Being completely honest, the decision to start this business was a pretty spontaneous one. Having worked for several years in tech - first as a software developer and then as a product manager - Shopify has always been on my radar as one of the biggest tech companies in Canada. With offices located in Toronto, just down the street from where I learned to code, one of the first office tours we went on during my coding program was to the Shopify head office. Needless to say, I was impressed, and couldn’t help but think of the possibilities.

When the pandemic hit and put us in lockdown, I found myself with a bit more time on my hands (when everything except grocery stores are closed, what else is there to do?) During this time, I took the opportunity to help a couple of friends with developing their Shopify storefronts and next thing I knew, the referrals started flowing in. This is when something clicked for me: people need Shopify stores, and I have the skills to help. 

My experience in product management helped me to realize my entrepreneurial spirit, and I decided to put my skills and both a PM and developer to the ultimate test, by launching Early Riser Studio. 

And here we are! One whole year later, and I am so proud of how far we’ve come. It definitely hasn’t been easy,  but we’re incredibly grateful for all we’ve experienced in the past year. Every challenge has been an opportunity to learn and grow, and we have connected with so many inspiring entrepreneurs! 

To sum up our first year in business, we put together some wins, lessons, and goals to help prepare us for Year 2 of Early Riser. 

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THE WINS 

We dove into Early Riser not knowing at all what to expect. Stepping away from a full-time, salaried role, I was both nervous and prepared for the financial impact of transitioning to entrepreneurial life. As an organized self-starter, I was confident in my ability to stay focused and motivated, and make Early Riser a success. 

Here’s some quick numbers we hit in our first year of business: 

• 1 new Early Riser website designed and launched
• 9 happy clients served
• 6 new Shopify sites launched 
• 1000 Instagram followers gained
• 60% of previous salary

One of the best parts of the year was collaborating with extremely talented, thoughtful, and ambitious clients and creatives. The connections we have formed ignited our inspiration, and gave us the fuel to our fire when hit with the many challenges of starting up a new business. 

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THE LESSONS 

Although incredibly fun and rewarding, running your own business is unlike any role we have experienced, and it would be a big old lie if we said it was easy! As proud and grateful as we are for our accomplishments in the past year, there were also a ton of lessons and challenges that we didn’t anticipate

A few of our major challenges were:

• Finding a balance - running a business is very demanding, and even harder to separate yourself from. No one is as invested as you are, and trying to find that work / life balance was definitely not as easy as expected.
• The emotional toll - there is a lot on the line when you are solely responsible for the success of your business, and your livelihood. There’s also a lot of pressure when the success of your clients business rests primarily on a tool you are creating for them. Not to mention you are putting yourself and your work out into the world constantly as a means to grow your business. This can, at times, be a lonely, vulnerable, and emotionally taxing experience. 
• The comparison trap - to help curate and cultivate our brand, we undertook some research into comparable businesses. While we found so many incredible, successful entrepreneurs doing exactly what we aspired to do, the inspiration creeped into comparison. It was so easy to used these (more established) businesses as a benchmark against our own, and we lost sight of the fact that everyone is on their own path, and each journey is unique. 

Taking a step back to reflect, here are some of the hard-earned lessons from our first year: 

• Being efficient (working on lots of things), is not the same as being effective (working on the right things)
• It’s ok to not have everything figured out - things take time, as long as you stay curious and consistent 
• Self care is productive 
• Nothing kills creativity like stress
• Don’t get too caught up in what everyone else is doing - do what is right for you, when it's right for you

Keeping these lessons in mind, we are excited to head into our second year with a bit more balance, and a lot more compassion for ourselves.  

THE GOALS 

One of our favourite parts of owning a business is setting - and surpassing - ambitious goals! In our first year we hit a handful of our initial goals, which was so exciting as a new business. For Year 2, we are setting our sights even higher, and using these goals as motivation to grow, adjust, and adapt over the next 12 months ahead. 

Our goals for this year include: 

• Surpassing our annual revenue goal by November
• Starting a TikTok and YouTube channel
• Growing Early Riser social media following to 20,000 total 
• Helping 12 clients launch remarkable Shopify stores 
• Launching our own Shopify store!  

Motivated by the wins of 2021, we are so excited to continue our pace into this year - reaching even more ambitious entrepreneurs, having an impact on their business growth, and collaborating with inspiring creatives. With one year of business under our belt, we are looking forward to providing as much support, encouragement, and value to this community as has been shown to us already! 

We already have a few exciting projects on the go, and will be sharing more insightful (and honest!) content about our progress this year. We hope you will follow along with us! 

Want to be a part of our 2022 journey? Reach out via our client application or email hello@earlyriserstudio.com