The day I figured it out
I Built A Company. Then I Sold It — Because It Was Stealing My Life.
I started Pantry Fuel — Spokane's first healthy meal prep delivery service. It worked. People loved it.
But every sale ran through me. Every question, every follow-up, every "I've been meaning to order." If I didn't personally chase it, it died.
So I chased. And I missed my two-year-old's days doing it.
I sold that company in 2023.
Six months later I was on maternity leave with my second baby when I got the ultimatum: come back full-time, or lose the position.
And that's when it hit me — the thing that changed everything:
I didn't have a marketing problem. I had an architecture problem.
Both businesses ran on me. Nothing sold unless I was standing there selling it. I'd built two jobs and called them companies.
So I declined. And I built something different — a business with a system underneath it.
Within a few months I'd replaced my income. About 15 hours a week. Two babies at home.
Not by hustling harder. By finding the leaks and plugging them.
I made the mistake of hiring a business coach who had never actually run a business. Big difference. Jenny teaches sales and marketing at a university and has built and sold companies herself. In one call, she mapped out my entire digital product strategy, my email system, and exactly where my funnel was leaking. I wish I had found her first.
— Anna, CraftySupply