We Started a Business with No Money, a Newborn & No Plan

Welcome to Bite Hard - The podcast for the girls who feel everything deeply. 

Episode 5: We Started a Business with No Money, a Newborn & No Plan

Everyone loves talking about successful businesses.

Very few people talk about what it looks like at the beginning.

The sleepless nights.
 The self-doubt.
 The bank account that makes your stomach drop.
 The clients who say no.
 The moments where you wonder if you've made the biggest mistake of your life.

In this episode, I'm taking you right back to where yours.haus began.

Just one month after our son Paxton was born, Jack lost his job. We had rent to pay, two little kids, Christmas bills piling up, and no idea what came next.

Instead of searching for another "safe" option, we decided to bet on ourselves.

That's how yours.haus was born.

I take you behind the scenes of everything - how we came up with the name, built our website ourselves, landed our first clients, priced our services, handled rejection, balanced running a business with a newborn and toddler, and what it's really like building something from scratch when failure doesn't feel like an option.

This isn't a "how to get rich" episode.

It's an honest conversation about taking risks, backing yourself when nobody else can do it for you, and building something before you feel ready.

If you've ever dreamed about starting a business, changing careers, chasing an idea, or simply taking a leap you've been too scared to take…

I hope this episode gives you the little push you've been waiting for.

In this episode we talk about:

•  Starting a business after redundancy 
•  Building yours.haus from scratch 
•  Starting with little money 
•  Finding your first clients 
•  Pricing your services 
•  Dealing with rejection 
•  Running a business with a newborn and toddler 
•  Balancing parenthood and entrepreneurship 
•  Why perfect timing doesn't exist 
•  The reality of building something from nothing 

Sometimes the scariest season of your life ends up becoming the one you're most proud of.

Follow Bite Hard:

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YouTube: @_courtneystubbs

Because life can bite hard sometimes... but you don't have to go through it alone.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Shot of tequila before I say this. Do you want this? Let me start this episode with a question. What would you do if you had two kids, rent to pay, Christmas bills still sitting there, and suddenly your main income disappeared? Because that was our situation. It was November, one month after Paxton was born, when Jack was made redundant from his job. And when you've just had a baby, that's probably one of the scariest things that can happen. You're already adjusting to life with a newborn, you're exhausted, completely sleep deprived, mental capacity already minus zero. Your expenses have gone up, and suddenly there's no guaranteed income coming in. Welcome to another episode of Bite Hard. We're talking old things for business. Fast forward to the second week of January. Jack had been looking for another full-time job, sending applications, doing the whole thing. And we were just sitting there one night talking about what to do next. And somehow that conversation turned into something completely different. Instead of asking, what job should you apply for? We started asking, what if we started something ourselves? Now, this wasn't a random idea. Jack and I had both been separately talking about starting a marketing and social media company for years. We both had experience running our own social media platforms. We had worked with brands, created content, worked with clients. So we already understood the industry. And Jack's last job had set him up really well for it. He worked in-house at Campos, creating their social media, learning the ad side of marketing, understanding what big brands need from content and strategy. So we had knowledge, and what we didn't have was a safety net. But maybe that was the push we needed. Because if we had waited for the perfect moment to start a business, we probably never would have. And people always say, just start. So we did. The first thing we needed was a name, obviously. And naming something is weirdly one of the hardest parts. Really wanted the name to capture the idea that someone's business is their baby. Jack and I had been parents, you know, we felt like this business was our baby, another baby. So we thought other people would feel that about their business. Their business is the thing they're building, their life around, their brand, their creation. But when we work with them, we are helping bring their vision to life. So I loved the idea of the word yours, like this is yours. We're just helping you build it. But obviously, just the name yours was taken, which isn't surprising. So we started playing around with variations and eventually landed on yours house. House spelled the German way. Honestly, partly because it looked cooler and partly because the username was available. Very strategic decision making, but the meaning still worked perfectly. Your business is like your house, your foundation, the things you're building brick by brick, so yours house just felt right. Then we checked if the website domain was available, and somehow it was, which felt like a green light from the universe. Next step was building the website. And this is where something funny happened. Years ago, I had an idea for a business that completely failed. Hands up for that. A clothing rental company. Which sounds like a good idea at the time. And you know, there was a couple of people doing it. I had beautiful designer pieces that I thought would go off. Um, however, it failed. I didn't even get one client. And I am not afraid to admit that because you have to fail to get to where you are in life and everything happens as it's supposed to. If you've been following me for a long time, you might remember it. But when I had that idea, Jack started learning how to build a website for it. The business never actually happened because I didn't get any clients, but the skill stayed. And now years later, that random skill is the reason we could build yours house and their website ourselves. By ourselves, I mean Jack is smart and build the website. We're all about credit and giving credit when credit is due over here, which is such a good reminder that anything you learn is never wasted, maybe minus school because most of the things you learn at school is completely useless. But we digress. Watching Jack build the site was honestly so hot and impressive, but it was also extremely stressful. Because building a website yourself means you run into all the problems constantly. There were moments where Jack would just say, like, let's just find someone to do it, and would check our bank accounts and go, we got. Because I want to be honest here, the reason we started this business the way we did is because we didn't have money to start a business that required upfront investment. We were broke. Yes, we have money from social media. Yes, Jack always had a full-time income, but two months without stable income, while still paying rent, food, bills, kids' expenses, diapers, formula, Christmas, things started looking pretty scary. We were in one of those moments where it's basically single swim. And to be honest, we're still kind of in that situation, but I'll get to that later. Which is fucking terrifying, but also positive. I incredibly motivating for me at least, because when you don't have another option, you work really, really hard to make something succeed. Once the website was done, we added our portfolio. Luckily, we already had so many examples of work that we'd done with brands through our personal Instagram accounts. So we had real content, real campaigns, real results that we are showcasing on our website, which helped make the company feel legitimate from day one. This came the part that every new business often is terrified of. The next part, finding clients. And the best advice we followed was kind of simple. Start with the connections you already have. One of our first clients came from Jack's friend who owns a charity. So we went back and said, because Jack was already working with them, let's take this to the next level. Let's do higher quality videos, more strategic plan, content, and consistent posting. Like, let's just do more. And because it was significantly more work, we also tripled the rate. Which felt like a really big step. You know, we were like, okay, they believe in us, we believe in us, we can fucking do this. And our next two clients came from a business that owns two clothing brands. I'd worked with them previously as their social media manager, but this was during when I was pregnant. And when I was pregnant with Paxton, I was incredibly sick during the pregnancy and had to resign. So when we launched Yours House, I reached out again, not knowing what they'd say. You know, I didn't know how they felt me leaving, and they said yes. Which honestly meant a lot because when someone chooses to work with you again, it it shows trust. I also didn't know how the owner ended up feeling about me. I left because I was pregnant, extremely sick, vomiting every single day. But luckily, the owner was a mum and totally understood. But I didn't find this out into reaching out. So it was really scary to get to that point, but we did. And that fear and not knowing how it was going to go was scary. I didn't want to feel like dumb for reaching out, which would have been the feeling if she'd said no, but I believed in us, the work I'd previously done with them, and I wanted to reconnect. Thank God I did because they said yes. Our fourth client really shows that believing yourself and talking about your new business to anyone and everyone can lead to new clients. Annoying, maybe, but fucking works. Our next client, we met at Penelope's daycare Christmas party, which just shows that opportunities can come from the most random places. Like, don't get me wrong, this land was worked on over a couple of months. So I don't think you know this was organized till March, but it was Jack was just chasing and chasing and chasing because he's just so amazing at that. But things started moving. Following up is so important and it's scary but crucial because clients started coming in. But reality check. Although this all might be coming across like positive and easy, we have hit a lot of roadblocks. Drawing onto the connections we already have in the industry or talking to strangers about our new business. When you have a conversation, you walk away thinking, oh yep, that's locked in. And then nothing, or worse, a no, because this has happened so many times in the last couple of months. We have had a lot of no's too. Over a handful of connections we thought were on, and definite yeses turned out to be a big fat no. After lots of follow-through, showcasing our ideas visually and vocally. So work was getting put in to even talk to these potential clients. Two passionate, tired, exhausted parents fighting for their business. And we still are, not only because we believe in our business or want success, but you know, we are sitting in a place where we have no other choice than for this business to be successful. So being told no, oh my gosh, it's a big kick to the guts. I feel like no one talks about the ins and outs of building a new business. They just talk about it after it's successful without that fear it could fail because they made it. But I truly want to bring you all on the journey and into our whole lives, our new baby that is yours house. And that comes with highs, that comes with lows, that comes with a play-by-play where we're at now, where we're gonna be in the future. Because when we started a business, I just wish someone had told me what we were gonna expect in a certain way, and that this success wouldn't be extreme and the income wouldn't be astronomical and all of that. Because it's really fucking hard, and we're really tired and we're really in the depths of our kids and balancing kids and balancing a new business. But it's crazy because like maybe it was good not knowing because like having two tiny little kids, two under two, and both of them are just going through this massive sleep regression. Penelope, in particular, is just waking up every night. Paxton just never got better at sleeping. Anyways, I'm getting caught up in my mum head. Let's go back to business mum and get back to what I was talking about. Jack and I have both really struggled in this process, the process of rejection. And when you're building something from scratch, that no doesn't feel like just business. It feels really personal. Like really personal because this is our baby. You don't want to work with our baby. Why don't you like our baby? You know what I mean? Because you're not selling a service, you're selling something you've built, you're something you believe in, something you need to work. And I remember thinking, we believe in this so much. Why don't they see it? And that's a really hard feeling to sit in, especially when you don't have a backup plan. Every no felt personal. I guess we will unpack this more with the growth of the business because we are in the thick of it. And although I'd like to say it's all up from here, but with all success is always a roller coaster of heart. Back to creating the business. I don't know if the way I'm talking about yours house is confusing. I fear I may be all over the place. We hit the next big question. How much do we charge? And pricing is such a weird thing when you start a business because you want to charge what you think you're worth, what you feel you're worth. But you've got to take into consideration your own experience. The biggest thing is, you know, how much time each client will require from us, prepping, filming, editing, admin, etc. Writing personal marketing plans to make sure they suit our particular client takes a lot of time. Even putting a mood board together in the very early stages of the business for potential clients, that takes a lot of time. And I don't know if we're just doing it maybe not so time efficient in regards to I can only talk about myself because my partner is perfect. But like when I was making these mood boards for potential clients that I thought were absolute yeses, I curate the most perfect mood board you will ever see. I use Pinterest, I freaking love Pinterest. I feel like this is very niche. Not many people are on Pinterest anymore, especially not older clients. But you know, I have a screenshot, I have a link, and I curate this to perfection because I am a perfectionist and like colour ideas, I want you to look at it and feel it. You also need to stay competitive in the market, right? You also need a look at your location and what value your business looks like within that community. And that has been so weird to experience whilst we live in Wollongong. Because the clients we already have, four out of four. No, wait, one, two, three, four. Yeah, four out of four, they're all in Sydney. And even our next two potential clients we're still talking to at the moment. Fingers crossed for us, hopefully, next time I talk about my business, we have an update. So we created two initial packages, but we quickly realized every client needs something slightly different. Add-ons, takeaways, more budget, less budget, more content, less content strategy, ads, editing, influencer marketing. So we started to customize the packages. And because as a new business, flexibility matters. Now we're in a completely different challenge. We are January, February, March, April, May, June. I think we're in June. We are almost six months in, and we already have this huge workload of these four clients. And I don't know, that could either sound like a really big amount of clients for only being secure with those clients in four months of starting a business, but it also could be like that's not that many. So, whatever way you want to view it, view it as you may. But with these four clients, the workload is insane. We are working all day in between balancing kids all night when the kids go to bed. And then we've obviously just gone through this sleep regression of these Penelope has just been waking up like two to three times a night, just wanting Jack, and this is you know our time to work. Paxton doesn't always want to get put down, especially at the start of the night because he wants to cuddle me. I often have them at that time because Penelope only wants Jack. So that time stretches to later in the night. So we we plan dinner, bath, bed, both kids down, and then we can, you know, have a couple of hours of working, but then balancing kids, the time we wanted to finish work stretches out because what needs to be done needs to be done, right? We are both very hard workers and we only strive to make our clients happy. And that takes time. But it's also slightly overwhelming, especially for Jack. He's the videographer, he's the photographer, so he's editing photos, he's editing videos, he, you know, is filming it all professionally on cameras with lighting. So the best way to film that is on log, which basically to give you an idea, is like how you're looking at me right now. It would have been completely dull while we filmed, and then Jack would color grade this current set to make it look better and eye-catching and kind of what you would see if you were sitting here right now with me. So, true to life, I think, would be the best way to explain it. So we've started having conversations about hiring help already. That conversation to make it clear, yes, we have clients, but can we afford to hire someone yet? Absolutely not. But it is exciting to have these conversations and beginning to think of the next steps. And when we get more clients, we are both on the same page with what we need to do to progress our business. If I'm being fucking honest, life is really expensive, our rent is really expensive, our kids are really expensive. Diapers, formula, living food. I don't know about you, but in Australia, it's an astronomical. We are genuinely so happy with all our clients, and genuinely we are happy with the amount of money we're getting paid in way of we feel valued, and you know, we're getting paid for our time and stuff like that. But with our bills and our life and our family of four, we are like literally just getting by. And I'm not afraid to admit that to you guys because I feel like I wish someone would tell me that when they started a business, like yes, when you got clients, or yes, when you started getting sales or whatever, like that's amazing, but it's not going to always be profitable quickly. And I'm so grateful that we're paying our bills, but we are in the thick of it and we're still really stressed. Do I want more? Do I want to be more successful? Do I want more clients? Absolutely. Do I want to hire more people so we can do more and achieve more? Absolutely. But I know how much we've got on our plate, and I'm proud of how far we've got so far. But I'm just being real. This is all really stressful. Having two kids as well, balancing that, balancing your time, whatever we're going through right now with the kids not sleeping. Like, we're fucking tired. But hiring staff also means payroll, superannuations, tax, all the things I have not thought about when we thought about starting a business. And this is where Jack's whole business head is really helpful. I think I chose a good guy to do it with, do life with. All the things you don't think about until suddenly you're running a business. So we're learning all of them as we go. Anyone have tips or advice for anything I've spoken about, please hit us up. I feel like we're drowning, getting by. It's maybe floating, but help is always appreciated. So hit me up, please. At the same time of building this business as a marketing company, right? We also have to make sure we are posting on our own social medias for yours house. Because we can't just talk about marketing, right? We've we've got to show it. I think that's how we would bring in more potential clients. And we've got to show us, and we've got to show our work. And our account needs to demonstrate the quality of content that we can create. And I feel like this aligns with any business, any new business, any current business. You've got to keep showing your company, your brand, but also educate people about marketing for us. That's what we are trying to do. So we're not just walking the walk, we're talking the talk. So we're trying to show that we do know what we're talking about. Most importantly, showing clients we know what we're fucking talking about. Balancing that while also producing content for our clients has been so tricky, which is so ironic because we are trying to help clients be better on social media and show up more on social media. Because our clients obviously come first, but our own platform is also incredibly important for growth. To be completely honest, our socials look great so far, but aren't getting the love and work put in that it needs. How do you improve a business? You analyze and improve, right? Give yourself grace because not everything will be perfect. Something I really want to improve and get ahead of this month. And hopefully by the time you guys see this episode, it's already a solution. We need to post more and show everything our business has to offer. And then there's one more huge factor in all of this. Wearing Jack's suit, by the way. Thanks, Jack. Jack and I, like I said earlier, if you know us, we are full time parents. We are working from home with a toddler and a seven month old, which honestly sounds a little bit insane. It is insane. I am literally going fucking insane. And when I say it out loud, I'm like, holy f Penelope is home for Days a week, including the weekends, packs to naps every two hours at the moment, and during the day is basically only sleeping when we hold him. Picture this running a marketing company, a social media marketing company, answering emails, editing videos, planning shoots while holding a baby because he does not want to be put down. He is a Velcro baby. And also then entertaining a toddler who just wants to play all the time. The multitasking skills we have developed are honestly next level. Parents, if you were doing the same, or if you just said a parent in general, we're doing our best, right? Definitely nowhere close to perfect, but we are trying our very hardest. And I want to say this to any parent listening: do not let anyone tell you that having kids means you can't build something. Yes, it's harder. Yes, it's messy, but it's possible. Sometimes you just might have to get creative. And the reality is, deadlines still exist. Work still needs to happen. There's also something I haven't really spoken about much. The pressure. Sometimes I feel this intense responsibility to keep everything together. Our schedule, our work, our finances, our mental health, our kids. Like I want everyone to be happy, right? As well as Jack and I's relationship. And sometimes it feels like if I drop the ball, everything drops. There are moments where I feel overwhelmed, short of breath. Thinking, how am I meant to do all of this? And I know Jack also feels this immense pressure as well, being a man and wanting to financially provide for our family. Feel guilty for not spending enough time with the kids. I feel then guilty when I'm spending time with the kids that I'm not doing enough work or, you know, stressed about how much work I have to do that night to make up for then hanging out with my children, who are so young and need parents and need their mum. At the same time, there's something incredibly beautiful about being needed this much and having a purpose, business, kids, also building something that could change our future. Because yours house is still so new, but it's already growing. And seeing that happen is one of the most exciting feelings. So if you're listening to this and you're a parent or someone dreaming about starting something, here's what I want you to know. You don't need perfect timing, you don't need a huge amount of money always. You know, if you're in a position like we are, where you don't have that upfront money payment, find a business that's not going to need that. You can just have you or you and your partner or you and a friend or whatever, and you can just go, all right, let's fucking put hands on deck and do this. You don't need everything figured out. Most businesses start in a messy, uncertain, maybe desperate moments. You start with what you have, your skills, your knowledge, your connections. You take one step, then another, and slowly it starts becoming something real. We're only one, two, January, February, March, April, May, June. We're only five to six months into this journey, but the biggest lesson so far is simple. Starting is the hardest part. Once you start, things begin to move. Even if you're doing it tired, extremely tired with kids that don't want to fucking sleep, even if you're doing it with a baby in your arms and a toddler pulling out your leg, even if you're doing it broke, you're still doing it. And that's something to be so proud of. And honestly, that's where we're at right now. In the messy middle of it all. The part where nothing feels fully figured out. Yeah, the part where we're learning every single day, the part where some days feel exciting and then other days feel like heavy than we're drowning. But I think that's something people don't talk about enough when it comes to building something is the process of building it. Everyone sees the finished versions, the successful businesses, the polished outcome, the people that sit down in a podcast and say, This is how I got to where I am now, and less of this is how I did it come come in and come see, you know? And that's what we're gonna do if we hopefully succeed or if we fail. That is what Bite Hard is all about. Being real. We're in right now, we're extremely scared. We're extremely reliant on this being successful. And I think years from now, we'll probably look back at this season and realize it was one of the most defining ones of our lives. The moments where we could have played it safe, but instead we decided to risk it all with two tiny little children who need us so much. And to build something, to take the risk to believe in ourselves to just start. Because at the end of the day, that's really what this episode is about. Not just starting a business, but trusting that you're capable of building something, even when timing isn't perfect. If you're listening to this and you've been sitting on that idea or a dream or something you've always wanted to try, maybe this is the little sign to start. Not perfectly, not when everything feels safe, but now. Because the truth is you don't need to have everything figured out. You just need to begin. And we're right there with you, figuring it out as we go. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Bite Hard. I hope this gave you an insight into our brand new baby, our brand new business, and the journey we've taken so far. I hope this didn't come off too positive. I feel like even when I'm talking, I always try and be positive as I speak, but like we're we're in the thick of it. We are extremely tired for what's our new normal? How do we build a business when we're completely sleep deprived? Doing our freaking best, and that's all I can ask for from Jack and from myself. When I mentioned earlier about our relationship, it's not perfect. We are going in waves of everything we've got on our plate, which is a lot. And naturally, any relationship goes in chapters and seasons of someone needing to put in more and help the other one up. And so I don't want to make it seem like everything is perfect because it's not, and we're getting challenged in every single direction of our life, including our relationship. And I'll talk more about our relationship in other episodes, of course. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Bite Hard and for being here. Please let me know if you like this episode about building a business. I'm not qualified at all in the way of baby talking about this business. I have another episode planned to talk about, you know, where we're at, and I will talk to you in the next one. There's another episode. I will see you soon. I hope you enjoyed. Find hard.