From Running a Hoodie Brand Solo to Building a Branding Agency

Hey everyone, I wanted to share my journey of starting a business and what I’ve learned along the way. A couple of years ago, I was working as a product manager at an IT company in India. I decided to try something on my own and started a clothing brand called *SnuggleMe*—we sold hoodies, kind of like Oodie. I did everything myself—building the website, creating content, marketing, packing orders, and shipping. I even made a 20-25% profit! But after two months, I had to shut it down because of supplier issues and, honestly, the exhaustion of managing everything alone. The hardest part for me wasn’t the operations—it was branding, marketing, and creating content that really connected with people. That’s when I realized this is a challenge a lot of small businesses face. So, a few months later, I quit my job and started **Bold Ink Solutions** (boldinksolutions(dot com)) to help startups and small businesses with their branding needs. The first month was tough. I reached out to a lot of people but didn’t get a single project. Then, things started to click. I got two clients: 1. **One was a startup launching an app.** They wanted help creating a strategy to reach a big milestone—25,000 downloads in the first 6 months. I worked closely with them on branding, market positioning, and user engagement strategies. 2. **The other was a founder looking for market research and help creating a pitch deck.** We helped them analyze their competitors, build a strong brand identity, and prepare for investor meetings. Both projects gave me the confidence to aim higher. I reached out to my old employer (a company with over 2,000 employees and $50M ARR), and after several meetings, they signed us on retainer to handle their branding. Now, just six months later, **Bold Ink Solutions** has a small team, and we’ve worked with clients of all sizes. To maintain the quality of our work, we’ve decided to take on no more than **5 clients on retainer** at a time. We do take one-off projects like logo design, pitch decks, website design or market research, though. Here’s what we offer at **Bold Ink Solutions**: * **Logo design** and **brand identity** creation. * **Social media management**: everything from designing posts and writing captions to increasing engagement and managing accounts. * **Content and copywriting** for websites, blogs, or marketing materials. * **Market research** and **competitor analysis** to help businesses position themselves better. * **Digital marketing**: strategy, ads, and campaigns. * **Website creation** tailored for startups and small businesses. * **Consulting**: sharing our experience and helping founders figure out what steps to take next. It hasn’t been easy, but the journey has been worth it. Starting a business isn’t just about hard work—it’s also about solving problems for people in a way that feels right to them. If you’ve started your own business, what was your biggest challenge? Would love to hear your experiences.