Urban 20 Something Blog
It was March of 2020.
Abby had stepped into become my assistant for a few weeks while I found a new one. I told her I was in over my head and needed help so she made herself available as a supportive sister does.
Cut to a few weeks later, we were having a sister happy hour. And it was there, over spicy margs, that we made the decision to bring her on permanently and full time.
A few weeks later, she resigned from her job at an investment bank.
We took a bet on each other.
Together, my business went from $246,416 in lifetime revenue to over $3.5 million.
Six years later, she’s leaving to run her own six-figure personal training business that she built herself.
Working with a sister is a dream come true for many. Here are the six biggest lessons I learned from building a business that became a way for my sister and me to work together.
You're not just building for yourself
Back when I started my business on a small laptop, credit card in hand, and tear or two shed for the hope of what could be, I had no idea what I was actually creating.
I thought I was trying to build a life for myself. I had no idea I was building jobs for both of my sisters.
One of the most common things I hear from women in business is that working feels like taking. Taking time away from their kids, taking money away from the family budget, taking their presence out of the home. I understand that feeling. I’ve had it too.
But I want you to really sit with what you could be creating.
A job for your sister. A model of courage for your kids. Options your family has never had before. Time together that a 9-5 would never have allowed. I spent more time with Abby over these six years than we ever would have had if she’d stayed at the bank.
You cannot see all of that from where you’re standing right now. But it’s there. It’s waiting. Keep going.
Your success has a ripple effect.
You become who you choose to be
Hiring Abby full time, with benefits, when I was just at six figures was probably not the “best” business decision by any conventional measure. I wasn’t prepared. I couldn’t fully afford it.
But it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
It gave me six years of not just a team member, but a trusted thought partner. Someone who advocated for me in my moments of doubt. Someone who knew the business as well as I did and cared about it just as much.
And practically? It forced me to become the person who could pay a full-time salary plus benefits. I didn’t rise to that level and then hire her. I hired her and then rose to that level.
That’s how it works more often than people admit. You don’t wait until you’re ready. You make the decision, and the decision makes you ready.
Fit matters more than experience
Abby had zero experience in online business when I hired her. Zero.
But I knew who she was. I knew her work ethic, her character, her integrity. I trusted her. And that ended up mattering so much more than a resume ever could have.
Experience can be learned. Work ethic, judgment, and genuine investment in your mission? You can’t train that into someone. When you’re hiring, especially early, especially for the people closest to your business, look for the person you trust. Yes, it takes more time to train them, but it’s an investment in yourself.
Success looks like outgrowing each other
Abby isn’t leaving because something went wrong. She’s leaving because everything went right.
She took everything she absorbed over six years, the launches, the marketing, the mindset, the willingness to jump before you’re ready, and built something of her own.
That’s the goal, isn’t it? Not for the people you love to stay small inside your story, but for your story to give them permission to go write their own.
Go for it. You don’t know yet whose life you’ll change in the process.
The post What Six Years with My Sister Taught Me About Business appeared first on Leah Gervais.
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