How I Became a Two Time Business Owner

Updated December 2022

I was about twelve when I started working at my dad’s restaurant and catering business. It was his lifelong dream to own his own place, and only as an adult can I look back and fully understand everything he had to sacrifice to achieve his dream.

He catered weddings and events in a wealthy lake town in Wisconsin, and with five kids at home, he knew he always had at least one or two workers for his events.

Because he was always working, I became his sidekick and was there every day in the summer, prepping food at 5 am, packing his van for events, and setting up with the other vendors. I was just a kid, but I loved having what I felt was such an important job. I saw the bride before she walked down the aisle, served the food to the wedding party, and was a part of such an emotional experience for the families.

Needless to say, growing up in the wedding and hospitality industry with two entrepreneurs for parents (my mom had her own web design company), it was no surprise when I launched my first company at 26 years old. Of course, it was an event planning company with my primary focus being on weddings, and I LOVED it. I loved my clients, worked with mostly awesome vendors, and loved the business side of things as well.

If you’re a first gen entrepreneur, learn from my mistakes and check out my guide to starting your own business here.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve taken the principles I learned from my parents’ businesses, my event planning business, and my corporate career in operations and project management and launched Dakota Design Company (named in part after my late dad’s catering business) so I can provide behind the scenes strategy and support to other small businesses.

I’ve always been doing this work in one way or another, and I am so excited to share actionable information that you can use to make your business better so you can book more ideal clients, increase your rates, have more work-life balance, and finally get those big projects done in your business.

My clients are successful, passionate, and BUSY so I promise to get right to the point with client stories and tips on how to create and implement processes and systems to make your business run more efficiently and how to create an elevated client experience that your clients will love.