Sara Russell took her bath-and-body business full-time in 2023 after a layoff. She spent two years running Mainland Vintage Bath & Body Boutique as a side project while holding a marketing job, building out soap collections on nights and weekends before going all-in on the Brooklyn-based company.
Russell, 37, was hesitant about AI for years. She didn't want it to interfere with her creative work. But in February, she started using Claude to organize her business into AI-assisted departments - marketing, sales, finance, and product development - and found the tool useful for the parts of running a company she never learned on the job.
"I feel like I'm not just turning a hobby into a small business; I'm building a business that could, in theory, scale," she said. "Still, what's important to me is how I use AI. It's always going to be a tool, not a partner."
From soap hobby to full-time business
Russell discovered soap-making in 2020 after watching a YouTube tutorial during the pandemic. She made soap for everyone at Christmas that year and launched an Etsy store in 2021. Her wholesale business started growing in 2022, and when she was laid off from her marketing job in January 2023, she decided to give the business six months to see if it could work.
Her husband covers their bills, so Russell didn't need the soap sales to pay rent. That gave her the space to learn how to run a company. The creative side came naturally. The logistics did not.
"I didn't know how to run a company," she said. "I knew that SEO and Google Analytics data were important, but I didn't really know what they were. Same with different products and sales terms."
She spent hours Googling, taking LinkedIn Learning courses, asking questions in small business group chats, and watching YouTube. The answers she found often didn't apply to her specific situation. "I'd spend three hours researching a topic, only to walk away with one actionable thing that makes sense for me," she said.
She tried ChatGPT for Instagram captions and other copy, but rejected most of what it produced. She avoided AI for visual design entirely. "I wanted to maintain control over my creative eye," she said.
Building AI departments for a one-person company
Earlier this year, Russell's husband, who uses Claude at an enterprise level, suggested she could organize her chats into projects. She set up a new Claude account for $20 a month and created a project for each business department she needed.
She told each project to be collaborative and defer to her as the CEO of the company. "They can give me ideas, but I'm the authority," she said. The projects are organized like a C-suite, but the output is treated like that of an entry-level employee. Her "CFO" project helps her interpret sales data she doesn't know how to read, but it doesn't make decisions on her behalf.
Her marketing project researches best practices for converting Instagram audiences into customers. An AI "chief of staff" compiles a monthly recap of conversations across all departments into a single document she reviews - what she's delivered, what she hasn't, sales numbers, and what's coming up.
For other creative professionals looking to use AI similarly, resources like AI Training for Creatives can show how to apply the tools without giving up creative control. Russell's setup is a useful model for anyone who wants to use AI for operations and keep their creative work human.
Where she draws the line
Russell is wary of AI's broader effects. She cited lack of government oversight and regulation, plus potential environmental impacts of data centers, as her main concerns. She is also paying attention to wealth disparities tied to AI.
She keeps her $20 monthly plan rather than upgrading, which limits her usage. "I want to be mindful of my overall usage," she said. "Having a usage limit helps me be mindful of how and when I'm turning to AI."
She said there could be a tipping point where she stops using AI altogether. "I think there could be a tipping point at which I no longer feel I can justify using software that can harm the environment, industries, and people," she said. "I think we are still on the frontier of where it will go."
For now, Russell is applying for grants and says she would rather hire people than pay for more AI. "I'd rather use that money to hire a couple of part-time employees, or one full-time employee, to take some of this off my plate, instead of upgrading my Claude account to do more," she said.
Why this matters for creatives
Russell's approach offers a working model for creative professionals who want AI to handle the parts of business they never learned without touching the work they love. She uses AI for data analysis, research, and organization, and keeps her creative eye in charge of the products. She also stays aware of her usage and where she draws the line - a useful discipline for anyone adding AI to a creative business. For creatives who want to build similar systems, Claude AI Training and Resources offers a place to start.
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