8 years ago, when Billy and I first started dating, he told me about how he had wanted to be a graphic designer since he was in high school. He had recently graduated our local community college, and was currently taking a "break" from school, working full time cutting meat at Sam's Club and playing in a band. After seeing lots of his artwork and observing the way he thought in regards to creative problem solving, it was clear to me he had more than enough talent to make his dream of becoming a designer come true, and I began to encourage him to go back to school and get his degree.
I had complete faith in Billy, and often we would talk about how amazing it would be if we could open a design studio right here in our hometown. If we could offer something to small businesses on a level and experience that had never been offered to them before. However at this point, we were both very young and had a small child and were both about to become students again (which meant living off of student incomes!).
He enrolled at California State University, Chico and quickly became remembered by Gregg and Allan (two of Chico State's top design professors and both esteemed designers themselves) as being a talented, dedicated designer. He won a coveted design intern on campus at Union Graphics (where he was later hired) and co-lead a design team that won first place regionally for the NSAC competition for Coca Cola.
Upon graduating, our two young children were only 4 years and 6 months old. It was 2007, and the economy was taking a turn for the worst. Billy had kept his job at Sam's Club all through school and decided to move up where he was at instead of starting at entry level and having to commute somewhere outside of Yuba City, where there was already successful design firms.
It wasn't long before Billy was promoted to a team leader at Sam's Club, then a year or so went by and he was promoted again to Fresh manager. We had just welcomed our 3rd son and while financially we were the best off we had ever been, we never forgot our dream of opening a professional design studio.
Often when emptying pockets during laundry time, I would come across sketches Billy had illustrated on receipts and little papers from work. He also began drawing political cartoons in his "spare" time that were published in our local paper. We began praying about opening a design business. We didn't want to make a move unless we knew God was directing it.
For Billy's birthday that year, I bought him a drafting table to encourage him to keep nourishing his talents. We felt that God was preparing us for a new season in life. I joked with him that "in a year" we would have a studio to put the drafting table in. And late one night while sitting at that drafting table, trying to think of a name for the design business, I said, "What about 'Different By Design'?" I felt as if God had given me the name.
Because Billy wanted to work as partners I thought it was very fitting since he and I (being of the opposite sex) are literally different by design. We see things differently, we think differently... and these God-given differences essentially make us a great team.
On top of that, we felt we wanted our business to be different. We desired and prayed for our business to be a light. That the people who worked with us would see a difference not only in the quality of work, but also in building their relationships with us.
Billy literally sketched out our logo and worked it up on the computer within maybe 30 minutes. And our logo has yet to change. The negative space creating a cross in the center of our logo reminds us of the foundation on which we started our journey.
Billy continued working long hours at Sam's Club...he had now been employed there for over 10 years and was growing more and more tired of working at a job he did not love. We began taking limited design jobs on the side and after 7 months of building a great reputation with our clients, and with continued prayer, we began looking for a space to move the design business from a side, home business, to a full time design studio.
Shortly thereafter we found Erik of Square One Drafting And Design, signed a lease on an empty office space in his building, and before we knew it we were about to embark on living out our dream. We opened Different By Design full time at our studio on May 1st...in one year, just like I had told Billy. :)
Many times people will tell us that we are "lucky". I don't think they mean it in a rude way at all, however I can't help but think, "if they only knew!".
We are blessed. Extremely blessed. But we are not lucky. We worked our little behinds off to get to this point and we continue to work hard every.single.day. We love what we do...but loving what you do does not take away from the fact that it is still work.
Stars did not magically align for us. We didn't have a client base handed to us. We had never owned a business before. And the majority of Yuba City businesses were not founded with a great belief in design as a crucial business investment. But we believed enough to take a chance. We are responsible for not only ourselves, but for our 3 boys. It was beyond scary to walk away from a job that paid great. And because Billy was salary, those paychecks were always consistent. He always hit his bonuses and we finally had private health insurance.
In fact, the day Billy went into work with his 2 weeks' notice in hand, he was actually given a raise. Not many people I know would walk out after 10 years in their current career, especially after reaching the highest level of financial security so far in their life, when the rest of the world is deep in a recession.
But we aren't most people. And I think that has made all the difference. I think many, many people have awesomely great ideas. But to risk everything and step out on them takes another level of faith.
We knew that our talents could help businesses in this town and we believed in that enough to pursue it with everything we have. Life following your dreams is not easy. There are still struggles. There is still wondering where and when your next payment is coming from. But the rewards are worth every bit of that stress and hard work.
We took out no loans and we borrowed no money to start Different By Design. We worked long nights preparing the studio, more often than not with 3 kids in tow. And we couldn't have done it without thinking BIG, and of course we couldn't have done it without God, without our family and friends' support, and without our amazing clients.
When we signed the lease I remember thinking, "6 months? Whoa! What if we don't make it 6 months?" Ha! Well. Guess what. WE MADE IT! Now,here's to the next 6 months!
Remember what they say is true. If you can dream it, you can do it. Stop dreaming, and start doing. You can accomplish whatever you set your mind to.
Congratulations! You two are both so talented and inspiring.
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