How I Built a Business Out of Things I Did for Fun

Takeaways

• Nearly 80% of Minnesota small businesses survive their first two years, and understanding what makes or breaks that milestone can help you build a more resilient business from day one.
• Losing clients, taking income hits, and pivoting fast are not signs of failure. They're exactly what self-employment looks like in real life.
• Building a business around the things you actually love doing is not a pipe dream. It's a strategy.

Summary of the Episode

In this special milestone episode, Abbey Graves celebrates two full years of running Abbey Graves Productions as her primary source of income. Rather than a polished retrospective, Abbey gets real about what this journey has actually looked like: the client losses, the long days, the pivots, and the deeply unglamorous moments alongside the wins.

Abbey kicks things off with a stat worth sitting with: in Minnesota, roughly 78 to 80 percent of self-employed businesses survive their first two years, slightly beating the national average. Year one sees about 20 percent fail. Another 30 to 32 percent of those remaining don't make it to year three. Abbey has beaten those odds, and she thinks it's worth talking about why.

She walks through where the business started on June 1st, 2024 (seven podcast clients and a DJ gig) versus where it stands today: 13 active shows, a downtown St. Cloud studio, photo booth and video guest book rental services, music bingo, and over 800 podcast episodes produced. That growth didn't come easy. There was a week this past winter when Abbey lost two clients back-to-back, a $1,500 monthly hit she had to absorb and route around fast.

Abbey closes with a message that goes beyond her own story: if you are running any kind of small business, even part-time, stop being humble about it. You are doing something hard and something meaningful, and it deserves to be celebrated out loud.

Key Topics Covered

• Why the two-year mark is a significant survival milestone for self-employed business owners
• How Abbey Graves Productions has grown and diversified since June 2024
• The real financial and emotional cost of losing clients
• Building multiple income streams to stay afloat during slow periods
• What it looks like to produce 800+ podcast episodes in under three years
• Why building a business around your interests is both practical and sustainable
• Gratitude for family, clients, and the support system behind the scenes

https://abbeygravesproductions.com/