Founded in July 2023 by Anja Mertl, The Vegan Shop is a toxin-free, cruelty-free, and fully vegan skincare brand created to make clean, conscious beauty more accessible. 

After seeing how limited ingredient transparency was in the industry, Anja set out to build a brand rooted in sustainability and care for both people and the planet. 

Along with The Vegan Shop, Anja also runs a marketing agency and works as a certified fitness coach, growing her client base and building both businesses in parallel. Across all three ventures, content creation is a major part of how she connects with her audience, promotes her services, and drives growth.

For a time, Anja managed all of this herself by using her weekends to DIY and line up creative. 

It quickly became unsustainable. 

Running three businesses means juggling competing priorities. To keep her brands consistent and her output steady, she needed a reliable way to deliver polished content across every channel.

Like many entrepreneurs, she faced a few key challenges:

• Managing content across multiple brands and platforms
• Trying to stay ahead on marketing collateral (brochures, posts, reels, LinkedIn assets)
• Protecting her time and energy while juggling admin tasks and a full-time job

To keep up with demand, she partnered up with Design Pickle. With a real creative system in place, Anja could shift her energy into building her businesses.

Anja went from spending hours on DIY design to now being able to drop her creative tasks into a trusting team at Design Pickle. It created the space she needed to focus and accelerate all her ventures and ultimately achieved:

• Growing her agency from zero to ten active clients: Client proposals, marketing materials, and branded content were delivered on time and on brand, letting her focus on service and strategy.
• Expanded to four local retail stores: The Vegan Shop grew beyond online sales by placing products on shelves in local stores, reaching more customers in person.
• Developed clear, distinct brands across three businesses: Anja made sure each venture had its own voice and look in order to help her audiences stay connected. 

But design is often deeper than looks. It’s how you build stronger customer connections and protect your brand’s reputation. Each business creates its own value and a strong brand limits the risks that come from mixed or blurred messaging. With Design Pickle supporting, Anja was able to nail that balance.
 

Anja exemplifies how entrepreneurs can build thriving businesses without walking away from career security. 

With Design Pickle as her creative partner, she scaled her agency, expanded her product line, and built a strong, consistent presence across multiple markets—all while maintaining her full-time job.

Design Pickle gave her:

• A way to batch content creation without losing momentum.
• Design support that feels like an extension of her team.
• The freedom to keep her creative energy focused on what she loves.

Time is a critical resource for many small business owners. Instead of creating social posts and brand assets herself every weekend, Anja saves over 8 hours a week by simply handing off her creative tasks to Design Pickle. That’s 8 more hours a week now dedicated to coaching, product development, and growing her beauty brand.

Design Pickle also unlocked new content opportunities Anja couldn’t manage solo. Video content can be one of the hardest, and most time-consuming, projects to DIY as a small business owner. With access to Design Pickle’s video editors and different types of motion graphics, Anja can execute professional-grade video content without the burden of editing or production.

Anja’s advice is clear: don’t fall into the trap of doing everything yourself. By continuously testing designs and exploring new ideas, she keeps her brands evolving without losing momentum.

“Yes, you can do it all, but should you? Probably not.”

Looking ahead, Anja is confident in her approach: focus on what fuels her passion and lean on her trusted partners to support the rest.