What I Learned From Closing My First Business (and How It Helped Me Scale My Second)

In 2009, I started a little side hustle called Vibrance Designs—a custom wedding invitation and stationery studio built on hand-drawn illustrations and pure creative joy.

It lit me up. Especially while I was working corporate. It was my outlet, my escape, my way of expressing something that the 9–5 never could. And for a while, it worked.

But here’s the truth: it had no strategy. Just passion, paper, and a dream. And as I learned the ropes of entrepreneurship, I realized that love alone doesn’t build a scalable brand.

Fast-forward to 2019, Roop Creative Agency, only four years old, was blooming. Vibrance? Not so much. I still loved it, but I wasn’t lit up by the projects anymore. So I pivoted, I moved the business to Etsy, turned the custom designs into Canva templates, and hoped it would run passively.

For a while, it did. But I stopped talking about it. I didn’t post. I didn’t promote. And slowly, it faded.

In 2025, a customer reached out with a question about one of the templates. I spent half a day helping them troubleshoot. That was the moment I knew:

This isn’t passive income. This is just clinging to something I’ve outgrown.

So I officially closed the doors on Vibrance Designs on May 31, 2025.

And honestly? It feels right.

That business taught me so much about creativity, about clients, about what it means to start. But it also showed me what I don’t want:

❌ A brand without strategy.

❌ A business that’s not built to scale.

❌ A version of myself that plays small just to keep something going.

Roop Creative Agency is my aligned path. It’s built with intention. It’s growing with structure. It’s designed to scale.

And it’s exactly why I created the Corporate Dropout Program, so other creatives can skip the burnout and build businesses that actually support the life they want.

Knowing when to pivot isn’t a failure. It’s a flex.

Here’s to aligned brands, bold decisions, and always choosing growth. 💫