Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mariah Green, Founder of JoiLuvv Creative Agency, located in Camarillo, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
JoiLuvv Creative Agency is a boutique creative agency that helps businesses in hospitality and wellness through creative services, including photography, design, social media, and consultation, to make their brand shine brighter than ever!
Tell us about yourself
I've always been a photographer, and it was my first creative passion. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Photography at The Art Institute of Colorado in 2014, where I focused on food and architecture photography and started working in real estate photography. After moving and exploring different jobs after college, I also received my Master of Arts in Creativity Studies in 2018.
I'm a huge creativity nerd, and my biggest passion is learning new creative skills and also teaching them. Throughout my life, I worked many jobs, including print production, art education, and retail management, where I learned a large variety of creative skills, including design, social media marketing, and website design.
I knew I wanted to have a business where I could offer multiple creative services as a one-stop shop. In 2020, I decided I was building enough clients on my own that I could leave my 9-to-5 and start JoiLuvv Creative Agency, where I could focus on those creative skills that I loved so much. What motivates me is learning from and growing with my clients. Seeing their brand transform into something because we collaborated to make it happen.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I worked so many years hustling different jobs to get to this point of being 100% freelance and doing what I love every day in Southern California, which is an accomplishment in itself to me.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Oddly enough, it's my own mind. My mind runs 100 miles a minute with ideas, and when you pair that with my enthusiasm, it can get really draining. As an entrepreneur, sometimes you need to train yourself to relax and focus.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- You have to start somewhere. You're never going to be fully ready, so take the baby steps you need to, and it will grow.
- Be okay with rejection and failure. Not everyone is going to like your work, and sometimes you're going to mess up, and that's totally okay! You learn so much from your failures.
- Be bold and tell the world who you are and what you do. The first thing I remember going to art school is instructors saying, "Your clients aren't going to come to you; you're going to go to them," and there is a lot of truth in that. Email that dream client, message them on Instagram, and if they say no, they say no, and you move on. Or better yet, they say, "Let's do it!"
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.joiluvv.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariahgreencreative
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariahgreencreative/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariahgreencreative/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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