My Story – Aminta Demadura
Hey, I’m Aminta. I’m a writer and serial entrepreneur.
My passion in life is helping people create work they love, succeed in their businesses, and become financially independent.
I currently live in Seattle with my husband and our little boy. We have two naughty male cats who keep us busy- Leo, and Mr Fleabag.
I graduated high school in the summer of 2007, just as the Great Recession was hitting. Most of us were so young and naive we didn’t know what that meant or how serious the situation really was.
I enrolled in our local community college that fall and picked up a part time job as a pet groomer with a couple of friends. These next couple of years were mostly spent messing around with friends and not coming to any real conclusions about my life ahead of me.
I briefly attended Oregon State University in 2011 for a few short semesters, before dropping out to pursue my entrepreneurial spirit (read: I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew that wasn’t it.)
A couple of years later I was again working in pet grooming, which had its rewarding moments but was mostly very, very hard. I was tired. The days were long, and dealing with client’s unrealistic expectations was taking an emotional toll on me.
I thought about starting my own business constantly, but I needed a push.
One day I received a text from my boss- the company had shut down that day and we were all laid off. Hello, wake up call!
I knew this was my chance to start my own business; the thing I had been day dreaming about for years. I decided I would open up a dog walking and pet sitting business to occupy my time until I figured out what my life’s work would be. With unemployment to back me for a few short months, I hustled. And thankfully, within six months I had a mostly full schedule of dog walking and pet sitting clients.
For the first year, I loved my business. I walked all day every day, worked from my laptop in our cute neighborhood cafe, and I enjoyed life. I met my husband right around this time too. We started seeing each other almost every day, and then got engaged a couple of months later. Oh, I was in the sweet spot.
The second year was quite a bit harder. My schedule was packed to the brim. I worked days, nights, holidays, and weekends. I even worked overnights for people who were out of town. The dreaded burnout was back. I hired someone to help me that year, which took a load off of my everyday appointment schedule. But I also learned that hiring brought a whole new set of challenges, requirements, and paperwork.
By the end of my second year, I had realized my fatal mistake. I couldn’t leverage this business. I was at a stand still. And so, I closed it and moved on armed with all of my knowledge and experiences to help me in my next venture.
In the meantime my husband and I got married, sold our house, and went on a whirlwind trip around Europe for a month. It was a blast! As soon as we returned home, I could feel that entrepeneurial itch yet again.
My husband loved photography, and so we decided to open up a wedding photography business. Yep, just like that. I was the business brain, he was the camera guy. And it worked! Our first year was slow, and then we built up a better portfolio of weddings in our second year. We loved attending the weddings and thinking about new photo concepts for our brides.
It was a great business for a husband and wife team. At the end of our second year in business, my husband landed his dream job. Full stop. And so, we decided to stop accepting new weddings and moved to Seattle.
Once we got to Seattle, I found myself really starting to understand life with a baby. Our son was four months old and a sweet, sweet handful. It was a hard transition going from having Chris home with me everyday to help out, to him being gone for work most of the day.
As we settled in, I felt that little nudge in the back of my brain again. I found myself thinking about what I would tell the world if I got the chance. And despite being completely sleep deprived and a little burnt out, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had something I needed to do. So, again I jumped in.
This time, I wanted to start something bigger. Much bigger. I wanted to help people, and to use my business to make a difference in the world.
After much contemplation, I realized I wanted to help others with two of the things that had made a huge, positive impact on my life: entrepreneurship, and the journey to financial independence. I knew I had a message to share and an idea of how things could be if enough millennials took action. And so, I started this blog.
Now my goal is to help aspiring entrepreneurs leave their unfulfilling jobs and build profitable online businesses. It is my hope that these businesses will provide the foundation for financial independence in our generation, and that our pursuit of social change will find it’s way into our entrepreneurial missions.
If you have questions or would like to chat, please email me at aminta@amintademadura.com.
Cheers,
Aminta
