Profitable by Design: How an Agency Owner Used Pockets to Grow

If you'd told healthcare professional Tiereny Allen-Green 10 years ago that she'd own a six-figure branding and design agency, she probably would have laughed in your face. But her self-employment journey shows how entrepreneurship can unexpectedly become one's calling. With determination and the right resources, small business dreams can become reality.

Entrepreneurship runs deep

While Tiereny may be surprised by how quickly her entrepreneurship journey has taken off, it doesn’t come as a surprise. "Entrepreneurship runs in my family. My mom and uncles are all business owners, and they'd come to me and ask for help with something like business cards or a website, and I'd say "yes." Then I'd run home and be like, 'Okay, how am I going to do this?' and teach myself in the moment."

As Tiereny started to see Instagram take off, she watched as other small business owners began to develop an online presence. "There was an opportunity to give these new businesses a brand that didn't look new and help establish them as professional." That's how Scopetheory Design Agency was born. 

She came to love the business of reverse engineering things and found herself motivated by the need for more diversity in the agency space. "I didn't see many people that look like me; the industry was very male-driven, especially web design, and I wanted to see more women as agency owners."

Tiereny says the agency took off from there. "I was really just figuring it out as I went, and it progressively got better." Eventually, Tiereny says her work started to speak for itself, and she continued to get more inbound requests. With most of her clients being businesses in service- and product-based industries, her agency has grown through word-of-mouth referrals. 

Though that was 13 years ago, Tiereny didn't take the leap into full-time self-employment until 2019, when she realized that her agency was bringing in more income than her healthcare career. "To be honest, it caught me by surprise. I didn't even realize it was happening." 

Tiereny says the most nerve-wracking part was turning in her notice at her full-time healthcare job. She went back and forth for weeks deciding if it was the right time, and when she finally did it, her boss said, "Tiereny, we've been waiting for this. You've given us everything. Now it's time for you to go and do your thing." 

And it paid off: 2019 was Tiereny’s highest-earning year to that date. When the global pandemic and recession hit the following year, Tiereny was worried Scopetheory wouldn't make it. "But I saw this sense of resilience and accomplishment from small business owners. Even amid adversity, we have the power to build something from nothing. I started seeing all these new businesses, which felt full circle." Motivated in a new way to be part of other small business owners' stories, she dove in and has continued to see revenue increase year-over-year.

Found: An easy-to-learn tool

With all that growth comes growing pains. Tiereny jokingly says if there's a system that claims to make things easier for small business owners, she's probably tried it. When she came across Found in October 2021, she used multiple payment processors, CRMs, and invoicing tools to run Scopetheory.

As a small business owner, Tiereny says you learn a lot of things as you go. "But there wasn't a learning curve using Found." Over time, she's been able to slowly transition her systems over to Found.

Using Found, she can now send custom-branded invoices to her clients. When she hires 1099 contractors to support the agency, she easily onboards and pays them with Found's free contractor management tools.

Even with everything housed under her Found account, Tiereny says it was still a struggle at times to plan for long-term expenses such as business growth or retirement savings. Because her work is project-based, the business's income and expenses—like paying 1099 contractors—can fluctuate month-to-month. She needed cash flow clarity. She needed budgeting tools. She needed a solution.

Using Found's pockets

Tiereny said Found's new pockets feature came at just the right time. She'd long been an evangelist for Found's auto-save feature for taxes and was excited to see more customization available with pockets. She immediately tailored her Found account to her needs, creating her pockets and setting up deposit allocations for each.

Tiereny doesn't claim to be a finance person—nor does she want to be! That's why automatic deposit allocations are a game-changer for her business: "I don't have to remember to move money each time I get paid," she says. Instead, her five pockets are funded with each deposit based on her custom allocations. As her business grows, she can adjust the allocations based on her real revenue range. 

Seamless cash flow management for the future

Tiereny has been working on building out mentorship and coaching sessions for other designers in the industry. "I remember starting without a blueprint, and if I can take what I've learned over the years and help someone get there quicker, I want to."

While diversification is great for stability and growth, it can quickly complicate your finances—that's where pockets continue to help. As Tiereny starts to build out this new revenue stream, she says she'll probably create a pocket for it, helping her get a clear view of which income source brings in the most money. With Found, Tiereny says she has the tools she needs to grow Scopetheory. 

"I recommend Found to pretty much everyone I talk to. If I find something I love that works, you will not get me to shut up about it. That's why I've been such an advocate for Found."

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only.