When is the right time to move from side hustle to full-time? Meet Poster Designer Kim Risi

Kim Risi is a problem solver. When she needed to support herself through grad school with no time for a regular job, she turned her spare minutes into extra dollars by setting up an Etsy shop where she sold custom posters geared just for college students. 

Now that she's juggling a freelance career in film *and* running her successful shop, Kim is wondering how she can turn her side gig into a sustainable business.

Let's hear her story!

Name: Kim Risi

Business: Designer and Owner at Eskimo Chateau

Started: May 2012

How did you create your awesome job?

I work in LA as a freelance art director and run Eskimo Chateau on the side. When I started my business, I did so out of necessity! I was just about to begin graduate school and had signed forms that said I couldn’t work full-time alongside my studies. I needed to find a way to support myself, so I decided to sell some posters on Etsy.

I made my first poster as a graduation gift for a friend. I wanted to find something related to her major as a gift, but there was nothing within my price range that was unique enough. I’d always been interested in making art, so I thought I’d make her something personal by designing a poster. At the same time, I was also looking for ways to start a side business that wouldn’t be too much of a strain on my time or finances. Designing posters seemed like a good fit.

Amazingly, this business has turned out to be much more profitable than I ever expected! Working in the film industry involves coping with feast and famine — it’s normal to have a few months of work followed by a few months off.

Thankfully, my Etsy shop supplements my income when I’m not working and I use my downtime to create new designs. A lot of people sell posters on Etsy, but  I found a niche by selling my college degree posters and it’s paying off.

What has been the biggest surprise so far after starting your own business?

The biggest surprise has centered around one particular product. 

It all started when one of my friends asked me to design him a personal house sigil, Game of Thrones-style. I told him I’d do it on the condition that I could also put it up for sale in the shop to see if anyone else wanted one. 

It turned out, they did!

In fact, they've been insanely popular. Customers provide me with their name, a family motto and any characters they feel represent them. Most requests are simple, like a cat or a dog and a family name, but others are super weird. 

I had one request for a sloth in a space helmet standing in front of an American flag, and another for a Great Dane dunking a biscuit into a cup of tea. The biggest surprise of all was to find myself designing Gandalf in a thong, dancing around a stripper pole on a surfboard while being shot at with laser beams!

Some designs can take up to 20 hours, and last Christmas I got 75 custom orders. At first I didn’t think I had the manpower, but I enjoyed making the sigils so much that I stayed up to the wee hours to get them done. 

I was completely worn out, but I’m happy to put the work in: the bigger my bank of designs is, the easier my job will be in the future.

How do you price your products?

I love Etsy, but I don’t use it as a buyer that often because it can be quite expensive. I think most products on there are out of range for students, which is my target demographic, so I price my posters at $16 to suit their budget.

My custom Game of Thrones-style sigil pieces cost $50 because they require a lot of work, but sometimes I give discounts for buying in bulk. 

I once gave a guy a 30% discount on 30 sigils that he bought for his employees. It turned out that he was a crazy rich business guy from New York, so he probably didn’t need the discount, but they all took a similar theme so it meant less work for me.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Alongside working on film sets, I devote one to four hours a day to my store. I fit in one hour each morning to answer messages and check new orders. If I’m working on set, I’ll design custom orders through the night or devote my weekend to it. When I’m designing, I like to sit at my computer for hours with a film on in the background, trying to find inspiration.

Once the posters have been designed, I send the digital files to my sister. She takes them to the printer and packages them. I have three sisters who’ve all helped out while they’re in college. When one graduates, they pass it down to the next! I usually only need help a couple hours a day, three days a week, so it’s perfect for fitting in around college classes. During the Christmas period, those three hours turn into eight or ten.

When I get busy during the holidays, my Etsy shop takes priority. I fulfill every order, no matter what I have to sacrifice. If this means passing up a freelance job, then so be it. 

Fortunately I haven’t had that issue yet because even when I’m working on big TV shows, they don’t tend to work me more than five days a week. So far, I can always find the time.

If you could go back in time, what’s the one thing you would do differently when starting your business?

Once I had the first set of posters designed, I had to find a way to ship them. I chose cylindrical tubes to buy in bulk because they looked good and fitted the posters nicely. 

The problem was, they had caps on either end that exploded off whenever the post office threw a heavy item on top of them! Whenever this happened, it destroyed the poster inside and meant more work for me. 

I recently switched to a triangular, cone shaped shipping tube and haven’t had any issues since — I just wish I’d done more testing before buying in bulk.

What would you like to learn today from a network of other small business owners and self-employed professionals?

I’d like to know how to tell when it’s time to make the switch from part-time to full-time business owner. 

At what point should I throw myself in head first? I’d love for this to be my main source of income and work on film or TV sets in my spare time. I’d love to be able to say I work only on things I believe in.

Can *you* help Kim out?

When did you make the jump from part-time to full-time? What are the signs Kim should look out for?

Tell us your story below! :-)