This Air Force veteran left her job which paid $80K to start her own business

Antisha Walley is the founder of the human resources consultancy Make the Change, LLC, a company she started after working in several human resources roles for years and found herself disagreeing with the ways operations were being run.

Walley first ran her business as a side hustle in 2020 as her day job brought in $80,000 per year. However, she quit her job to concentrate on her company in 2021 after one client brought in $3,000. By 2021, her sales grew up to $50,000.

Walley, 39, is forecasting to make over $100,000 this year and expects to pocket a net amount of roughly $70,000 all things being equal, according to Business Insider.

Her decision to start her own venture has been 20 years in the making. She joined the Air Force in 2001 when she was only 17 years old and was stationed in the meteorology department for four years. Four years later, she left for further education where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and then an MBA in human resources.

She spent the next 10 years working in her father’s construction company in Mississippi. She also worked as a Financial Counselor at a local credit union, and in several human resources positions at various businesses.

Walley comes from a family of entrepreneurs which she said has helped her weather the storm many startup founders usually face in their first years.

“People around me showed me that even though we weren’t in the best circumstances in terms of the area where we lived and grew up, we could make the best out of that circumstance,” she told Business Insider. “So starting my own business wasn’t as scary to me as it might have been for some people.”

For now, she is the sole full-time worker of her business, where she “helps businesses prepare employees for next level advancement through engaging professional development training and organization development,” her website says.

Like all other entrepreneurs, Walley has ambitious medium to long-term plans for her company. However, her immediate plan is to establish an internship program to help aspiring HR professionals.

“I love to see people just maximize their own potential and be the best version of themselves that they can be,” she noted. 

For others who want to be like her, Walley said it is always a good idea to have a supplementary income. According to her, one of the things she did to supplement her income was to give herself a cushion with an additional $18,000 in annual income by renting out a single-family property she owns.