For Elyse Burns, the plan was law school. Not the hobby turned multimillion-dollar business she runs today.
Burns, founder of Elyse Breanne Design, was an artist long before she was a law student, having gotten into painting at age 14, doodling and drawing along the way. As a child, she wanted to be a fashion designer. But she “got it into [her] head to be something fancy like a lawyer.”
She had started her Etsy shop as a side hustle in college, hand painting canvases and crafting knickknacks such as ring dishes. She kept it up while getting her master’s degree.
From canvases, the business grew to stickers and greeting cards. It was a fun distraction when, as she’d always intended, she got into law school at Duke University. But that distraction started to take up more of her time, as the business expanded to wholesale production for local shops and boutiques during her first year.
By day, she was studying law. But by night she was creating.
Through it all, the decisions were taxing. Should she focus on corporate law and pay off her student loans quickly? Or follow her passion to the public sector, nonprofits or government work?
She would do neither.
The pandemic hit, and she got on TikTok, riding the retail boom to even more sales, expanding her artwork to notebooks and planners.
“Then I realized I could make a career out of it,” she said.
Burns finished law school in 2022, but never took the Bar. Nor does she plan to actually use the degree. “The only law I touch is reading my own contracts,” she said.
Instead, she’s all in on Burns. The buzz keeps coming. The day of her last final, she appeared on the "Today Show" showing off her creations.
While still in school, she hired her first employees.
After graduation she opened a storefront in Durham and later a warehouse and office space.
Originally from the Midwest, Burns, who went to undergrad and earned her master's at Loyola Chicago, said the Triangle is her home now. “I like the vibe in Durham,” she said.
Since the business launched, she’s primarily been reinvesting sales, buying supplies to make more artwork. While in law school, she lived off of federal loans. She jokes how student loans “basically financed my business.”
The firm became profitable in 2021 and today has 11 full-time employees. It hasn't raised any outside capital, and Burns says there are no plans to do so.
"I like being in control," she said of the company, which she describes as a multimillion-dollar business.