Tastemade video editor by day, furniture and home goods maker by night (and weekends and, sometimes, lunch breaks), Ilana Foglia acknowledges that balance is what she and her business partner constantly strive for. They started The Small + Savage Wild with a Squarespace website just over six years ago after moving into a new apartment and discovering their talent and love for making unique home goods and furniture. Five years in, they could have taken their side hustle full-time but chose instead to maintain their full-time jobs.
“We want to grow our company very specifically,” Ilana explains. “We need the freedom to say 'no' to projects that don’t align with our goals or our brand, so we can say yes to projects we want to do down the line.” Keeping their full-time jobs and full-time income gives Ilana and her partner the financial freedom to do what's best for their company both creatively and strategically. Plus, she finds working full-time and having a side hustle more fulfilling.
“I find that each job scratches two very different creative itches, and they’re both so satisfying,” she says. Even so, balancing this type of lifestyle can be difficult, so it’s imperative, she says, to find ways to stay organized and maintain some semblance of work-life balance.
