The Udham Spotlight Q&A of this side has features of 38 -year -old Katy Allen of Nashville, Tennessee. Alan’s founder and CEO Artificial agendaCouples “best paper plans with digital feature,” provide a customizable experience in devices. Reactions have been edited for length and clarity.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Artful Agenda. Katy Alan.
Want to read more such stories? agree money makersOur free newspaper is packed with the upper ideas and successful strategies of the creative side. Sign up here.
What was your day work or primary business when you started your side hustle?
I was in direct sales with USBORNE Books and more (now paperprapy) and led the sale team of over 2,000 advisors.
When did you start your side, and where did you get inspiration for it?
In 2017, I started working on the artful agenda. In 2016, I came with a thought while talking to a close friend in my daughter’s baby shower. I always loved the paper planner, but I needed some digital that was sync with the Google calendar. I did not find anything that was focusing on being aesthetically pleasing and fun to use.
Related: This former fire fighter’s ‘hidden’ side hustle turn helps to protect homes-and saw ‘explosive growth’ in more than $ 27 million revenue
What were some of the first steps you take to remove your side from the ground?
I hired a business coach. At that time, his coaching business was quite new, so I was able to get a very cheap rate. She was a manager of a co-functioning place here in Nashville and was well connected due to business owners. She was able to install me with meetings with me, who had experience with UI design, app development, etc.
The second thing that I did was was a super important. A private Facebook group was formed where I posted all my mockups and ideas. First of all, it was just friends whose opinion I trusted, but the group soon increased to include others who bought in the concept of artistic agenda. This group gave me incredible information about what kind of products I need to make. I posted pricing survey, asked for a response to mockups and more.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Artful Agenda
Are there any free or paid resources that have been particularly helpful for you in starting and running this business?
The thing that really allowed my business to take off, she was investing in payment online advertisement. I would say that my advertising agency, FoxTel growth, was a major part of my early and continuous success. My advice would be to find an agency that can actually offer strategic development counseling along with running your marketing.
If you can go back to your professional journey and change a process or approach, what would it be, and how do you want you to do it in a different way?
The first development company that I used was not a good fit. I wish, I would have more hands-on-hand to choose the company I went with, and I want me to find a company ready to build a certain price of my initial product-it is difficult to find, but it is present. This must have preserved me from a fugitive budget in which there is no working app for it! I ended switching development companies after bad experience with my first, but it was a difficult and expensive mistake.
When it comes to this specific business, you should be particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who come in this type of work should be prepared, but not the possibility?
It does not matter how terrible your app or software is – you are most likely that you are not going to successfully develop your business without an important marketing budget. It is easy to be a little innocent at the first time and assume that if you make what you make is great, it will just spread systematically. I think a lot of apps struggle because all their budget goes to develop the app, but then they do not have enough for the user base to be profitable.
Related: He started a creative side’s uproar while working in ‘dead-end’ jobs-then increased it from $ 10,000 to more than $ 50,000 per month: ‘(It) became magnetic’
Can you miss a specific example when something went very wrong? How did you fix it?
The first development company that I blew through my budget and only half the app developed. What dues I had to get my code, and I found someone here in Nashville who was able to help the new developers interview. He was a UI designer who was relatively well connected. He was able to introduce me to his current development company and helped me interact on a certain price deal to take and prepare for me to take the code made by me.
How long did you take to see continuous monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
I immediately started earning monthly revenue continuously as I had formed a large group of beta testers in my private Facebook group. Once I launched, they were excited to pay. I made $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 per month, but I was not profitable because I had an overhead cost for things like technical support. It was not until I used to run advertisement for six months that I started becoming profitable.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Artful Agenda
What does development and revenue now look like?
Our annual gross revenue is now right around $ 3.5 million, and our average monthly gross is around $ 275,000. We are deployed in the second half of 2025 to increase 10% year after year by 10%. In our earlier years, development was very fast – increase more than 100% year -on -year.
How long do you spend in working on your business? What does a specific day or week work look for you?
The artful agenda is now my full -time task. I no longer sells books because it took it far away. I am usually available during typical commercial hours, but I am a person who loves the side quest, so I am not always working on the artificial agenda throughout the day. I have three young children and have a 100 year old house that we are re -preparing, so the amount I work every day is very different. If we have a major initiative or internal project, I can be a hyper-centered and can work all day and evening. But I also have days when I am just checking, replying to some messages and focusing on other things in my life.
Related: After starting a side hustle with $ 800, the trader who quit the job – then he and his brother extended the business to $ 20 million
What do you enjoy the most in running this business?
The flexibility has tolerated me and the fact that it is not repetitive or worldly. The fact is that I get to tap in my strength, strategy, problem-solution and creativity, it completes it more.
What is your best piece of specific, actionable business advice?
Ahtar is starting like a hunt. Think of a person you can choose for advice or their brain. They will probably be able to indicate you in one direction, and where they indicate that you have the next stop on your scientist hunting. It held a lot of meetings and was being indicated to the next person who can help me find out how to actually take action and do so. Be prepared to ask a lot of questions and go in the direction in which you indicate. Any person you talk to, is another clue on your journey.
This article is part of our ongoing female Entrepreneur® series, exposing stories, challenges and victory to run business as a woman.
The Udham Spotlight Q&A of this side has features of 38 -year -old Katy Allen of Nashville, Tennessee. Alan’s founder and CEO Artificial agendaCouples “best paper plans with digital feature,” provide a customizable experience in devices. Reactions have been edited for length and clarity.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Artful Agenda. Katy Alan.
The rest of this article is closed.
Join the entrepreneur, To reach today.
