On the floor, it could appear that Juliana Pache landed her dream job. The New York native was the pinnacle of social media at Rolling Stone – the famed music journal. However in actuality, the gig was something however. Regardless of working in a job that blended her two passions – music and social media – Juliana discovered herself weighed down by an unhealthy work tradition and demanding schedule.
As she handled the stress of her nine-to-five she developed a aspect hustle – making clay jewellery early within the mornings. Whereas she initially began the enterprise as a pastime, a technique to ease into her hectic days, she quickly realized she had one thing particular. After 11 months at Rolling Stone, she give up to launch Pache Studio.
made extra in my first 12 months as a full time small enterprise proprietor than I did final 12 months as a salaried worker and I simply need to say thanks to everybody who burdened me out past my restrict at my 9-5 as a result of with out you I wouldn’t have taken the leap! pleased new 12 months ☺️
— juliana (@thecityofjules) December 29, 2022
By betting on herself, not solely has the entrepreneur achieved inside peace, however she’s additionally making extra money than ever earlier than. Matter of truth, in her first 12 months of working her small enterprise full-time, Juliana introduced in extra money than at Rolling Stone the place her wage was $90,000. Right here’s precisely how she did it.
A inventive outlet stems from an unfulfilling 9-5
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Juliana had a tradition shock when her household moved to the suburbs of Florida throughout her center college years. The minute she turned 18, she knew she wanted a change of surroundings and landed at Temple College within the coronary heart of Philadelphia the place she majored in media research and manufacturing.
A singer herself, Juliana initially envisioned a profession in music however after a couple of courses, she realized the technical side of manufacturing music wasn’t for her. This led her to shift her focus to journalism and media. Throughout school, she landed a advertising and marketing internship at Purple Bull the place she labored with the notorious “wings” workforce.
The expertise was formative for her and he or she labored on the vitality drink firm after school. However needing one other change, Juliana left Purple Bull and moved again to New York the place she did advertising and marketing for a coconut water startup. Sadly, it was no comparability to her earlier job.
“Purple Bull is an outlier. It is an exception to the rule. Proper?” she mentioned. “It was actually cool. They do stuff with arts, music, sports activities, and tradition. It was simply utterly completely different.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take Juliana lengthy to search out one other place the place she would thrive. She grew to become the social media editor on the Fader, a publication that covers music and the tradition round it. The job blended all of her pursuits together with music, journalism, and social media. In her three years there, Juliana labored her means as much as develop into the social media director. She then moved to do socials for VICE, a bigger and well-respected publication, and was then employed by Rolling Stone a 12 months later.
However whereas her profession trajectory regarded superb from the skin, this was a troublesome time for the media skilled.
“Rolling Stone broke me,” she mentioned.
Juliana discovered herself in a poisonous work surroundings the place she was given an unreasonable quantity of labor and no help. All of it grew to become an excessive amount of for her.
“I used to be having frequent panic assaults. And never solely that, however the hierarchy at Rolling Stone is so previous, white, male dominant. And so they have a sure means — culturally — of speaking that they do not acknowledge is demoralizing and condescending,” she mentioned. “So the mixture of all of these issues, I simply felt like I used to be alone out to sea. No help.”
Realizing that she was being taken benefit of, she give up solely to have the corporate provide her two additional weeks of PTO and the promise of bringing in further help. However after a month and no hiring progress, Juliana left for good.
Leaving a steady job was dangerous, after all. However Juliana had a plan. Within the morning and evenings when she had a respite from her day job, she was engaged on a aspect undertaking she began on the finish of 2020 and determined it was time to completely put money into it.
“I had began my [jewelry] enterprise, Pache Studio,” she mentioned. “It was a aspect hustle, a inventive outlet. It was a technique to make some additional revenue. By the point I give up Rolling Stone, I felt like, ‘oh, I’ve sufficient of a following right here that I may actually make one thing of this.’”
A ardour undertaking turns into a steady enterprise
Technically, Pache Studio began as a pastime. Having stretchy and delicate earlobes, Juliana discovered herself getting most of her earrings from Etsy as a result of they have been light-weight.
“I used to be shopping for clay earrings lots on Etsy,” she mentioned. “And I used to be like, ‘I ponder how they’re making this?’’”
After doing a Google search, she bought the entire mandatory supplies and determined to strive her hand at producing jewellery. Two weeks later, her Etsy retailer went dwell.
A social media skilled herself, Juliana was in a position to get the phrase out about her small enterprise comparatively simply and grew Pache Studio’s Instagram organically. Whereas she was nonetheless at Rolling Stone, the amount of orders for Pache Studio was fairly low, which allowed the entrepreneur to slowly work on the enterprise.
An early riser, Juliana naturally goes to mattress from 9:30 – 5:30 am. This meant she had a number of hours each morning she may dedicate to jewellery making earlier than her day job. On the time, she wasn’t essentially occupied with increasing this undertaking right into a full-time enterprise. Slightly, she discovered the craft was turning into a type of remedy.
“Producing the jewellery was sort of my inventive outlet,” she mentioned. “It was a really enjoyable, sort of repetitive pastime. In order that labored out in my favor.”
The celebrities simply occurred to align and when she discovered herself at her breaking level at Rolling Stone, Etsy approached her and needed to function her enterprise. This helped Juliana take the leap to go away her salaried job in October 2021.
“I knew I used to be gonna have a flood of revenue coming,” Juliana mentioned. “Etsy featured me of their weblog. They featured me within the e-newsletter on Small Enterprise Saturday. So I used to be good.”
After leaving Rolling Stone, Juliana devoted all of her time to Pache Studio and it grew to become her foremost supply of revenue in 2022. This was additionally the 12 months she prioritized in-person gross sales and started tabling at native markets all through New York Metropolis. She discovered nice success with this strategy.
“I sort of shifted a few of my priorities to do the in-person markets,” Juliana mentioned. “As a result of it is faster. I can simply deliver the earrings, put them in a bag, and make the sale,” she mentioned.
Juliana remembers that her first in-person sale was at a small popup in Bushwick. Regardless of feeling a bit unprepared – she forgot to deliver a tablecloth for her show – the day was successful.
“I simply keep in mind that entire time at that market, feeling like, ‘oh my god. I am unable to imagine I offered this many earrings,’” she mentioned.
The behind the scenes of operating a small jewellery enterprise
Whereas it’s by no means straightforward to let go of a steady paycheck, Juliana’s discovered better monetary freedom by way of her small enterprise.
The entrepreneur made extra in 2022 than she did in 2021 when she was employed full-time at Rolling Stone. Whereas she did do a little bit of freelancing for VICE, nearly all of this revenue got here straight from Pache Studio. Right here’s a take a look at her firm bills and what it prices to function a small jewellery enterprise in New York.
Initially, Juliana paid precisely $1,250 to open up Pache Studio. This included the $500 price to begin an LLC (restricted legal responsibility firm) in New York Metropolis together with a further $500 to get the LLC revealed within the newspaper. The remaining $250 was the price of the primary provides and supplies Juliana purchased to make the earrings.
The entrepreneur spends about $250 on admin instruments each month, together with her Shopify web site and Quickbooks. The supplies for her jewellery might be anyplace from $200 – $400 a month. Her month-to-month vendor charges additionally vary from $400 – $600 relying on what number of markets she attends. On the excessive finish, her whole bills per thirty days might be round $1250. Nonetheless, Juliana has been worthwhile each month she’s operated Pache Studio.
Her schedule is damaged down into spending about three hours a day on admin work: fulfilling orders, responding to clients’ requests, going to the submit workplace, updating stock, monitoring bills, and tweaking the web site. The rest of the day – anyplace from two to 4 hours – is devoted to the manufacturing of the jewellery.
Relying on the approach and meeting required, Juliana spends about two to 5 hours on one batch of earrings which quantities to 12 to fifteen pairs.
Presently, Juliana is working as a workforce of 1. She does work with a part-time worker who helps her on the markets and typically makes use of Taskrabbit for assistance on transport out orders, together with hiring somebody to pierce holes within the earring playing cards.
With Pache Studio rising, she feels prefer it’s time to herald a workforce member to help her. As a small enterprise proprietor, it may be a bit intimidating from a monetary perspective to take this step, however Juliana acknowledges that she wants the assistance now.
“I’ve determined now I would like to rent somebody as a result of it’s simply not sustainable,” she mentioned. “Mentally, I am buzzing round. And I am checking issues off my to-do listing, however each time I examine one thing off, it appears like 5 extra issues are placed on my listing.”
Funds apart, Pache Studio has allowed Juliana to faucet extra into her creativity, one thing that’s been along with her since her childhood.
“I’ve at all times been a really inventive particular person,” she mentioned. “In elementary college, I used to be within the artwork membership. I simply bear in mind utilizing supplies in a enjoyable, inventive means.”
Now, years later, she’s persevering with to experiment with supplies – this time as a profession. Every earring is hand-crafted by Juliana herself utilizing polymer clay and hypoallergenic supplies. First, she shapes and molds the clay and can typically add blended components like {hardware} and resin. As soon as she has completed manipulating it, she cuts the earrings up into completely different shapes and can then bake them within the oven.
Designing the earrings comes naturally to Juliana, as she’s at all times had a penchant for figuring out hanging shade combos and patterns in the whole lot from buildings to materials.
“I used to be trying on the preview of The Actual Housewives of Potomac reunion and the colours and the set design — that they had these lush purples, blues, and little hints of pink – and I used to be like, oh my god, that might be such a terrific shade scheme for some earrings,” she mentioned.
Whereas Juliana has made a profession out of managing social media for giant information organizations, she applies the identical rules for posting with regards to selling her personal model: giving again to the viewers. She’s discovered that filming Instagram Reels that showcase the inventive course of will get probably the most engagement.
“I’ve tried to consider, “what’s the most beneficiant factor to submit?” As a result of that’s oftentimes probably the most participating factor to submit. Like, what am I providing to the viewers?” she mentioned. “I am providing one thing that’s actually attention-grabbing to take a look at. So I am not simply promoting earrings, I am additionally providing them one thing that piques their curiosity.”
Reaching peace of thoughts by way of Pache Studio
Regardless of the entire duties of Pache Studio falling squarely on Juliana’s shoulders, she’s within the healthiest place she’s ever been each mentally and financially. It might look like a paradox, however the freedom and independence she’s gained from her small enterprise has allowed her to thrive.
“Truthfully, it is means much less annoying to place that quantity of inertia right into a enterprise, figuring out that it is managed by you, you set the principles, you set the tempo, you make the schedule,” she mentioned. “It is a completely different sort of stress as a result of it isn’t the sort of stress the place you’re feeling like, ‘what’s the level of this?’”
In truth, Juliana was in a position to open her second small enterprise, Black Crossword, due to the psychological readability she’s discovered. A fan of phrase video games, Juliana created the crossword as a technique to spotlight and honor the range of Black tradition. In a New York Occasions interview, she mentioned her aim with the undertaking was for, “individuals of the Black diaspora to study one another in a means that’s enjoyable and rewarding.”
Operating two small companies is troublesome, certain, but it surely’s additionally been fulfilling and purposeful for Juliana. The entrepreneur particularly appreciates that she’s answerable for her schedule and says turning into her personal boss has has drastically improved her life.
“The standard of life is so significantly better when you do not have to work with jerks,” she mentioned. “If I need to break up my day and go to a restaurant and browse a guide, or go to a park, I can try this. I simply really feel extra in management.”
She acknowledges there might be a whole lot of condescension from others with regards to small enterprise, and that not everyone seems to be supportive of this life-style. Besides, she encourages different aspiring entrepreneurs to take the leap and belief themselves as she did.
“Your folks may not know what you are doing. They may suppose you are loopy. They may suppose that you just’re twiddling your thumbs together with your little arts and crafts,” she mentioned. “However you simply should overlook about all of that and focus.”
