How I Built BrandWell | From Side Hustle to Multi-6-figure Design Agency
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Ever wonder how BrandWell came to be? Over the last six, almost seven years, Victoria has taken BrandWell from side hustle to a boutique branding and web design agency. For the first time ever, Lauren, BrandWell’s COO, is stepping in as host and is interviewing Victoria on how she got to where she is today! Victoria shares her entrepreneurial journey, from early side hustles to discovering her passion for website design and marketing. Inspired by her parents’ example and a chance opportunity, she reveals how those beginnings sparked the creation of BrandWell, a boutique branding agency designed to deliver quality, connection, and balance between business growth and family life.
As Lauren guides the conversation, you’ll hear how Victoria strategically grew BrandWell without losing sight of its identity. From hiring contract designers to navigating team growth, she shares the real challenges and lessons of building a business with intention. You’ll also learn why she chose to keep BrandWell intentionally boutique, focusing on elevated client experiences over endless scaling, and how this decision shaped the company’s culture and success.
Together, Lauren and Victoria dive into the heart of branding, why trust, empathy, and strong client relationships matter, and how investing in your brand early can completely transform your business. With practical insights on brand identity, polished online presence, and creating a client experience that lasts long after the project ends, this conversation will leave you encouraged, inspired, and ready to step boldly into your own entrepreneurial journey.
The Start Of BrandWell
Victoria has always had an inclination towards entrepreneurship as both of her parents were entrepreneurs growing up. She witnessed first hand the flexibility and opportunities that entrepreneurship provided their lifestyle and she couldn’t imagine not having it for herself. She also had the desire to someday have a career that allowed her to be super present like her parents were when she was growing up. Even as a young child, Victoria was finding ways to make money. She did the lemonade stands, playing rollercoaster tycoon, and she even took things from her sisters and would sell it back to them!
BrandWell was not Victoria’s first entrepreneurial venture though. She had a couple other businesses prior, but when she went into the world of marketing after college, she quickly realized that she loved learning why people would buy things and how there are different ways that design and layout can guide their decision.
One day, Victoria’s husband came home and asked her if she could build a website for a friend of his. For just $300, Victoria built him a Squarespace website and the rest was history. That was all she needed to wet her palate and say, “I’m doing this.” From that day forward, Victoria started freelancing for anyone that needed a website until she was able to get to the point where she could take BrandWell full time.
Growing Up Alongside BrandWell’s Clients
When Victoria started BrandWell, she was a side hustler. She had a job working at a marketing agency, desperately wanting to leave her nine to five and have that time freedom that everyone talks about with entrepreneurship, and so that’s who her target audience was at that time. As Victoria started to have her girls and started growing a team, her business matured and so did the clients they were serving. As the business continues to grow and evolve, the messaging changes too, and Victoria has been able to structure her processes, offers, and brand story to be in alignment for what her own brand story has looked like over the years.
Building a Team
Victoria often gets asked, “how did you know when to hire a team?” When Victoria got pregnant with her first daughter, she was still working full time at a corporate marketing agency. She knew that if she wanted to grow her side hustle to the point of where she could leave the agency, she would need to hire support. So, Victoria started with white label designers that she contracted and started growing her team. These designers worked on the internal pages of the website once Victoria was completed with the home page design. They had no client interaction but this allowed for Victoria to be able to control the brand while she was building it. Now, she has built something repeatable that others can come in and help her grow.
After Victoria had her second daughter, she realized that she needed someone to help her run the day to day of her business. At this point BrandWell had structure and processes and Victoria had hired the right people that l no longer needed so much hand holding. She knew what she needed, she couldn’t ask from contractors so she invested in her team and brought Lauren and Libby into the BrandWell family in a more concrete way. While this was the biggest risk Victoria made in her business, it quickly proved to be the best decision.
Investing in Those Who Already Work For You
Client experience is one of BrandWell’s greatest differentiators and Victoria recognizes that it’s directly related to the people that she’s hiring since she’s no longer in the business day to day, or talking to each and every client. This is why she needed people on her team that could deliver what she was selling. Finding the characteristics and personality traits that create the company culture that you want and then investing in the specific training goes so much further than just hiring someone who has skill but maybe not the characteristics.
Keeping The Team Small
Towards the end of last year, BrandWell was taking off and Victoria was finding herself needing to hire new designers every 90 days. It came to a point where she had to decide how she could get BrandWell back to what she always envisioned it being, which was a boutique, bespoke, design agency where every client had an exceptional experience. If she continued the way she was going, Victoria would be getting further and further away from the client experience herself. At the end of 2024, Victoria decided to raise their rates and take half the number of projects that they were booking at the time. By doing this, she is able to keep things small so she could have better control. The bigger things get, the less control you have, and Victoria felt like she was getting a little bit too far away from what she wanted for BrandWell.
You Don’t Get a Second Chance at a First Impression
The longer you wait to invest in branding, the longer that you spend competing on price, the longer you spend working harder than you need to. Your brand is what is going to attract aligned clients to your business. Your branding is not an expense, it’s an investment. If you are forever looking at hiring somebody to design your logo or build you a professional website as an expense that you can’t afford, you have to acknowledge that you are passing up on an investment that is going to have a huge ROI for your business.
The BrandWell Process
BrandWell clients are going to be led every step of the way. As business owners, as moms, there are so many decisions that need to be made, and with BrandWell, they’re taking the burden of decision making off of you. The process is built so that it’s not going to overwhelm you, but it provides you with strategy, intention, and confidence. By the end of it you’ll not only have a logo and a website, but you’ll have an entire brand ecosystem.
Pretty Brands Don’t Pay The Bills
Branding and websites without strategy might look nice, but they’re not going to convert. Having a pretty brand is better than not having one at all, but it’s only going to take you so far. Strategy is what is going to make sure that every color, every word, and the layout is all tied to the goals of your business. Design is what catches the eye initially, but strategy is what keeps people coming back and what keeps them talking about your brand.
If you jump right into web design without having a strategic brand in place you end up with a pretty website that doesn’t do anything for your business.
Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Their Websites
Victoria says that the first mistake is DIYing your website for way too long. There is a time and place to be scrappy in your business but when you have profit left over at the end of the month, you can make the decision on where to reinvest that profit.
How To Work With BrandWell
The goal of this episode was to get people to think critically about whether or not they’re investing in the right things and to help them understand why branding is so much more than aesthetics.
After listening to this conversation, if you’re considering working with BrandWell, schedule a discovery call. You’ll get to talk to Victoria or Lauren and together you can decide on if it’s the right time or not to invest in branding or website design. Maybe it’s best to invest in The Branding Business School first, but either way, Victoria and Lauren would be happy to talk to you! To book your discovery call, or learn more about BrandWell’s offers, head to their website! If you’re here for the fun content and behind the scenes, then be sure to follow BrandWell on Instagram!
Key Quotes
“Pretty brands don’t pay the bills. Branding and Website design without strategy? It may look nice, but they’re not going to convert.”
Victoria Marcouillier
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