The month of June marks 4 years with Rebekah Read Creative! Here’s my musings about this milestone:

LOOKING BACK AT THE 4 YEARS SPENT FAILING AND GROWING MY LITTLE BIZ.

Four years ago I timidly started posting on my social media account about a new business endeavor I was starting after feeling not valued in my corporate job. Within a month I left my full-time job, moved to a new state (with no place to live) and my husband started a new job as the head coach at the local university.

⁠We were 6 months into marriage and living in a studio apartment in some guy’s basement as we began figuring things out.⁠ Starting my own business was definitely not a dream I always had or something I ever thought I would do, but when God opens doors, you walk through them and figure it out along the way!

A look at the numbers

My first year of business I brought in $24,074 (before taxes and expenses). Needless to say, we were definitely living the minimalist lifestyle to allow me to pursue this new endeavor.

Year 2 (June 2019-May 2020) I brought in $48,870 (before taxes and expenses). How’d I do it? Honestly I hustled. I don’t subscribe to hustle culture and I am a firm believer in BALANCE, but when you are starting a business I’ll just be honest, you need to take some clients that aren’t your favorite, post on social media, and try new things if you want to create a sustainable business. (If you want to read my YEAR 2 recap GO HERE. I got real on that blog post about the good, the bad, and even the numbers.⁠)

Year 3 was the continuation of the pandemic that seemed to drag on FOREVER. I had just started my new service, Website In A Day, and was beginning to see the fruit from that. My first website in a day was priced at $450. After doing 4 of them, I increased it to $600. Then $750 and then $850. I stuck at that price point for a while and the influx of clients didn’t stop so I increased it to $1250. I was there for a long time as I felt that was the perfect balance of charging my worth, value for the client, experience that backed me, etc. I found out in January of this year that I was pregnant and began praying about how that would change my business. I created my second course (Squarespace With Confidence) in hopes that the passive income would help my family especially during maternity leave. I brought in (June 2020-May 2021) $62,964 BEFORE TAXES (please remember, this was not my take-home after all my expenses + taxes).

Year 4 was by far my favorite year yet! I started this business with the hope and dream that I could stay home with my kid(s) and bring in supplemental income. Eliza Grace entered the world and I was able to take October to January off of my business for maternity leave. I evaluated what aspect of my business was my favorite and fueled me most and Website In A Day was an obvious choice.

At my corporate job a normal work schedule never worked for me. I’m a fast paced worker and was forced to do 8-hour days. Website In A Day works with my injury and it allows me to completely pour into that one client and find babysitting for just that day. I decided that two per month would be a good goal and set my price point to allow for that while still providing for my family. Even with a 4 month maternity leave, I earned $45,242 between the months of June 2021-May 2022.

And I am so thankful to be here 4 years later!

Leaving to start my own business may have been one of the best decisions of my life. There are many times when I thought about quitting and getting a job at a local coffee shop (okay it still may be a dream of mine), but overall it has been SO FREAKING WORTH IT!

If you are new to business and feeling like you aren’t doing good enough, KEEP GOING. I’ve been where you are. And I am here to tell you the World needs your genius!

Keep going friend, you’ve got this!