Reflections on 6 Months of Owning a Small Business
Katherine Barbera (right) and David Bernabo (left), owners of Bright Archives, an independent archival production house. October 2023. Photography by Sands Photo.
Celebrating 6 Months of Bright Archives
It’s April 2024, and we’re celebrating—this month marks the 6-month anniversary of Bright Archives!
We started this company in October 2023 with a simple idea—to blend archival science with creative media to make building and maintaining archives more accessible for more people. It’s a fairly novel business model, and although we have hit a few bumps in the road, starting Bright Archives has been pretty smooth overall.
For months leading up to our launch, I did a ton of research on the details of owning a small business. I would search for answers to questions like, “What can I expect from the first six months of owning a business? First year? Five years?”, and most of the books, articles, and how-to videos I found talked about business plans, operating agreements, financial projections, and growth models. I found little information on the actual lived experience—the intellectual and emotional journey—of owning a small business.
So, I thought I would briefly share some of our experiences.
Challenging but Fun
So far, owning a small business has been challenging but fun. In the first few months, we spent hours developing templates and processes for basic business activities such as logging expenses, onboarding clients, and drafting contracts. Every day, we were learning something new and encountering a new challenge. More recently, we’ve been settling into a routine and finding balance as we grow and take on more contracts and projects. We’re feeling pressure to be efficient because time spent on one task is time taken away from another. This is a common feeling among small business owners, and for us, it has meant finding a balance between charging enough so that we can do high-quality work while still honoring our mission to keep our services affordable for small to medium-sized projects and teams.
If We Can Do It, You Can Do It
It’s normal to have an idea for a small business but not know where to start. Setting up our business was initially daunting, but ultimately, it was a pretty painless process. If we can do it, you can do it.
Here are a few resources that helped us get started. These resources are specific to our area, but similar resources exist across the country.
We hope to provide a more detailed update on our journey when we celebrate Bright Archives' first year. Stay tuned!