A 25-year-old entrepreneur shares the marketing budget she uses to build her successful professional and personal brands
- Welcome to "Founder Finances," an Insider series discussing founders' monthly budgets.
- Alexa Curtis, the founder of a blog and mentorship company, shares her $5,000 monthly budget.
At 11 years old, Alexa Curtis was in search of a community: Her family struggled with legal issues and she was being bullied at school, she said. She sought a passion project that she could pour her time and energy into building.
Curtis was inspired by the prominent fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson and created her own blog when she was 12. "Life in the Fashion Lane" originally shared outfit inspiration. Since then, the blog has expanded to an event series and mentorship platform called the Be Fearless Summit.
"I wanted to be that figure that I didn't have growing up — someone who was approachable, relatable, and had done something cool," she said.
In 2021, the business booked six figures in sales, which Insider verified with documentation. Curtis said it cost her $5,000 a month to run her company, more than half of which is allocated toward marketing and brand building.
Last year, Curtis combined her company with Heather Miller's startup GrasshoppHer, and today the brand offers membership and career development opportunities online and through local meetups.
Curtis shared the Be Fearless Summit's June 2022 budget and her advice on building a brand through changes, business model pivots, and crucial investments.
Here's the budget breakdown
Invest in branding from the beginning
When Curtis was 17, she wanted to broaden the content beyond her blog. So she pitched beauty companies ideas for social-media. One response, offering her $1,500 for an Instagram takeover, jumpstarted her network of brand partners.
The professional branding work taught her the value of crafting a cohesive and intentional platform. For her personal brand, she spends about $350 each month on a branding coach who helps her decide what message she wants to project through her work.
As she continues to build an entrepreneurial portfolio, Curtis said she also invests in looking polished and professional. "A lot of how I make money is my personal brand, so I'll hire someone to do my makeup and hair if I have a brand partnership or event that day," she said, adding that it's important to create content that is both authentic and aspirational in order to grow organically.
Pivot business and financial models for growth
Before partnering with GrasshoppHer, previous summits typically brought in between $10,000 to $15,000 in sales — from a combination of booking fees and event sponsorships. But GrasshoppHer relies more on monthly and annual membership fees to grow, and the new business has more opportunities for sponsorships, Curtis said.
"Now, we're able to pitch sponsorships for newsletters, content on the GrasshoppHer Instagram, and longer-term contract deals," she said.
In order to attract potential customers, she invests in a graphic designer, video editor, and photographer. She also hired a full-time employee responsible for booking sponsorships. Lastly, she and her cofounder also invested in a website development team to renovate their online presence.
Each component helps spread brand awareness and reach additional audiences.
Provide value to customers
Since merging companies, "it's becoming less of a personal brand," Curtis said. "I'm more focused on removing myself from the equation because I want to build up this company and sell it."
She's taking small steps, like organically increasing followers, establishing collaborative partnerships, and strategic mergers, to scale the company, she said.
The most important tactic to creating a sustainable brand online is providing value to viewers, she said.
That's why she creates social media series on finding mentors, calls people who have rejected her business and asks "why," and shares how to network as a young professional.
It's about more than just creating viral content, she said.
"I try not to get too caught up in it because there's always going to be a new platform at this point," she said of social-media virality. "That can feel debilitating to a future generation of entrepreneurs because that's not how it works."