This Aspect Hustle Highlight Q&A options Gia Mezz, 28, who is predicated in Los Angeles. Mezz taught herself graphic design and began style model LEAU as a facet hustle. Now a full-fledged enterprise, LEAU boasts practically $10 million in lifetime gross sales. Responses have been edited for size and readability.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of LEAU
What was your day job or major occupation whenever you began your side hustle?
Once I first moved to LA, I started working at a small fast fashion firm the place I shipped orders and counted stock.
When did you begin your facet hustle, and the place did you discover the inspiration for it?
After working in style for a few years, I grew more and more pissed off with how prevalent quick style was turning into because of the rise of social media.
I launched LEAU in June 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, with small, restricted batches of thoughtfully designed items.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of LEAU
What had been a number of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the bottom?
In my free time and off nights, I taught myself graphic design to start out drafting my dream wardrobe. However I could not afford the prices of sampling and bulk manufacturing on my wage alone, so I began utilizing my newfound design expertise as a freelancer for different corporations. I’d assist with designing advertising and marketing supplies or packaging belongings.
Each cent of my facet earnings went into funding my enterprise, protecting the whole lot from sampling and bulk manufacturing to advertising and marketing my very first launch.
What had been a number of the greatest challenges you confronted whereas constructing your side hustle, and the way did you navigate them?
Launching my enterprise in the midst of the pandemic was probably the most difficult experiences of my life. Factories had been shutting down, provide chains had been disrupted, and timelines that had been already tight grew to become practically unattainable to foretell. I needed to consistently pivot my technique to hold issues transferring — particularly at such an early stage of the enterprise.
To start with, I examined the whole lot, from completely different design ideas to marketing strategies and numerous methods of connecting with my viewers. Some concepts failed, however when I discovered one thing that labored, I doubled down and centered all my vitality on constructing off that momentum.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of LEAU
How lengthy did it take you to see constant month-to-month income? How a lot did the side hustle earn?
Our first month after launch, we generated $10,000 in income, which I instantly reinvested again into the model. From there, we skilled speedy development, rising by 50% or extra within the following months. After six months, I used to be in a position to give up my full-time job after incomes extra in a single month than my whole yearly wage.
Inside our first 12 months and a half in enterprise, we generated $2 million in income, and it nonetheless feels surreal once I look again on how it began.
Do you’re employed full-time on the model as of late? What does development and income seem like now?
Sure, I have been engaged on my model full-time, although “full-time” hardly begins to explain it. Working this enterprise has been a relentless dedication, however I would not commerce it for anything on the planet. It is a true labor of affection. Every bit, resolution and late night time has been pushed by my ardour and vision for what this model represents.
By the top of 2025, we’re on monitor to realize $10 million in lifetime gross sales. I personal 100% of the enterprise, which has been utterly self-funded with no money owed or traders. We have bootstrapped each step of the best way and intend to proceed doing so sooner or later.
What do you take pleasure in most about working this enterprise?
Turning my ardour into my profession has been a dream come true, however what’s been most fulfilling is encouraging extra considerate consumption round style.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of LEAU
Clothes can and must be an funding: items which are thoughtfully designed, well-made and timeless sufficient to be cherished for years to come back. My purpose is to redefine how individuals take into consideration their wardrobes, inspiring them to maneuver away from the wastefulness of quick style and embrace the thought of high quality over amount.
What’s your recommendation for others hoping to start out profitable facet hustles or full-time companies of their very own?
Take impressed motion. Your ideas can turn into issues, however provided that you act on them. Desires and concepts are just the start; what actually brings them to life is the trouble and vitality you set behind them. One in all my favourite quotes is, “Achieved is healthier than excellent.” You needn’t have all of it discovered. Launch with what you will have and embrace the method. Spend money on your self, belief your imaginative and prescient and be willing to adapt. My entire life modified in underneath a 12 months — and yours can, too, in case you take motion and imagine in your self.
This text is a part of our ongoing Younger Entrepreneur® sequence highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of being a younger enterprise proprietor.
