I was working in retail and sales while I was at university, but I wanted to take my final year off to focus on my studies. I set up my Shopify store, Own The Trend, in 2018 while I was still at university. I sold sunglasses to gather some income. The store cost $40 a month to run, and we did a photo shoot which cost $200. I purchased the sunglasses from Alibaba, had them labeled in China with my brand, and then shipped to a third-party licensing warehouse shiped to my customers. I reinvested all the profits from this business into buying more inventory. It was time-consuming. After graduating in 2018, I began working for a digital-marketing company. I quickly discovered the lifestyle wasn’t for me. I felt like spending an hour commuting followed by eight hours in an office and an hour commute home was a waste of time. Click the link in our bio to read more. Story by Amber Sunner. (Credit: Sina Roopol)