Meet a millennial who pivoted from a corporate marketing career to owning his own business. It came with a pay cut but offered more flexibility.

• Lloyd Fisher left the corporate world after a job cut to start his own small business.
• He values having more control and doing something he's passionate about.
• He doesn't plan to go back to working full-time in the corporate world.

Lloyd Fisher was ready for a career change — leaving behind about a decade doing marketing in the corporate world to become his own boss.

Job cuts and decisions beyond his control helped ignite the pivot, and in December 2023, the Georgia resident launched Oak Avenue Landscaping.

Fisher, who is in his 30s, enjoys working for himself without being tied down to one employer. He doesn't think he will apply for a full-time corporate role again since it wouldn't be fulfilling anymore, as his views of career success have shifted.

His net income in the first two years of business was less than what he made at his last job, but he enjoys the control he now has and doing something he's passionate about.

"It's not a paycheck, it's not a means to an end. It's something that has just given me a different type of satisfaction and just purpose," he said.

How his earnings compare to his previous job

Fisher said he had his severance to fall back on while he got his new career off the ground.

He said his first year in business involved a lot of investing in vehicles and equipment, affecting his overall profit. He said startups typically invest most of their profits back into their businesses in the first few years of operating. He also had to figure out the ins and outs of being a business owner, including pricing.

"There were things that I had definitely underbid in my first year, where I learned this is exactly how you need to be pricing these things and accounting for different variables," he said.

His offered services range in price, from a couple of hundred dollars for landscape design to thousands for new lawns or garden bed makeovers. Some of the services could cost six figures.

As of December 22, Fisher made about $52,000 in net income in 2025, nearly six figures in gross profit, and had about $37,000 in expenses.

His net income exceeded his 2024 earnings, but was less than the six-figure salary at his last job. He doubled his revenue to about $430,000 as of December 22, 2025. A large amount of that has gone toward subcontractors. He's hoping to lessen that cost one day, aiming to build out his own team as he expands.

"It's definitely given me enough to sustain the family and also just put back into the business as much as I want," he said.

Developing a business he cares about

His business uses fully electric equipment and focuses on sustainability. Fisher, who moved to the US from South Africa in 2013, said his passion for people caring about their outdoor space in an environmentally friendly manner started when he moved to Atlanta from New York in 2017. "It's a city in a forest; there is just so much natural beauty here," he said.

Fisher said he already had "a feeling of restlessness just to get it started" before the last job cut. He took on a "passion project" of landscaping on the side, where he could leverage his marketing skills and try to help generate more leads.

He watched videos on YouTube to learn about how to create a self-charging trailer for his equipment, and researched plants, hardscaping, and masonry online. Beyond studying, he said he went through trial and error in his garden. He said he dove headfirst into running the business, using what he learned during the passion project, and as time went on.

Becoming a business owner takes patience

Fisher wished he had known before making the career pivot just how much patience is needed to start a business. He suggested that anyone else looking to run their own business learn how to be uncomfortable because it comes with a lot of variables that you can't always plan for.

He said starting a business idea as a side hustle could be beneficial because people would still have another stream of income to fall back on and support this goal. He suggested having at least a few months of financial stability before pivoting to doing your business full time.

However, he finds the downside of a side gig is that it can slow down the process of building up a new venture.

"Looking back on it now, I feel like I would've got started sooner and up to speed a lot faster if I'd just gone all in on the one thing," Fisher said.

He said he enjoys developing relationships with clients, which helps him feel like he's part of the community in Georgia.

He said operating a small business can be lonely, particularly with all the obstacles that can come with it. "No one really understands the different challenges that you're going through every single day and all those different ways that you need to overcome those challenges," he said.

He said his wife helps him see the positive side when things are stressful, is helpful in navigating issues, and has been supportive of making the career pivot.

Fisher doesn't work alone. He has one full-time employee, his lead crew member, and used to have a laborer. He also works with an installation team for large projects. He said he's still using his marketing background to help with leads and sales.

Life compared to corporate

Fisher has enjoyed spending time with family or taking time away without feeling guilty about it. He said his family from South Africa was able to visit in the summer.

"Even though it was a very busy season, I've got such a great team that I was able to lean on them, and they were here for over a month," he said.

Fisher said he also took his kids to visit Disney in Florida for the first time. He said he didn't feel guilty about spending that time away "because I wasn't looking over my shoulder to see if my manager was approving the vacation days."

Being a business owner allows him to have some flexibility and feel more liberated with his schedule.

"If there's some days where I'm feeling stressed out and want to go play a round of golf, I can do that," he said. "I know what work I need to be doing that day, and if I'm taking care of my responsibilities, then there's no specific timeframe that needs to happen with them."

Fisher also now has more time to develop another venture focused on marketing. He said he has made some money and is planning to focus more on the agency, which he started last year, "now that more systems are in place for the landscaping business."

In 2026, he hopes to generate more profit, add more kinds of services, educate more people in the Atlanta area about the pros of all-electric landscaping, and work with more commercial clients so larger entities can leverage sustainable landscaping practices.