… to my accountant! We were having our end-of-year meeting and I was not in a good spot in a lot of areas of my life, and I think that call was a tipping point. I was describing how I knew opening a business in the middle of a pandemic was going to be difficult, but not this difficult. Between the lines, I think I was also telling her I knew living during a pandemic was going to be difficult, but not this difficult. That phone call was everything I needed in that moment. She helped me understand that there are seasons to everything, that there are slow moments, that there are pauses for everyone. And that it depends on how we view these slow moments that make all the difference. In therapist fashion, she asked me what I thought I could do in this season. That is when I realized I would stop hunting for clients and instead nurture relationships.

Diversify who you surround yourself with.

I took an honest look at my current social circles and realized that the vast majority were directly in, or tangentially connected to, education. Which is fantastic for many reasons, but I knew that if I wanted to grow within my new industry, I needed to start expanding. I’ve always loathed networking in big groups, but in the times of quarantine, I learned that I could ask people for a virtual coffee chat and that it was convenient given most of our work-from-home situations. I started this journey by making a post in a Facebook group asking who would want to network with me and almost a hundred women replied. I was overwhelmed, in a good way, and that was the beginning of my lovingly-named “coffee chats.” I then also connected with certain people over Instagram, Slack, and, most recently, Lunchclub. This introvert has never talked to so many new adults in her liiiiiiife.

“Growth begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

You’d think that someone who taught class after class of middle schoolers would be fine with public speaking, but getting on camera was a whole other level. During my first month, I knew I had to show my face on Instagram stories because most of my followers had never even heard me speak before. I must have recorded that first story 10+ times. Now I’m proud to say that I can hop on there without makeup and with soaking wet hair, and re-record maybe once or twice and call it a day. With this newfound courage, I created some reels, I co-hosted a room on Clubhouse, and I even did an IG Live. I reached a level of comfort I never thought I would. Someone told me early on to talk as if I were talking to a close, supportive friend and that piece of advice always stuck with me.

Community over competition.

If the person next to me becomes a photographer as well, that builds community, not competition. We can now toss around ideas, collaborate on projects, share tips and tricks, and cheer each other on. I use this mentality with all entrepreneurs. We can all help each other.

People are watching.

They may not be the ones actively commenting on your stuff, but people have come out of the sidelines with paragraphs of sweet things to say. I would get teary-eyed because I wouldn’t even know that person was rooting for me from afar. So when you feel alone, as is a fun tendency in entrepreneurship, remember that you never know who is internalizing what you’re sharing and you’ll never really know the true impact you have. Teaching taught me this, and entrepreneurship is teaching me the same thing. With people watching, that also means you should use your business for good. Share with your little community what you think the world needs more of because people listen to people they know.

Treat every client as if they paid you a million bucks.

It’s all about the client experience. People over profit. If you treat every client like they paid you a million dollars, then you treat every client in the best possible way and that is how I believe every business should be run.

Be grateful for every act of kindness that comes your way.

Perhaps the kindness comes from loved ones or strangers. Be grateful for it all.

I didn’t leave a “9-5” to create another 9-5.

Being the boss means I get to make the rules, and I like rules that make sense. :) So I take breaks when I need them, and mental health “hours” are frequent because I firmly understand that I can’t pour from an empty cup.

When you’re unsure, focus on how you feel.

Your intuition will know all the answers. If you are honest with yourself and reflect on the situation without judgment, that little voice will tell you your next step, always.

For my six month business anniversary, I went to the local florist and asked for six roses. I got home and realized I had received seven. I took this as a good omen for abundance, and also as an ode to my seven years of teaching.

This is where endings meet beginnings.