Djemilah Birnie is the founder and co-owner of Becoming The Big Me. She has had many hardships in her life but has found the strength and motivation to overcome those obstacles.
Here is her Under 25 story!
“Being a young business owner has been a long, hard, yet rewarding journey! My start to entrepreneurship was a little different than most. It was one of those do or die type of situations. When I started my very first business online, I was just 17 years old. I had just found out I was pregnant with my now 6-year-old daughter, to top things off I was addicted to heroin, in an abusive relationship, and homeless. I didn’t even have $100 to my name.
That first year in business, I faced MANY challenges, but each one of them necessary for my growth and development as a human, business owner, and mother. I left to go off on my own, got state assistance, got sober, and decided I was going to stay home with my daughter for the first year of her life. The only way I could imagine how to make that possible was to start an online business. So with $50, a cell phone, and a goodwill sewing machine, I was off to the races.
By the time my daughter was born, I had a thriving children’s clothing business online. The problem was, I grew too quickly. I had no clue how to scale or hire help. I was struggling to keep up with my ever-growing and curious daughter while keeping up the quality of my customers had become accustomed. By the time her 2nd birthday rolled around, I had found myself closing my doors from being overwhelmed.
It was at this point I joined the corporate workforce. I started in sales at a sizeable wireless retail store within six months. I was promoted to my own store. I went on to turn around the profits by over 300% in less than four months and become one of the highest producing stores in our region. Here I found myself again- working insane hours and not even getting to raise my child.
What I had learned the past several years is that I knew how to grow businesses, and that was a valuable asset to business owners. This was when I started to dabble in freelance digital marketing and social media management. Over this past year, I have gone all-in on scaling my agency and helping others step into their potential with my life coaching.
This journey has been everything but easy, but I couldn’t be more happy to be where I am now. My daughter is now six, and she recently just launched her e-com store to fund her passion for singing. The best part is, it was all her idea! I know that even though I have struggled, I have shown her what it truly means to take action on what you want, and that truly is the most rewarding thing in the world.
If you are looking to start your first business- go all in. It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect or you don’t have it all figured out. The truth is no one does. All that matters is that you start. Yes, you will fail, and you will fail again, but as long as you are failing forward and learning, you will make it out in the end.”
What an incredible and inspirational story! Djemilah chose to fight through all her hardships to create a better life not only for herself but for her daughter as well. People believe that the younger you are the less stress you have and that simply is not true. You do not have less stress, you have different stresses that older people look back on and say that it was not stressful. Figure out what you want out of life and fight like hell until you get it and remember to not give up!
The Under 25 section of 1PRCNT is meant to showcase to everyone that there are plenty of young entrepreneurs out in the business world making strides to better themselves and the world around them.
If you are an entrepreneur under the age of 25 and have a story you would like to share then please feel free to email us and we would love to interview you!
