Christy Wright’s Best Tips for Launching a YouEconomy Business

Article by Cecilia Meis

The farm was beautiful: A moderate house and 11-stall barn built on 40 acres outside of Nashville. It reminded Christy Wright of her dad, and of Bo, the wobbly legged foal she watched take its first steps nearly two decades prior. Bo was her first horse. He was wild and adventurous, kind of like her. She had wanted to live on a ranch since that day. She wanted this ranch.

But there was one not-so-small problem: The rent was about three times more than the struggling college grad could afford. Wright rented it anyway.

She wasn’t focused on the ways she might fail; she was focused on her dream. To solve her big-ranch, little-money problem, Wright looked to the resources she already possessed: knowledge of horses and horse care and 11 empty stalls.

Fields of Grace Farm would become Wright’s first business, a horse boarding service that transformed into a haven for miniature donkeys, some stray cats, and two fainting goats. She never went in with the intention of making a huge profit or even labeling herself an “entrepreneur.” She simply combined her skills, background, and available resources to solve a problem in her life.

“More often than not, business is not super sophisticated; it’s just scrappy,” Wright says. “It’s just making it work. It’s failing and picking yourself up and trying something new.”

Opening the farm was pretty risky, but Wright was tired of living in a house alongside an endless cycle of roommates moving in and out. She was tired of working 80 hours per week at a nonprofit earning minimum wage. She gave herself permission to chase a bigger dream, and then she made a plan to achieve it.

Now a 35-year-old business coach, Dave Ramsey-aligned media personality, best-selling author of Business Boutique, and the creator of the Business Boutique brand, Wright is on a mission to empower women everywhere, from boardrooms to nurseries, to embrace that little voice in their head brimming with ideas. Her often sold-out events aim to inspire women to exercise their natural gifts and supplement their income through the solo hustle.

A solo or side hustle doesn’t have to be big, nor does it have to change the world, Wright says. You don’t need to move to Silicon Valley or even out of your basement. You don’t need to scale up to $1 million in revenue. You can make just enough to fund an annual family vacation or your child’s club-sports travel costs. The beauty of the YouEconomy is that it’s eternally customizable; it can be bent, turned, twisted, and contorted until it fits the beautiful and often messy realities of your existing schedule. Your YouEconomy venture should fit within your life, not the other way around.

This new manifestation of the American Dream is available to any woman willing to work for it. Helping women ideate, plan, launch, and grow their YouEconomy pursuits has become Wright’s life’s work and the basis of Business Boutique.

“My favorite part of this journey is to have a front row seat to watch these people do this thing, build their businesses and chase their dreams,” Wright says.

But, she cautions, starting a business — no matter the size or complexity — isn’t easy, and it’s not for everyone. For those who want it, though, the timing has never been better. Here, Wright offers her best tips for launching a YouEconomy business:

Understand Your Calling

So, you like designing and building coffee tables? Cool. Is it your passion? Is it your life’s work? Is it how you will be remembered?

Maybe not, and that’s okay. The point is you enjoy it, and you might find a group of people who also enjoy handmade coffee tables but don’t have the talent, time, or patience to build their own. They might be willing to pay you for your product and maybe create long-term business relationships with you. Boom, you have your first customers, which means you are in the YouEconomy.

It can truly be that simple, Wright says.

“[The word ‘calling’] implies there was one thing that you were put on this earth to do, and I don’t agree with that,” she says. “Regardless of what you do or how you do it, I’m passionate about serving people, and there are a lot of different ways we can do that.”

Chasing your dreams can feel intimidating when you start to consider whether your hobby or skill is profitable enough and scalable enough to share with the world. Put those negative thoughts aside, Wright says.

Embrace Your Story

Wright’s entrepreneurial journey began long before her adventure on the farm. When she was 6 months old, her single mother was struggling to make ends meet as a sales representative for a large national company. Long hours meant no time with her daughter, so Wright’s mother rewrote the script of her life.

She approached a moderately successful candy store owner in downtown Nashville. The owner needed more business, and Wright’s mother needed an established platform to showcase her talents for creating cakes and desserts. She proposed that the owner display her homemade sweets in an empty storefront window. For a portion of the profits, Wright’s mother would have prime real estate and the candy store owner would see more foot-traffic business. It worked, and Wright’s mother eventually opened her own bakery.

Wright grew up in that bakery. She became friends with the employees, ran deliveries around downtown on a bicycle, and organized the icing bags by color. She wasn’t much for baking, but the hustle of a small business excited her even then. She spent most mornings before school napping on 50-pound bags of sugar and flour, often showing up to class with a powdery hue to her already white-blonde hair. She liked the cash register, the rhythm of the buttons and the satisfying whir as the drawer popped open.

Wright holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and is a certified business coach, but her first business and leadership lessons happened in that bakery.

“My mom didn’t teach me work ethic and character and passion and perseverance and kindness and customer service,” Wright says. “She lived it in front of me, and as a result, I live it as well.”

The bakery never grew exponentially, but Wright’s mother made a comfortable enough living. She loved baking, and it brought her joy to play such an integral part in celebrating the life milestones of her loyal customers.

In a time when virtually anyone with internet access can launch a startup, the market might seem too crowded for handcrafted jewelry or all-natural soy candles, but Wright says the same age-old marketing principles sill apply today. Customers, especially millennials, want to try new products, and the market is always ready to embrace new ideas.

What truly sells, however, is the person and the story behind a product.

“The personal brand is your business brand, and that’s a unique advantage,” Wright says. “It can be the reason people come to you.”

The things that might seem weird about you are the things that make you — and by extension, your product or service — unique. Embrace the story of who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. Your audience will feel that vulnerability and respond.

Do Your Research and Be Realistic

Wright is a no-fluff business coach. After managing large teams, growing departments, and launching new ventures, she doesn’t subscribe to sugar-coating her advice. She is a realist. If your passion has no demand in the current market, she’s going to tell you that.

If you love teaching piano lessons, great. But if your neighborhood has three other piano teachers who are struggling to fill time slots, you might have a problem. That doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fail, but it does mean you need to do your research. Why are those other teachers struggling to fill benches?

“For someone to make money in the world we live in today, they have to solve a problem,” Wright says.

Start With What You Have — and Quickly

Launching a successful solo gig doesn’t have to be complicated, Wright says. Start with the resources you have.

If you speak three languages fluently, consider teaching foreign language or launching a digital course your clients can take at their own pace. Your barrier to entry into the business world is only the cost of your internet connection and the time it takes to develop a course outline.

For many, the hardest part is getting started, Wright says. This is true for most scary or unpredictable things in life. She advises her clients to focus on getting just one paying customer as quickly as possible. Your first win can provide the confidence boost you need to stay motivated. After that first customer, you can adjust as needed.

“It’s start fast, fail fast,” Wright says. “You’ll find out if it doesn’t work, and you can redirect if you need to.”

Stake Your Ground

Your unique selling proposition is the one feature about your product or service that hasn’t been done by anyone else. A prime example, Wright says, is the Ember Mug, a ceramic mug that allows you to adjust the temperature of your drink through an app on your smartphone. For Wright, a mother of two young boys who reheats her coffee 50 times before lunch, this was a groundbreaking product.

But what if you don’t have a groundbreaking idea no one else has had yet? In that case, your unique selling proposition simply becomes the one quality of your product or service you choose to highlight.

“A lot of what makes Business Boutique unique is me,” Wright says. “There are a bazillion business coaches, but people come to me for the way I teach.”

When you’re considering what makes your solo venture marketable, don’t be intimidated by the thought of creating the first or even the best version of your product or service.

Dream Big, Start Small, and Work Tirelessly

Wright began working for Dave Ramsey, the best-selling money whisperer and radio personality, in 2008. She started as a product developer and then became a speaker. Now, with Ramsey’s mentorship, Wright is a business coach in her own entrepreneurial venture.

Wright had long dreamed of working to inspire women in business as her mom once did, but she also took calculated risks, exercised patience, and adopted a student mindset. As much as she believes we should feed the dreamers within ourselves, Wright cautions against putting you or your family’s financial security at risk.

“I’m always, always going to teach the safe route,” Wright says. “I never teach people to have the Jerry Maguire moment where you grab the goldfish and say, ‘Who is with me?'”

If your YouEconomy business is new, this is probably not the time to quit your nine-to-five, Wright says. Be patient and create time in the fringes of your schedule to build up your business to whatever size feels right for your situation. When you place all of your metaphorical eggs in the side gig basket, you run the risk of sacrificing your financial security and operating your business from a place of desperation.

“I guarantee you this,” Wright says. “If you are desperate for sales, desperate for money, desperate for personal income, your customers will feel it.”

Make Time, Not Excuses

How many times this week, this month, or this year have you told someone you’d love to start a business but there just aren’t enough hours in the day? The problem, Wright says, is we aren’t purposefully choosing how we spend our time.

“I am very aware that my time is finite. I can do anything, but I can’t do everything,” she says. “I’m okay saying no.”

If you often go to bed wondering where your day went or feeling guilty for not accomplishing your to-do list, it might be time for a schedule audit. For one week, write down every single thing you do and how long it takes. If you were sucked into an Instagram scroll session for 25 minutes, write that down. If you binged TV shows for three hours every night, don’t downplay it. At the end of the week, calculate how much time was spent doing time-sucking activities versus ones that promoted self-care and your goals.

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Wright’s mother taught her from an early age that letting your dreams take a backseat is not a viable option. Whether you’re swallowing a wish to create a YouEconomy gig or you’re already in the planning stages, identifying your why can provide the extra motivation you need to make your dreams and goals a priority. Your why doesn’t need to be grandiose; it can be as simple as wanting to make a little extra money.

“You stay-at-home mom, you person who has fears and doubts — you know that you can do it, too,” Wright says.

Versions of this article originally appeared on SUCCESS.com and in the Summer 2019 issue of SUCCESS magazine.

Cecilia Meis is a full-time writer and editor based in Dallas, Texas. Besides SUCCESS, her work has appeared in Time Out Dallas, Rewire, Healthline, and others. Outside of work, she plays beach volleyball, attempts home cooking, and is ardently working toward making her cat, Nola, Insta-famous.