I built my multimillion-dollar company alone. I'm still frugal and had to let some clients walk away to get here.

• Kiki Ayers is the CEO of Ayers Publicity, which she founded while homeless.
• This year, the company is projected to make about $3.7 million.
• Ayers grew the company exponentially while she was pregnant with her son.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kiki Ayers, the CEO of Ayers Publicity. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2016, I walked through the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel, trying to look like I belonged there. Two years before, my job had put me up in the hotel, and I remembered that it had fancy bathrooms with stalls that extended all the way to the floor and ceiling. Now, I hoped one of those stalls would give me a safe place to stay for the night.

A few years before, I had moved from New York and Los Angeles for a job working for a musician. I left that job after two and a half years, expecting to find something new quickly. But I wasn't getting any callbacks. I patched together gigs as an entertainment reporter but had no consistent work. Before long I couldn't pay my rent, so I crashed at friend's houses or stayed in hostels when I had money.

That night at the hotel, I truly had nowhere to go. I shut the stall door, hoping no one would notice me. I took a few minutes to cry and wonder how I ended up in this situation. Then, I started focusing on how I could get out of it.

It wasn't the first time I'd be homeless

Because I was doing some freelancing entertainment reporting, I had lots of public relationship pitches in my inbox. I thought I could teach myself how to pitch to clients. I started emailing industry contacts and picked up a few clients. I charged them $500 a month. Since I still had no address, I had the payments sent to a friend's house.

After about four months of that, I had saved enough money to afford a one-bedroom apartment, which I shared with my brother. We didn't care that it was tiny. We were just so happy to have a roof over our heads. That wasn't always the case in our family: when I was in high school, my mom, brother, and I lived in a car because we were homeless.

My company really took off during an unplanned pregnancy

I had never considered being an entrepreneur. I thought it was amazing that I made decent money through my company.

In 2018, two years after I started the company, I unexpectedly became pregnant. When I was about four months along, I left my boyfriend. Knowing I would be a single mom kicked me into panic mode. I upped my rates, charging about $1,500 a month per client.

Then, I emailed competitors, posing as potential clients, to find out their rates. When I learned they charged $5,000, I increased my monthly rates to $3,500 per client. And I had a bunch of clients.

During my pregnancy, my business really glowed up. The last four months of my pregnancy I brought in $160,000.

I pivoted from celebs to business and tech clients

My son was born in December, which is a quiet time of year in LA, so I naturally had some time off with him. But soon, I was back to work, planning a major celebrity birthday party in February.

Working with celebrities was so time-consuming. I started realizing that people in business and tech were willing to pay more, and they needed less, which meant I could take on more clients. Soon, I signed $200,000 annual contracts with clients while growing my client roster. I was so busy that I started hiring people and contracting with freelancers.

I know my worth and don't back down

In 2024, my business made about $3 million. I am still surprised by the financial security I have. I'm very frugal and a bit afraid of losing it all. I put money in the bank or invest it, then don't touch it.

I've been so successful because I know my worth and am not willing to compromise on it. I'm willing to let clients walk away if they think my prices are too high because I know they're fair. And the ones who walk away almost always come back.

I've also had to accept that I don't know everything about business or wealth. I hire people who can do tasks I don't enjoy or am not good at. You have to be real with yourself about where your strengths are.

Now that I have more money than I could have ever imagined, I want to give back. I started a nonprofit called MyBestKidLife, which focused on education, relief of natural disasters, and supporting low-income families. I'm lucky to have gotten myself out of a terrible situation, and I want to help others do the same.