We had the good fortune of connecting with Rachel Lopez-Bagan and we’ve shared our conversation below:
Hi Rachel, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
After working for multiple years in Architecture, the profession I went to school for, I had the realization that my passion was with graphic design. I had been working as a graphic design as a side hustle after work and on the weekends and one day realized that was what I wanted to pursue as a career as it was what I was really passionate about. I had gone into architecture because I knew I wanted to work in a creative field and architecture seemed like a really secure career but after working in the field I realized that my heart wasn’t in it. It took me a while to really get up the courage to even consider leaving that career to start my own business and become self employed. I had to deal with a lot of fear and uncertainty around the idea and worked to lay out a plan that felt safe and well though out, rather than just jumping right into such a huge life shift. There was a lot of fear about “what if I fail” “what if this is a mistake” or “what if I don’t make any money” etc. but I learned that those fears are totally normal and ok to acknowledge as long as I didn’t let them stop me from pursuing my dream. I had the understanding too that this was the time to do this, I’m young, I don’t have any kids, I don’t own a home, I can afford to take this risk now and have the time to build a strong foundation for the business before I had those added pressures to worry about. Once I made the decision to pursue quitting my job and starting the business I sat down and worked on a business plan. I worked out a monthly budget to determine what I needed to make sure I was bringing in to cover all of my costs and bills, started reaching out to potential clients to have some jobs lined up for when I gave my two weeks notice, and sat down and drew up a rough outline of what I wanted for the business and what it stood for, etc.
Watch the full episode HERE