My 17 Year Timeline as a Business Owner and Entrepreneur

I decided today to write a blog post reflecting back on my long journey into entrepreneurship. I’m going to share all of the good, bad, and the ugly. I wish more people were transparent about entrepreneurship and how things are not an overnight success (for the most part). It takes a lot of time, dedication, passion, and hard work.

I’ve learned a lot of major lessons throughout the years, but I’ve never truly reflected back on my entire journey like this, so I’m excited to dig into it all with you! I tried to make dates as accurate as possible, but my memory isn’t what it once was 😂

Pre-2007

To be transparent: before I started any sort of business I had some transferable skills. As early as 2000, I was learning HTML and SEO to create websites. I was totally self-taught, but I loved it. I didn’t realize how much this ‘weird hobby’ would help me years later.

Year 1: 2007 – Launching My Handmade Jewelry Business

I launched my first business on Etsy in May of 2007. It took about 2 months to get my first sale. I had no intentions of making this a full-time business (I didn’t even know that was possible in 2007). I just knew that I loved making jewelry, and if I was lucky enough to have someone pay me for my hobby, then yay!

I completely undercharged, though, and probably made $0 this year.

I learned everything I could about taking decent photos, shipping, dealing with customers, and selling on Etsy. I will admit that I had a bit of an edge because I had a background in graphic design, website design, and SEO.

While I launched my Etsy shop, I was also working full-time as a Quality Control Inspector at an auto factory. I was 21, that was my first job, and it was where I met my husband.

Year 2: 2008 – It’s a Business

In year two, I decided to start thinking about my handmade jewelry business as more of a business. My goal was to get it to become a decent side hustle income. I still had no goals of making it my full-time gig. I just didn’t think that was realistic, but I was currently working at a call center and dreaded going to work every day.

My little side business was my passion and the thing that I loved to do.

I believe I made about $10k-ish this year from jewelry sales.

Year 3: 2009 – Laid off

I was laid off and found another call center job (ugh, talking on the phone is not my strong suit).

My jewelry business kept trucking along and was a decent side income, about $30k in sales for the year. Not huge, but that’s about triple the year before.

Year 4: 2010 – My own website

While I loved selling on Etsy, I decided this year not to keep all of my eggs in one basket. I launched my own website on Shopify. I started thinking about ways to get more visible, increase my product line, and definitely increase my prices.

My sales were around $50k this year, the majority of which still came from Etsy.

Year 5: 2011 – I went back to college

In 2011, I decided I wanted to go back to school. I enrolled in a college online program for Website Design with the goal of going freelance. While I finished and aced the program courses and got my college certificate, this didn’t end up going anywhere.

I was too busy working a day job that I despised and making jewelry, to really get things off the ground with website design. But that’s okay, those skills have definitely helped me throughout my entrepreneur journey!

At some point during this year I walked out of my day job after being yelled at and spoken down to by a customer on the phone. I couldn’t take the stress anymore. I just packed up my desk, left during a break, and didn’t come back. I was in tears because this wasn’t the life that I wanted. I wanted to do something that I loved (or at least didn’t make me miserable every day).

Year 6: 2012 – The Worst Year Ever

2012 is a little bit of a blur. My mom passed away suddenly in January 2012, and my dad passed away suddenly in November 2012. You can read more on this year here.

In the middle of that, I was in major wedding planning mode and started another day job. This was at a call center, too, but I was email support (much better for this introvert!)

Year 7: 2013 – Marriage

Coming off the back of the worst year ever, 2013 was a much better year. I got married!

It was also in 2013 that I realized life was too short and I needed to be happy. I got a promotion at work, and I actually loved my day job now. I still had goals and plans to leave eventually to do my own thing full-time, but at least I wasn’t miserable every day.

Year 8: 2014 – My First 6-Figure Year

It took me 8 years with my product-based business to make it to 6-figures in sales 😱

No overnight success here!

My jewelry designs were worn on some popular television shows, like, The Young & the Restless and Days of Our Lives.

I also did a ton of in-person events this year before I realized they weren’t for me. Some weekends I would have 2 different craft shows booked. There was no need for me to do that! It was stressful, lots of work, and I should have just focused on what was working: online sales.

Year 9: 2015 – Amazon Handmade

Amazon Handmade launched in October 2015 and the best decision I ever made was jumping in before it went live. During the 2015 holiday season, I made more on Amazon Handmade than I had made the entire year on Etsy. I couldn’t keep up with the sales and make jewelry fast enough!

Especially since I was also still working full-time.

My jewelry was also featured on several TV shows this year: Cedar Cove, Chicago PD.

Year 10: 2016 – A Shift to Services + My First Course

This was a big year!

I put in my notice and left my day job.

I started offering SEO services to other handmade business owners. I started offering coaching and I launched my first course about Amazon Handmade. I was featured several times by Amazon, and even had a camera crew come to my home to film a promo video.

My jewelry was also featured on the TV shows: Quantico, The Vampire Diaries

Year 11: 2017 – Scaling and Branding

My jewelry was also featured on the tv shows: The Fosters, The Originals, Baby Daddy, Stitchers, Fuller House. It was also featured in In Touch Weekly (right next to Taylor Swift)!

Year 12: 2018 – The Year of Pushing Myself

I launched Introvert Coach officially. I was trying to do both: offering virtual assistant services and trying to keep my multi-6-figure jewelry business on track.

I took this course and this one.

I hired some help (big mistake!) for social media marketing, admin work, etc. Unfortunately, that help added more to my plate and didn’t make things better. I was working 60-80 hours per week.

Year 13: 2019 – Major Burnout

Because I was taking on so much client work and really loved working with other people, I was overdoing it. I was trying to keep up with jewelry sales. I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists from wire wrapping jewelry non-stop for 12-hour days some days.

This resulted in an 8-month-long period of burnout (and lots of tears).

My dream had been reached. I had a successful business and things were thriving. But behind the scenes, I was stressed out AF.

I had to make the hard decision to let something go: either offering services or the jewelry business.

I decided to put my jewelry business on hold. I had worked so hard I had decent amount of inventory in Amazon warehouses, so I just let it continue to sell (and sell out) while I went all-in on services and digital products only.

Year 14: 2020 – Introvertpreneur was born!

In 2020, I sold my jewelry business after that 8-month-long period of burn out.

I launched the Introvertpreneur Club as well as a Canva templates membership. I focused primarily on digital products and self-study courses. I hosted the first Introvertpreneur Virtual Summit this year (primarily thanks to this awesome program!)

Year 15: 2021 – Year of Investing Too Much

My biggest regret in 2021 was investing too much. I was making more money and felt that I had to invest more. I wanted to learn everything, so I signed up for way too many courses, programs, and masterminds.

Some were good investments, some were bad.

But, even the good ones, I overcommitted myself, so I couldn’t get as much out of them as I could have.

I also invested in building a huge team this year before I realized it wasn’t the way I wanted my business to look. I felt that I had to avoid burnout again by doing this, but that wasn’t true. Thankfully, I very quickly realized that systems and automation were much better ways to scale and save time for me.

I still have a small team, but at one point this year, I had over 20 contractors.

This was also the year The Introvertpreneur Podcast launched after wanting to create one for years!

Year 16: 2022 – Year of the Group Programs

I had a lot of clarity this year. I feel like it’s the year I really stepped into my own voice, and I left social media in June 2022.

Instead, I went all-in on my email list. My focus this year was also heavily on collaborations for list growth. I participated in dozens of bundles, podcast guesting, and was a speaker at a lot of virtual summits and events.

2022 was also the first year I decided to create and launch group programs. I already had the membership, created lots of courses, and had 1:1 clients, so I felt like it was the next step to help more people with more support.

I was right!

Every group program I ran felt amazing for me, and the students in the programs loved it.

Year 17: 2023 – Year of Alignment and Simplifying

In 2023, I missed offering done for you services, so my marketing director services were born! I loved coaching and strategizing, but sometimes I just wanted to jump in and help my clients implement, too.

What’s going to happen next? I’ll keep you posted 😉

I hope this 17-year review and recap was helpful. I love my business and my audience. And I’m a big believer that there are no failures or mistakes, everything is a learning lesson.