When Is It Time to Turn Your Side Hustle Into Your Career? | Tijera Wright
How do you know when it’s time to leave a steady paycheck and bet on your own business?
Get To Know Tijera Wright
Tijera Wright, founder of Board & Boujee, joins Adventures in Business with Amani Roberts and Mandi Graziano to talk about leaving her corporate career at Ernst & Young to build a charcuterie experience business. As larger orders became more frequent, balancing her job with her growing business became harder. Tijera explains what gave her the confidence to take the leap and why waiting for everything to be perfect can keep you from getting started.
Look for Evidence That Your Idea Can Grow
Tijera Wright was building Board & Boujee while working at Ernst & Young. As orders became more frequent and accounts grew larger, fulfilling them alongside her corporate responsibilities became harder.
The decision to leave involved fear, a stable income and a business that needed more of her time. Wright saw customers responding to the connection and joy she wanted to create through food experiences.
“I knew I could build the business into even greater things if I’d had more time.”
Regular orders helped her recognize that the business had potential beyond an occasional side project. She also found fulfillment in the work, which gave her another reason to pursue it.
For someone considering a similar move, her experience offers questions to work through:
Are customers returning or placing orders more consistently?
Is demand growing beyond what your current schedule can support?
What opportunities could you pursue with more time?
Does the daily work give you a reason to keep building?
Wright’s turning point came as she struggled to give both the business and her job the attention they required. Growing demand helped her see what she wanted to commit to.
Build an Experience Around What People Need
Wright’s corporate background helped her recognize a challenge among the companies she now serves. Employees might go months without seeing one another in person, then arrive at an event unsure how to connect beyond talking about work.
Board & Boujee gives them something to do together. Through charcuterie workshops, grazing tables and interactive food experiences, Wright creates opportunities for conversations to begin naturally.
“It’s the conversations outside of work that will help with the work.”
Trying a cheese pairing can open a conversation. Building a board gives coworkers something to ask each other about. Those small interactions help people learn more about the colleagues they collaborate with.
For anyone designing a service or event, that approach raises useful questions:
What makes the situation uncomfortable or difficult for participants?
What activity could help people begin a conversation?
How can everyone participate without needing prior experience?
What feeling do you want people to leave with?
Wright enjoys hearing participants say a workshop made their day or that they cannot wait to show their families what they created. She sets that expectation at the beginning: their boards do not have to look like hers. The goal is for people to feel joyful when they finish.
Get Your Work Out Before It Feels Perfect
When Wright first built her website, she kept revisiting its appearance. Colors and revisions took up time while the site still needed to reach potential customers.
Eventually, she recognized that she needed to put the work out into the world.
“80% is better than 0%.”
That perspective also shapes her advice to people balancing a full-time job with a promising creative business. Waiting for perfection can keep an idea in someone’s head, leaving them without the experience that comes from trying it.
For someone caught in repeated revisions, her experience suggests a few practical questions:
What does a customer need to understand before buying?
Which changes would make the service easier to find or book?
What are you adjusting without knowing whether customers care?
What could you learn by putting the current version in front of people?
Wright uses Wix for her website, orders and inquiries, and added its CRM to help organize incoming leads. As the business grew, she moved from Excel to QuickBooks for bookkeeping. Her tools developed alongside the responsibilities she needed to manage.
Make Connections Before Making the Pitch
In-person networking has been an important source of business for Wright. She met Mandi Graziano through Twine, a community of women founders and professionals, and attends events in San Diego to learn how business owners can support one another. Her advice is to spend time where the people you want to reach already gather, then get to know them.
“Really understanding them as a person, as an artist, as a creative, and what are their pitfalls, first.”
During the conversation, Wright encouraged Amani Roberts to build that understanding before inviting someone to a consultation. Learning about a person’s work and challenges gives the relationship somewhere to begin.
For someone trying to build stronger business relationships, that can mean:
Choosing events based on who attends
Asking about someone’s work and current challenges
Looking for ways to support their business
Giving the relationship time before making an offer
Wright also recognizes the limits of relying on her own attendance at events. Some of her largest accounts have come through Google, including companies searching for brand activations and corporate events. She is working on other marketing channels so business can continue coming in when she cannot be in the room.
Resources Mentioned
🔗 Tijera Wright on LinkedIn
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