---
title: How Audrey Bakhach Started a Business While Working Full Time and Grew a National Agency Without Investors
description: Audrey Bakhach ran Custom Digital Solutions alongside a full-time job for five years. The Charleston agency is now a Stevie Awards finalist with a team of 25.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-10-08T19:37:40.258Z
updated: 2026-10-08T19:37:40.286Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/starting-a-business-while-working-full-time
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/audrey-bakhach-hero-v1.webp
categories: Business, Startups
content_type: Profile
region: Charleston
publication: Sovereign Magazine
about:
  - type: Person
    name: Audrey Bakhach
    description: Audrey Bakhach is the founder and CEO of Custom Digital Solutions, a woman-owned digital marketing agency in Charleston, South Carolina. She started the agency in 2018 alongside a full-time career and has run it full-time since 2023.
    jobTitle: Founder and CEO
    worksFor: Custom Digital Solutions
---

Custom Digital Solutions (CDS), the Charleston, South Carolina, digital marketing agency that Audrey Bakhach ran alongside a full-time job for its first five years, is a finalist for Fastest Growing Women-Owned or -Led Company of the Year at the 23rd Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

CDS handles SEO, paid media, social media, email and SMS marketing, analytics, websites and programmatic advertising for clients ranging from owner-operated businesses to national brands. Revenue rose 49.5% in 2025 and had passed that year's total by the end of August 2026. The agency has worked with more than 200 businesses worldwide, and about nine in ten clients stay from one year to the next.

> "Seeing what started as a Charleston side business recognized on this stage is incredibly meaningful."
> — Audrey Bakhach

More than 1,500 nominations from 56 nations and territories were submitted for this year's awards, and finalists were chosen on the average scores of more than 200 business professionals on seven judging panels. Gold, Silver and Bronze placements will be announced at a ceremony in New York City on November 16.

## Starting a Business While Working Full Time

Audrey started the agency in 2018 to help pay her rent in Charleston. She had a full-time career, [no startup capital](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/how-to-start-a-business-with-no-budget) and two or three small clients, and worked on the agency after her regular workday ended.

Client calls and quick check-ins went into her lunch breaks or the hours outside work, and her evenings went to strategy, the client work itself, reporting and growing the business. "In the beginning, I was wearing every hat," she says. "I was responsible for client relationships, marketing, business development, and everything that goes into running a company."

![Audrey Bakhach on a phone call, taking notes at a desk](https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/audrey-bakhach-client-call.webp)
*Photo: Custom Digital Solutions*

"The reason CDS took the shape it did came from what I had seen working in the industry," she says. "Smaller clients with smaller budgets could easily become lower priorities at larger agencies, even though their businesses and every dollar they invested mattered enormously to them."

She chose the name Custom Digital Solutions because she wanted every client to get a strategy built around its own goals, with the same care and accountability whether it was a local owner-operated company or a national brand.

Growth was slow for the first two years. Around 2020, the client list grew, referrals started to arrive, and Audrey hired her first contractor because she could not, and did not want to, do everything herself. That was the first time she saw that the agency could become much more than a side business.

## Quitting a Job to Start a Business Full Time

She kept her job for three more years, because she wanted the business to show it could support itself first. By 2023, splitting her attention between two careers was holding the agency back, and she left her corporate career. At that point CDS had five clients, one contractor working alongside her and a growing share of new business coming from referrals.

There was no single moment when she felt she had made it. "It was more that the side business kept proving, year after year, that there was something worth betting on," Audrey says. "Eventually, I realized the bigger risk was not giving it the opportunity to grow."

Once she was full-time, she put her hours into developing the team, strengthening the agency's processes and building what it needed to scale. By 2024 she had 12 ongoing contractors working with her, a team that could take on larger, more complex accounts.

## Bootstrapping a Business Without Outside Investment

CDS has [never taken outside funding](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/bootstrapped-vs-outside-funding-which-is-best-for-starting-a-new-business), although investment has been offered several times. "I wanted to build something I completely owned, and support my team without the pressure of having to pay anyone back," Audrey says.

The agency has put its earnings back into staff, technology and new services as clients asked for more. The core team has since grown to 25, and Audrey has hired specialists in SEO, paid media, analytics, development, outreach and influencer marketing, among other areas.

## Scaling a Digital Marketing Agency for Small and National Clients

In any given week, CDS may be working for a national brand and for a locally owned Charleston business, and Audrey says she values both.

"We don't determine the importance of an account by the size of its media budget," she says. "We look at what that business is trying to accomplish, what resources it has available and where we can make the biggest impact."

A bigger team lets her put the right specialists on each account. In her view, enterprise accounts teach the agency to work at scale on complicated problems, and small businesses remind the team that every marketing dollar has to produce a result for an owner who is spending their own money.

"Growth has given us more capabilities, but I never want it to make us less personal," Audrey says.

## White-Label Work for Agencies Across North America

Alongside its own clients, CDS works as a white-label partner for several agencies across North America, doing work that each agency presents to its clients under its own name. The work includes large, complex accounts for national brands with thousands of locations.

A partner agency has to trust her team to do strong work, keep to its standards, protect its client relationship and fit into its processes without taking credit. Some of CDS's strongest referrals have come from people who saw that work behind the scenes.

"We haven't had to choose between being an independent agency and collaborating with other agencies," she says. "We've built a business that can do both."

## Audrey Bakhach's Advice for Women Starting a Business on the Side

![Audrey Bakhach holding a phone by a window](https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/audrey-bakhach-standing-window.webp)
*Photo: Custom Digital Solutions*

"I would tell her that she doesn't have to prove how badly she wants it by quitting her job tomorrow. I didn't," Audrey says of women running a business on evenings and weekends. "I built CDS on nights, weekends and lunch breaks for years before I went full-time, and I'm grateful I gave the business time to prove itself."

"Pay attention to what the business is telling you," she says. "Are customers coming back? Are people referring you without being asked? Are you reaching the point where your full-time job is limiting the opportunity in front of you? For me, those signals became harder and harder to ignore."

Going all in, she says, does not make everything easier. "It means you're choosing to take responsibility for building something that has to sustain itself, your team and eventually other people's livelihoods. That deserves preparation, not just courage."

"My advice would be: build the foundation, watch for the proof, and when the opportunity becomes bigger than the fear, bet on yourself," she says. "You don't need to have every step figured out. I certainly didn't."

**About Audrey Bakhach**
Founder and CEO, Custom Digital Solutions

Audrey Bakhach is the founder and CEO of Custom Digital Solutions, a woman-owned digital marketing agency in Charleston, South Carolina. She started the agency in 2018 alongside a full-time career and has run it full-time since 2023.

**About Custom Digital Solutions**

Custom Digital Solutions (CDS) is a woman-owned, independent digital marketing agency founded in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2018. It provides SEO and local search, paid media, social media, email and SMS marketing, analytics, website development and programmatic advertising, working directly with businesses and as a white-label partner to other agencies.

[Website](https://customdigitalsolutions.co/)

## FAQ

**Q: Is it possible to start a business while working full time?**
Yes. Audrey Bakhach ran Custom Digital Solutions alongside a full-time career from 2018 until 2023, taking client calls in her lunch breaks and doing the strategy, client work and reporting in the evenings and on weekends. She hired her first contractor in 2020 and kept her job until the agency had shown it could support itself.

**Q: When should you quit your job to run your business full time?**
When Audrey left her job in 2023, CDS had five clients and one contractor. She went by what the business was showing her: clients coming back, referrals arriving without being asked, and her day job starting to limit what the agency could take on. Her advice is to build the foundation first and make the move once the opportunity outweighs the fear.

**Q: Is it better to bootstrap a business or take investment?**
Audrey chose to bootstrap. She turned down outside investment several times so that she would own the agency outright and could support her team without having to pay anyone back. CDS has paid for its growth from its own revenue, which rose 49.5% in 2025.

**Q: How do you scale a digital marketing agency?**
Custom Digital Solutions grew by putting its earnings into specialist hires, taking its core team from 13 in 2024 to 25, and by working both for its own clients and as a white-label partner for other agencies. That let it take on national brands while keeping the smaller businesses it started with.