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My Start-Up Story: Alina Oleksiienko on mom guilt and the power of baby steps
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By Sarah Finnan
12th Dec 2024
12th Dec 2024
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We talk to IMAGE Business Club member Alina Oleksiienko about mom guilt, the much talked about work-life balance and what she wishes she knew starting out.
After a move from her native Ukraine brought her to Dublin, Alina Oleksiienko found herself having to readjust to life in a new place. Pivoting from childcare to digital marketing, it was these combined experiences that helped the seed of a new business idea take root and thus two sister companies – My Art Book and My Card Book – were born.
Juggling roles as a first-time mum and a new business owner, it’s been a hectic few months for Alina who says it’s all about steps. Here she tells her Start-Up Story.
Lightbulb moment
I’m one of three co-founders. I was toying with the idea of starting my own business for a while. I worked in childcare in Ukraine and here in Dublin for a bit too. I saw this parent guilt when, at the end of the year, kids have so much art, and they want to put it on the fridge, on the shelves, on the walls – it can get overwhelming for parents. I saw a gap in the market, and I thought there had to be a more practical solution for these sentimental pieces. We started My Art Book, a hard-back keepsake book of children’s art, while I was on maternity leave with my first baby. I used to work at TikTok full-time and when my kid was six months old, it was time to go back to the corporate world so I had to make a decision. As a mom, you always have to juggle so many roles, but I pitched the idea to my husband and his business partner. They loved it and agreed to help me and that’s how the project was born. I mostly oversee marketing and PR stuff but we’re a great mix because we all bring different skill sets to the table. It’s easier to handle things when you know that you have backup, and a strong team behind you.
Each book is completely unique. We charge based on the number of pages and you can choose the order of the pages and the cover too. In September, we launched a sister company, My Card Book at the RDS at the biggest wedding show in Ireland. We were getting enquiries from customers if we could do the same thing with wedding cards – people want to preserve those mementoes as well.
Imposter syndrome
I’ve never doubted the idea, because I love our product. But of course, imposter syndrome and fear of failure are always there – it’s the same for every entrepreneur. You know you can fail at any moment but I try to see failures as part of the learning curve. If something doesn’t happen for me, I don’t dwell on it. I try to think about what I could do differently next time, focus on the small wins and take baby steps so I improve as I go.
I was lucky to start from the beginning with three co-founders. We were already a team, so delegation in business was never a question to me. Of course, sometimes I feel really protective, for example, about social media or stuff like that. But in business, you have to learn to let go, how to share responsibility and how to trust your partners or your co-workers. You have to learn how to give and accept feedback from people – I’m still learning to do this but it’s great because we can trust each other. It’s much easier to build something together. I think work-life balance is achievable but it takes a lot of effort and you have to be intentional. You have to understand what your priorities are. A lot of it comes down to mindset. I often work in the evenings when the baby sleeps or at the weekends when we have some help but that suits me and my family.
Quality time with my family and time for self-reflection are really important. Every day, I need at least 15 minutes to myself, just to meditate, to drink a cup of tea and to read a book, because there’s so much noise during the day. Sometimes you just need a small break to clear your head, to hear your own voice and to check in with yourself.
Once you have your why and you really believe in your product that’s when success will come.
Reinvention
I was a journalist at one point in my career but when I moved to Dublin, I had to reinvent myself and find a new career, so I did a master’s at Trinity in digital marketing. That course taught me the importance of networking and using platforms like LinkedIn. The master classes were always interconnected with real businesses so it wasn’t just about learning from a book, you were seeing how real businesses executed campaigns, and what they did differently to make an impact. I think those different perspectives are really helpful when you start building your own business.
Learning is a never-ending process, I always try to learn. So aside from that, I also did masterclasses and online webinars from my Local Enterprise Office (LEO). That was super helpful, especially with those first steps. On one of the LEO webinars, I heard about the New Frontiers programme and I was selected for phase one. I did a six-week programme which involved master classes with various professionals. It was all about testing your idea and setting up your business.
Then of course I joined the IMAGE Business Club which meant that I had a bit more of a social life. I’m always meeting like-minded businesswomen. I’ve learned so much from their experiences, because they are all really nice, successful, and they’re willing to share. You can ask them some random question about packaging, about marketing, about influencers, whatever, and they’re happy to help you.
Money matters
The best advice I’ve gotten is to invest in quality from the start. We only started to push and sell our products when the quality of the books themselves was perfect. For any successful business, you have to be totally in love with your product. If you want to earn quick cash, it won’t work but once you have your why and you really believe in your product that’s when success will come.
My favourite thing about running my own business is having freedom and creativity. I love seeing the impact our products have on people. It’s something I really missed in a corporate job. It’s so nice to be a part of someone else’s story and I’m always so chuffed when our books are given as presents! I feel the spark from that and it makes me keep going. The hardest part is the uncertainty. It can be overwhelming, but rewarding.
If you’re thinking of starting your own business, my advice would be to start small, but think big. Overnight success is usually a few years in the making. I was shocked when I realised that! I had this idea that you could do one post and become an overnight success but it doesn’t work like that in real life. When you see videos about successful people, you don’t see all the work that went in behind the scenes. Usually, it takes one, two, three years of doing something every day and showing up for your dream – only then do you have this so-called overnight success. I would love to have known that from the beginning!
You have to have a growth mindset. Sometimes you start small, but you have to think big.
Risk vs. reward
As business owners, you take risks every day. If you work for a big company, you know that if you make a mistake, the company will have your back and you will still have a paycheck at the end of the day. When you’re on your own, you have to weigh up every decision you make but I think risk is essential. We launched My Art Book quite quickly because I saw the interest from the public. We booked our spot at the RDS even before we had a website, it was all a work in progress but that was the boost we needed. I had a gut feeling that we had to do that so we took the risk and it was really rewarding. It’s essential to take those risks, otherwise there’s no growth. We self-funded both projects. We put our own personal money in and then it’s just baby steps from there. We reinvest whatever we earn back into the business and try to improve our products one step at a time
Adaptability is also really important. You have to have a growth mindset. Sometimes you start small, but you have to think big. I always have this big vision, this big picture in my head – what I want our final products or packaging or studio to look like – and I just move there step by step, day by day. It’s like a visual board in my mind. Ambition to me, means continuously striving to improve and make a difference. To innovate and make a positive impact, not only in work, but in life in general.
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