Do you know how guilty I feel closing client contracts that pay more for 3 months of part-time work than her annual income? Do you know how difficult it is, as a 25 year old, to wonder if I should pay off my business loan / husband’s student loans or help my mother afford to put food on the table? Can you imagine the unbearable shame of thinking that we will be paying $15k in rent and agent fees alone for our first month in NYC in a few months while my family can’t afford childcare?
And yes, of course I’ve been giving money to my family. We maxed out our credit cards helping them settle here before my mother got a work permit. We have continually given anything we have spare to them. But it put us in a position where we have literally no savings and are always afraid that we can’t cover the next month’s bills. Because a 25 year old in her 2nd year of running a bootstrapped business shouldn’t be worrying about covering bills for 5 people