Rachel Millman shows off her company’s website.
Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Sun.
A Towson University alumna was recently featured in a Baltimore Sun story about a new trend of self employment among millennials nationwide.
Rachel Millman graduated in 2011 with a degree in electronic media and film. She was working full time for a magazine and searching for a house in Baltimore when she had a lightbulb moment.
From the Sun:
[Millman] combed through listings online, but the work of narrowing down her search based on static images became tedious. What if, instead, she could take a video tour through each house, and use a slightly more dynamic medium to decide whether to schedule an in-person tour?
When Millman closed on her new home in Canton this year, having already pitched her idea to a number of receptive real estate agents she had met along the way, she knew this was the right moment.
The 25-year-old quit her job and founded Reel Estate Media. The small company—Millman is the only employee—collaborates with regional real estate agents to create and publish high-definition video packages of home walk-throughs, agent profiles, ads and more. As her site touts: “Your space. The way it was meant to be seen.”
“I’ve been thinking of starting my own company pretty much since I graduated from college,” Millman told the Sun. “I thought: ‘I’m young. Now’s the time,’ and I just decided to do it, probably against the better judgment of a lot of people.”
Millman is part of a growing trend. Inspired by a struggling job market, a boring job or just a great idea, more and more of the 18-to-34-year-old set are forging their own paths.
For those leaving behind full-time jobs, the move is a risky one. The fledgling state of her business and a mortgage on the house she owns with her fiance sometimes have Millman questioning whether she made the right choice. But on most days, she knows it was now or never.
“I think it’s definitely a bonus that we’re both 25 years old; we don’t have children; we’re not planning to have children anytime soon,” she told the Sun. “We don’t have crazy financial obligations. What better time than now when I am young and I have minimal obligations, so by the time the business is successful, it will pay for things that come?”
Read the full Baltimore Sun story.
