Paige Brunton : How to Design a Business you Truly Enjoy!

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From zero job prospects living in a country where she didn’t speak the same language to a multi-six figure business within just a few years, Paige Brunton’s story is fascinating!

In today’s interview, Paige is sharing in nuts and bolts detail how she created her business from idea formation to scalable products, how she grew from her first $500 paid client project to getting an inquiry a day (read again: an INQUIRY A DAY!!) and charging nearly $10k per project less than two years later. But hands down my favorite part of our conversation is hearing her talk about how she intentionally builds FUN and JOY into her business.

Early Days of Business

Fresh out of graduate school, Paige Brunton did something unexpected: hopped a one-way flight to Germany for love.

She had zero connections,

Zero job prospects,

And zero German skills.

By the time she got her feet on the ground in her new country with her boyfriend (spoiler alert: He’s now her husband!), she knew she was going to have to get creative to pay the bills.

“I’m a very ambitious person, and I had a lot of student debt to pay off. So, I knew I was going to need more than a job at a random pub in Germany to get where I wanted to go. I was going to have to figure out something for myself.”

How to Find Clients in a Foreign Country

Having previously dabbled in creating a travel blog for herself, Paige turned back to the skillset she developed in that season. Halfway around the world, she went all in on creating a web design business.

She posted her services on platforms like Etsy and Dribble and had been hired by an agency to design for their clients, as well. With some experience under her belt and a pretty decent portfolio for herself, it was time to take this business to the next level.

Building Momentum

Paige set to work on creating a blog for her business, posting twice a week about web design in an effort to boost her search ranking on Google. She kept this up for months… and months… and months. Until finally, the work started coming in.

“It was a slow build. It wasn’t a ‘get a client right away’ situation. It was more of a ‘get a client in six months’ situation. But eventually, I had enough content to rank in Google and people started to find me. That’s how I made it work.”

Too Much of  a Good Thing

The more inquiries that rolled in, the more work Paige had to do. Eventually, she found herself in a position to raise her prices and be more selective in the clients she was taking on. But still, she was struggling to meet the demand.

“It was more than I could handle by myself, but I knew I didn’t want to scale to become a big web agency. I know myself, so I knew that all the stuff that comes with growing your business that way would not be joy-giving to me. And finding joy in what I’m doing every day is really, really important to me.”

So, she made a decision to go a different route. While Paige had been teaching for years through her blog content, She built out her first online course teaching business owners how to create a website they loved. Something she was charging nearly 10k per project for, she was teaching others how to do for themselves. Online Education allowed her the opportunity to help more people design great websites at a more affordable price-point. Scaling in this way, gave her margin, and the ability to design a business she truly enjoys!

What Feels Fun?

Consistency has been key for Paige. She’s consistent with her marketing strategies, she’s consistent with her blog, she’s consistent with the quality of her work, and she’s consistent with the unique values she’s set for her business.

“I stuck to what gave me joy. I stuck to what I knew I was good at. I stuck to what was important to me. And part of that is fun. This job feels fun to me, and for me, that’s valuable. When I’m having fun, I’m motivated. And when I stop having fun, that’s an indicator that something needs to change.”

Take social media for example. Like me, Paige has a love/hate relationship with this portion of the Internet. (Okay, maybe it’s more hate than love!) So, while every other web designer in the world was using platforms like Instagram to grow, Paige decided to focus her energy elsewhere.

“I have to spend my time on the things that bring me joy. Social media isn’t one of those things. And after tracking it, the return wasn’t worth k the investment of energy it was taking out of me. So, I shifted to other strategies that felt more like fun for me.”

Designing A Business That Brings You Joy

Joy and fun—those values are crucial to Paige. They’re key to helping her find the harmony between her life and her business. And while they may not be the same values every creative entrepreneur has, they’re vital values for her.

“Am I enjoying what I’m doing every day? Is it giving me the time I want with my husband? Is it giving me room for fun? Those are the questions I ask myself. Those are the questions that help me define enough for me. I have to have fun along the way—that’s part of balance and business for me.”

More from This Episode:

The best part? The growth she saw in her business was incredible. Launching online courses in her third year of business, Paige saw $500K in course revenue alone. By 2021, that number hit $750K. Now, she’s successfully running a multi six-figure business.

“I work way less now and have more freedom in my day. I mean, I’m not necessarily drinking margaritas on the beach all day, but in some seasons, I could be. And that makes me happy! It took five years to get to this place, but I’m so glad I’m here.”

Make sure to press play to hear all of Paige’s incredible story or download the full transcript.

RESOURCES MENTIONED :

The Power of Time Off Ted Talk

Quiz from Paige for Course Creators

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Paige Brunton

Paige Brunton is an online educator helping aspiring female entrepreneurs learn how to build life-giving, profit-generating businesses through her empowering step-by-step programs for web designers and course creators!

Her own online business idea came to her after hopping on a one-way flight to Germany for love. With zero connections, zero German skills, and zero job prospects, she had to get creative.

What started out as just a way to pay the bills, quickly grew into a fully booked out business, paying off over $45K in student debt and making $10K+ months her new norm.

Fast forward just a few years to where she has now scaled her business to over $2M in online sales, designing an everyday life better than her wildest dreams, all without selling her soul on social media.

Paige believes we all deserve to have the skills necessary to be self-reliant, and that with a little bit of education, you can create extraordinary upgrades in your own life. Today she devotes her time to helping deserving female business owners everywhere to do just that!

CONNECT WITH PAIGE :

Website | YouTube | Take this Quiz!