About The Practical Founder

I kept my full-time job for eight years after I started my first business. That's the point.

I went to school, worked while I was in school, graduated and got a normal job. Then I decided I wanted to start a nonprofit animal rescue.

I didn't quit my job to do it. I started planning in 2013, bought a house in 2014 so I could foster dogs, and built the rescue on evenings and weekends around a 40-hour work week. I got married, had two kids, and kept going. When paying for childcare for two didn't make sense anymore, I didn't quit working. I found a work-from-home job and kept my 40 hours.

In 2018 I opened my first dog boarding business. By 2019 it was paying its own bills, and I still didn't quit. I kept saving and putting money back into the business. Then 2020 hit, and having steady income from my job mattered more than ever.

I didn't leave my full-time job until 2021, when I had three boarding businesses and a nonprofit and was opening a veterinary clinic. By then the businesses needed all of me, and they could support it. It was time.

Why "The Practical Founder"

Most business advice sells the same dream: have an idea, quit everything, go all in, make millions. That isn't how it works for most people, and it isn't how it worked for me.

The hard part of running a business usually isn't the work itself. It's the decisions:

• When is it safe to quit my job, or cut back?
• When should I grow, and when should I wait?
• How do I know if it's working, or if it's time to change course?
• How do I turn what I know into something clients trust?
• What's my plan for when things don't go well?

Getting the timing right on those decisions mattered more than anything else I did. That's what this shop is about: practical tools that help you make smart choices and be ready for the hard months, not just the good ones.

— The Practical Founder

Questions? Email hello@thepracticalfounder.shop