' DAM BEL
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In Business Blissfully Inspired Starr: What is Blissfully Inspired? Blissfully Inspired specializes in design for special events and celebrations. I make custom items, including invitations, acrylic and wood signage, luxury gift boxes, cake toppers, menus and much more. For any special moment that you celebrate, Blissfully Inspired can design any element.
Starr: What is your background? Funny enough, my background is in Accounting and Management Information Systems. I started out my professional career in Public Accounting at Ernst & Young, LLP, and I’ve been in Corporate America ever since. My current role is focused on Corporate governance, fraud detection and financial investigations
Starr: Where did this gift for branding and graphic design come from? I’ve always loved paper and designing invitations from a very early age. I used to beg my mom to let me design all my birthday invitations. When I was in school and we had any visual group assignments, I was always volunteering to design the posters and PowerPoint presentations to make sure I had creative control. I designed my first website in college, while taking a web design class and won 1st place in our University competition. I was so in love with the process of creating that I started reading coding books and consuming all the information I could get from library books and video tutorials. I also love school and office supplies, and I often get lost on stationery aisles in Target and spend lots of time shopping in my favorite paper stores. I feel like it’s so special to send a pretty personalized note to send to someone and brighten their day. That artform is becoming lost, and I want to keep that tradition going through my gift of design!
Starr: Why did you decide to turn your passion into a business? After I had my first daughter, I didn’t want to return to my Corporate job at the time, but I knew I had to. I was becoming more confident in my design skills, and I would ask my entrepreneur friends if I could design sites and logos for them to build up my portfolio. When I had my first paying client, I started to consider that I could really do this as a business. From there, the side hustle journey began. I have always felt a burning desire inside to work for myself, and it’s so easy to become hasty and fed up with the process. But I have realized that slow and steady building is the key. No one (no matter what it seems, especially on social media) made it to success overnight.
Starr: Are you a full time business owner? Why or why not? I am currently part of the side hustle community. I am very risk averse, and I have set some very strict goals for myself to meet before I would be comfortable fully switching over to full time entrepreneurship. I recently have invested and budgeted for coaching that I know will take me to the next level that I wish to be in the near future. My goal has always been to work for myself, and there have been times when I have doubted my path because of the time it’s taken me to get “there”. However, I have also learned some extremely hard lessons with setting boundaries, establishing a firm workflow, dealing with burnout and also overdelivering, in hopes of providing the most stellar service. I’ve learned that all of those experiences were necessary and pivotal on my journey to help me become the businesswoman who will be able to sustain herself as a full-time entrepreneur.
Starr: As a mom of 4 and a wife, what has been your challenge or your push to become a business owner? Great question. My family is actually my driving force and motivation. I want to be able to spend as much time being present in their lives as possible, and I feel that entrepreneurship will help me get there, in having more control over my schedule and also maximizing my earning potential.
