Three years ago, Maya Portorreal made $45,000 per year working in retail. Last year, she brought in more than $350,000 in sales from her>'They probably thought I was insane'
Portorreal had been working at Pierre Hardy for less than two months when she floated the idea of starting her own brand to her colleagues, she says.
"They probably thought I was insane," she says. "They probably still think I'm insane, because I pulled it off."
Inspired by entrepreneurs in her own family – her uncle and grandfather both had their own real-estate businesses – Portorreal knew the challenges of starting her own business, so she was mostly hopeful that Kitten Co. could at least become a profitable side hustle.
"I just wanted to prove that I could do it," she says.
At first, she chose the private label route, paying jewelry manufacturers to put her brand name>Social media turns a side-hustle into a full-time gig
For the first few months, Portorreal says her sales were basically non-existent. That changed after she finally got some traction direct-messaging>'Jewelry is supposed to be fun'
In mid-2020, more than a year after she launched Kitten Co., Portorreal finally quit her day job. That year, the company totaled $472,000 in gross sales, nearly double the $250,000 from Portorreal's first year in business.
In 2021, sales dipped to $350,000 — a result of her primary manufacturer suspending operations amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Portorreal says. She found a new manufacturer, but the temporary blip still affected her sales, she says.
Once the business took off, Portorreal hired her mom and "a few friends" to help with packaging and customer service requests. She says she plans to roll out another 150 items over the course of this year, from new styles of existing products to new categories, like men's jewelry and even stationary.
"I love to have a large variety of options for everyone to find what they like, to find their version of themselves within my style," she says.
That idea – and affordability – have been Portorreal's goals since she first decided to start her own business. As her onetime side-hustle continues to blossom as her full-time gig, Portorreal is adamant that she always wants to keep those goals front and center.
"I don't [really] believe in going into debt for a piece of jewelry," she says. "To me, jewelry is [about] expression. Jewelry is supposed to be fun [and] lived in."
