35-year-old’s design side hustle brings in over $400,000 a year—how she spends her money

In early 2021, Chisom Okwulehie had simply given delivery to her daughter and was searching for some additional money to complement her revenue as an architect on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Whereas she made six figures at her job, she figured a facet hustle would assist cowl the mortgage prices for the duplex in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, she splits together with her husband, Ikenna.

At Port Authority, Okwulehie works totally on infrastructure initiatives for practice stations and airports, together with upgrades to Terminal One at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport in New York and a soon-to-open modernized practice station entrance in Harrison, New Jersey.

Nevertheless, she wished to do extra design work on the facet, so she based Juntero together with her husband, a cybersecurity specialist. The consulting agency gives quite a lot of providers for principally residential initiatives, together with architectural and inside design.

By the tip of 2021, her enterprise had pulled in $55,000 in income. In 2022, Juntero took on extra purchasers and the income elevated to roughly $206,000.

“I didn’t anticipate to obtain many initiatives as rapidly as I did,” Okwulehie says.

To maintain up with the rising variety of initiatives, Okwulehie started to delegate a lot of the work to a group of contract designers: “It’s mainly an company the place I handle a bunch of expertise after which give them work.”

In 2023, Juntero labored with about 60 purchasers and introduced in $414,000 in income — all whereas Okwulehie maintained her full-time job at Port Authority.

Final yr, Okwulehie earned a roughly $126,000 wage from Port Authority and paid herself $37,500 from Juntero. She put the remainder of the corporate’s income of practically $173,000 into financial savings.

Changing into an architect

Okwulehie is a second-generation immigrant in a household “very pushed” by educational achievement, she says.

Her father got here to the U.S. in 1970 as a teenage refugee from the Nigerian Civil Warfare. He graduated with a grasp’s in chemical engineering at Columbia College in New York Metropolis, which led to a profession as a chemical engineer.

“Rising up in a Nigerian family, it was emphasised to us to both change into an engineer, a physician or a lawyer,” says Okwulehie, the oldest of 4 kids. Regardless of that, she was the one one who didn’t research to change into an engineer. As a substitute, Okwulehie confirmed a eager curiosity in making artwork from an early age. Born and raised within the San Francisco Bay Space, her dad and mom inspired her inventive abilities by enrolling her within the San Francisco Excessive Faculty of the Arts, the place she targeted on drawing, portray and sculpting.

It was Okwulehie’s highschool principal who urged a profession in structure, which led to her graduating with two concurrent bachelor’s levels in structure and public coverage from the College of Southern California in 2012. A grasp’s in superior architectural design from Columbia College adopted in 2014.

That very same yr, she bought her first full-time job as an architect on the New York Metropolis workplace of Perkins Eastman, one of many largest personal architectural corporations on the planet, the place her first huge challenge was designing a boathouse on the San Francisco Airport.

Okwulehie continued to realize priceless expertise in architectural and inside design, in addition to city planning, however the work hours grew longer as she took on extra obligations. Working 12-hour days, she generally wouldn’t see daylight throughout her work day. “I wanted a change in way of life,” she says. “Work-life steadiness was crucial to me, so I made a decision to maneuver to the general public sector.”

In 2017, she took on the position of architect at Port Authority, working her manner as much as senior architect in 2022.

Engaged on billion-dollar infrastructure initiatives just like the Harrison practice station in New Jersey, Okwulehie’s position has change into extra targeted on challenge administration and high quality assurance. This ready her to run Juntero as a facet hustle, she says.

Working her facet hustle: ‘My firm is completely different’

Whereas Juntero introduced in $414,000 in 2023, together with practically $173,000 in revenue, it had humble beginnings.

The corporate’s first challenge in 2021 was designing an advert for Certainly.com for $20. Larger initiatives adopted, together with Juntero’s first architectural job making a easy ground plan for a dentist’s workplace.

As her shopper listing grew, Okwulehie was capable of increase her charges each six months or so, she says. To draw purchasers, she initially charged $60 per hour, then raised it to $80 in 2022. She now prices $100 per hour, however will generally provide fixed-rate costs, relying on the scope of the challenge.

Over time, she discovered a distinct segment in creating photorealistic 3D renderings of potential designs. These visualizations caught on with actual property builders who market new, unbuilt properties to potential patrons. Some architectural corporations spend cash on renderings, however quite a lot of occasions these renderings are very conceptual,” says Okwulehie. “My firm is completely different, it truly seems actual. If a shopper is predicated in China and so they need to buy a house in, say, Texas, I can create that dwelling and really have the shopper stroll via that dwelling in 3D.”

In September 2023, Okwulehie gave delivery to her son, however stored Juntero working whereas she was on maternity depart, and the enterprise stored rising.

To maintain her workload manageable, Okwulehie oversees a group of over 30 credentialed architects, inside designers and 3D modelers, lots of whom dwell overseas.

“On a typical week, I spend about 5 to 10 hours engaged on Juntero,” she says. Her work is generally targeted on coping with purchasers, advertising and marketing and overseeing the work being performed by her group of designers.

Okwulehie works from dwelling, with a lot of the work assigned on Slack or WhatsApp. “My group will see initiatives are available in, assign themselves and begin working,” she says, “And after they’re performed, they’ll ship it to me earlier than it’s shared with a shopper.” Apart from her wage, most of Juntero’s enterprise income are put into two high-yield financial savings accounts.

Okwulehie and her husband cut up virtually all of their bills, with Ikenna managing the household’s investments, whereas she manages child-care prices.

Within the subsequent few years, Okwulehie and Ikenna plan to make use of the $312,076 they’ve in financial savings to construct a home on a plot of land they purchased for $450,000 in Higher Nyack, New York, in 2017.

Along with their liquid financial savings, the couple has greater than $200,000 invested between a taxable brokerage account and varied retirement accounts.

A lot of the household’s insurance coverage prices are coated by Ikenna’s employer, together with well being, dental and imaginative and prescient insurance coverage. Okwulehie doesn’t usually splurge on discretionary bills, however in December she spent $570 on Christmas items and sweetness providers, like nails and hair. When it comes to debt, Okwulehie owes about $173,000 in pupil mortgage debt and roughly $1,100 in bank card debt. Some excellent news although: As a public service worker, she hopes to qualify for mortgage forgiveness in 2027 as a part of the federal Public Service Mortgage Forgiveness program.