How Chisom Okwulehie built lucrative design side hustle [Video]

Last year, Chisom Okwulehie’s architectural design business, Juntero, brought in $414,000 in revenue.

But it had humble beginnings. When the now 35-year-old launched the company in 2021 with her cybersecurity specialist husband, its first gig was designing an ad for Indeed.com, which paid only $20.

While Juntero’s first sales were mostly one-off graphic design gigs, the company soon attracted bigger projects, like floor plans for small businesses. Okwulehie worked nights and weekends for Juntero while maintaining her full-time position as an architect at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

By the end of 2021, Juntero had garnered $55,000 in revenue. In 2022, the business continued to grow, with revenue increasing to roughly $206,000.

“I didn’t expect to receive many projects as quickly as I did,” Okwulehie tells CNBC Make It.

In 2023, the company worked with about 60 clients and brought in about $414,000 in revenue — all while Okwulehie maintained her full-time job at Port Authority.

After paying the …