There Is No Perfect Time: I Started My Agency Nine Months Pregnant
How Starting Before You're Ready Changed My Life and Business
There is a phrase we hear constantly in business: "Wait for the right time."
Wait until you have more experience. Wait until you have more money. Wait until life becomes less complicated. Wait until you feel completely confident.
If I had followed that advice, I might never have started my company.
Nine years ago, I was nine months pregnant with my daughter when I co-founded Davel Creative Agency.
From the outside, it probably looked like the least convenient moment to start a business. I was preparing to become a mother while also trying to build something from the ground up.
But that experience taught me one of the most important lessons of my career: the perfect time rarely arrives. Sometimes you have to begin while life is still uncertain.
Before entering the creative industry, I spent five years working at HSBC.
Banking gave me a strong professional foundation. I learned discipline, structure, client relations, confidentiality, and how to remain calm under pressure. Most importantly, I learned that people do not want to feel as though they are simply being sold something. They want someone to understand their situation and help them solve a real problem.
When I decided to move into marketing, I faced a familiar challenge: agencies wanted candidates with agency experience, but I could not gain that experience if no one was willing to give me an opportunity.
I had two choices. I could continue waiting for someone to choose me, or I could create my own opportunity.
I chose to begin.
I did not start with every answer, a perfect business plan, or complete confidence. I learned through experience. I studied, listened, made mistakes, adjusted, and kept moving. I also learned how to become a mother and an entrepreneur at the same time.
Motherhood did not make me less ambitious. It made me more focused. It taught me to make decisions quickly, use my time intentionally, and distinguish between what feels urgent and what is genuinely important. It also strengthened my empathy—something that later became central to my work as a creative director.
Today, Davel Creative Agency has a team of 20 people
and works across branding, marketing, digital campaigns, website development, and creative strategy. Our clients represent industries ranging from healthcare and technology to finance, construction, beauty, aviation, and the nonprofit sector.
The growth did not happen because one extraordinary opportunity suddenly changed everything. It came from consistency: showing up, doing the work, protecting relationships, and continuing even when progress was slow.
Consistency is a value I learned from my mother. She showed me that success is not always dramatic. Most of the time, it is built quietly through the decisions we repeat every day.
My journey also eventually brought me from Armenia to the United States.
Moving to a new country meant rebuilding professional relationships and establishing credibility in a market where many people did not know my name or my previous work. Once again, I had to begin before I felt completely ready.
That experience reminded me that starting over does not erase what you have already built. Your knowledge, resilience, values, and perspective travel with you.
Over time, my work has received recognition from the MUSE Creative Awards and the International Design Awards. I have also had the opportunity to judge major international competitions, including the Webby Awards, the Anthem Awards, The Drum Awards, and the Digiday Awards.
One of the projects closest to me is "See Me, Not My Cancer,"
a campaign created for Cancer Support Community Los Angeles. The campaign encouraged audiences to see individuals living with cancer as complete human beings—not only as patients or diagnoses. It received Gold and Silver honors at the MUSE Creative Awards, but the most meaningful result was seeing people connect with its message.
That campaign was personal to me because I created it in memory of my twin brother. It reinforced my belief that creativity can do more than promote a product or service. It can help people feel recognized, understood, and less alone.
Looking back, I realize that many of the most meaningful parts of my life began at moments that did not appear ideal. Starting a company while nine months pregnant was not the "perfect time." Moving to the United States and rebuilding was not easy. Creating work connected to personal loss required vulnerability.
But waiting would not have made those decisions easier. It would only have delayed them.
My advice to women who are considering a new career, business, or creative direction is this: do not confuse preparation with permission.
Learn as much as you can. Build your skills. Understand the risks. Ask for advice. But do not wait for someone else to confirm that you are ready.
You may not have every answer when you begin. Confidence often develops after you take action, not before. Your first version may be imperfect. Your plans may change. You will make mistakes, and some opportunities will not work out as expected.
Begin anyway.
The right time is not necessarily the moment when fear disappears or every part of your life becomes organized. Sometimes the right time is simply the moment when you decide that your idea deserves a chance.
I started my company while preparing to welcome my daughter into the world. In many ways, I was building two new futures at the same time.
Nine years later, I am grateful that I did not wait.
