Coming up with an idea for a business or creative project can feel exhilarating. Inspiration for a new idea can come from so many places and we’ve asked some great folks from the community to share their stories of how they came up with their ideas.

Catherine Rawlings

I never set out to be a small business owner. I simply followed my passion and this is where it led me. It all started about 10 years ago. I was living the dream in Los Angeles, pursuing an acting career and studying at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. While in school, I needed to find a side job and that’s when I started doing princess parties. I fell in love with it! It combined my love for acting, princesses and children and made me happier than anything else I’d ever done. Read more>>

Mayra Whaley

Ever since I was little I loved to eat cheese, I was almost never allowed to shred or crumble cheese for dinner because half of it would end up eaten by me. Fast forward to my twenties my husband and I traveled to Italy for our honeymoon. My passion and taste buds only grew from there. I would make occasional charcuterie boards for family and friends but then covid hit and everything went stagnant. I was pregnant with my first and times were really uncertain. Read more>>

Sandra Jones-Keller

The work that I do is definitely an evolutionary process. I am first and foremost an energy healer. My approach is loving and gentle. I have over 25 years of experience assisting clients with releasing energy blocks that have paralyzed their lives. I support my clients to: heal wounds from past relationships; receive clarity and guidance on long-standing issues; move forward in their lives; feel more peaceful and anchored; have the courage to follow their dreams; release fears and anxiety; Read more>>

Pranati (Pranoo) Kumar

“Being seen and heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable.” I think of this quote often when thinking about the idea of my kahanee, my story. What does a sacred space and place do for a child? What power does it have for a child to feel seen in their full identity and being. What is your story they ask? Why a bookstore? The idea has been manifesting itself in many ways through experiences. Long before the days of beginning my career and journey in education. I didn’t know it though until I started connecting my work to my story. Getting messy with the personal and professional that led to liberation. Read more>>

Morgan Layton

I had been involved in fitness my entire life from sports growing up through grade school, to running half marathons, and learning different ways to be active and become stronger and creating challenge and enjoyment in my fitness routine. Fitness was always something I was passionate about and enjoyed experiencing with others. It wasn’t until 2020 when COVID hit that I (along many others) decided to take a step towards a professional future with fitness. I worked hard to get my National Academy of Sports Medicine License over that summer while leading virtual workouts for my family and their co-workers and friends. Read more>>

Tania Cardenas

I didn’t set out to create a new small business. DFW Craft Shows just kind of evolved from my own experiences as an artist, crafter, and vendor. I guess the journey started about 12 years ago when I was running my main business at the time: The Curious Cake Shoppe. The Curious Cake Shoppe was my first small business and it was such an exciting time to be creating and sharing my products with the world. My mom even started creating products to add to my shop, and before I knew it she was helping me plan new product launches and attending events with me. We met tons of amazingly talented artists everywhere we went, and we shared so many precious memories along the way. Read more>>

Kyle and Jordan Bridges

In college we worked for 12th Man Productions at Texas A&M working behind the scenes in sports broadcasting and got our first real taste of production and camera work. After graduating in 2014, we got married and stayed in creative fields but had transitioned into work beyond the camera. After a few years we started considering starting up our own shop, and thanks to some friends starting a travel company of their own, Kyle was hired to tag along to create photo and video content for their website and social media channels and Shot Maker Media took off! Read more>>

Mindy Dutka

Six years ago, I was at a point in my life where I had some major life changes: I had moved from New York City to a suburb in Boston, my mom died, and I had remarried. I was also unfilled with my current job. I felt that life was too short to spend my days doing something I didn’t like, so I decided it was time to change careers. My goal was to find something I was passionate about and create a new career for myself. I started researching a few different possibilities and I stumbled upon some information about dog photography. I was intrigued as I am a lifelong dog lover and have always loved photography as a hobby. I had an aha moment and said to myself, looks like dog photography is a “thing”, that’s what I am going to do! Read more>>

Traci Johannson

3SonsFoods began with my son, Luke, who absolutely loved Rhinos so much that he wanted to save them from extinction. Every Birthday party, since the age of 5 yrs old, Luke would ask his friends to bring donations for rhino conservation in lieu of gifts. So 5 yrs into Luke’s philanthropy efforts, we launched our business, when Ayden & George, joined the “charge” & we started selling my creamy cilantro sauce, Diablo Verde, to raise even more money! Read more>>

Hannah Neville

Turnkey Visuals was an idea I came up with while I still had a full time media job for another company. I am honestly not that great at working under people and building other people’s dreams when I have aspirations of my own. I knew that I wanted to branch off and start my own business serving many different clients. I love architecture and all things home design. I have a photography and videography background and I saw a few things in the real estate media industry that I believed I could fix and help put more money in everyone’s pockets. Read more>>

Ashley Bao

I came up with the idea of being a solo beauty business owner purely out of desire for freedom. I hated interviews. I hated asking someone for a job. I hated finding out that the pay was too low. I hated proving that I was good enough to someone who doesn’t value me. What I hated most? The motion of swiping my badge to clock in. I felt like a slave to this stupid little black screen that ruled my life. If I didn’t interact with this black box, my entire life would be in shambles. On top of it all, none of my management appreciated me. Even sometimes would make fun of my last name and never actually help me out. 3% raises weren’t doing it either. Read more>>

Rebeca Pinto Bottone

Eyes And Colors is the name of my business, I paint to create a better reality. I use vibrant colors mixed with eyes to express feelings and moods creating atypical forms to accentuate the expressions. My artwork has a message of positivity, resilience, happiness, hope, joy, love, kindness, energy, good vibes… in the middle of the chaos we live in. Positive scenarios are so needed it for humans, especially in this time when we are experiencing so such lack of kindness and compassion to each other.  Read more>>

Jessica Sonnenberg

I’ll never forget when my friend called me and said “I have cancer.” I know where I was sitting, what I was wearing and how it made me feel. A few days earlier she told me she found a lump and was getting a biopsy but I wasn’t worried, she was young and vibrant, certainly she didn’t have cancer!? As my friend was crying, wondering why this was happening to her, I said things to try and make her (and me) feel better. “Everything’s going to be ok” and “it’s treatable” but there was really nothing I could say to ease her mind during one of the scariest moments of her life. She was young with two young kids, even a best-case scenario was still terrifying. Read more>>

Elizabeth Hanes

When I transitioned from nurse to writer, I never imagined I’d subsequently make another transition from writer to coach – but that’s exactly what happened. After several years of wonderful success as a freelance health writer, I started receiving emails from other nurses who saw my byline on the web and would write to say, “Hey, how can I do this??” I created a boilerplate email response that mapped out the basic steps required to set up a freelance writing business, and some nurses took that bare sketch of freelancing and ran with it to success. Read more>>

Jennifer Gniadecki

I wanted to start a business that was totally *me* and I wanted to also do something to give back and help women in situations I had been in before. All the items I sell are super blinged out or bright highlighters, I wanted something that would go with the way I feel about life now, bright and beautiful. I give 10% of proceeds back to women who are victims of domestic violence and also donate makeovers to help them feel better for what they’ve been through. Read more>>

Sally Bartlett

In my early 40’s I began to experience uncharacteristic mood swings, insomnia, sweating, depression, forgetfulness, crying jags, extreme dry skin and changes in the body I had known and loved for years (regardless of how healthfully I ate). See Dammit…It IS Menopause! page 23, for a more complete list of what I experienced. Seemingly overnight, I no longer recognized myself on several levels. I honestly feared I was facing dementia. Read more>>

Anthony Harris

The idea for the business was formed while taking care of his ill mother (Honey) and I had to quit my full-time job and become my mothers’ caregiver. I had to supplement income so I utilized what my mother had taught me, which was how to cook. I was the youngest of ten siblings and spent majority of my adolescent years in the kitchen watching and learning how to cook. Read more>>

Andrea Tice

I actually kind of fell into this business; it was never meant to be a full time occupation. After completing my undergraduate at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GA Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia in 2004, I went straight into the field of insurance. Insurance was a family business and a comfortable place for me. Then, in 2010 law school sounded like a good idea, so I moved back home to Macon, Georgia where I began my education at the Walter F. George School of Law (Mercer University) in 2011. Read more>>

Saidrian Lovings

I have always loved watching weird movies and extremely interesting documentaries. I figured why not share with the world all the weirdness i’ve seen with the world. My favorite youtuber, Kennie J.D, put the idea in my head with her Bad Movies & A Beat series on youtube and I kind of just wanted to do the same thing, except with more weirder content. I want to do my makeup and skincare routines too as well, I just want to get my weirdness out there. Read more>>

Drenda Williams

In 2018 I authored a non-fiction book, The Will To Live: Finding the Strength Within to Survive recounting the tragic events of my life as a domestic violence victim but also providing guidance to others who are survivors. As I traveled the country to promote the book and raise awareness, there is still a stigma about discussing domestic violence. This sparked the idea of creating ways to increase awareness through non-traditional methods and in 2019, I launched my Reach Back Campaign.  Read more>>

Jacqualyn Woods

I launched Royal Collection in May 2020 at the height of the pandemic. I was working at a company that I was in love with but they were doing layoffs because of the pandemic. I was told my position would no longer be there (even though I moved to Baton Rouge in February of the same year for the job, with the intention of moving to Dallas in a year or two). I launched with accessories at first and realized I really had a knack for being my own boss. The business grew quickly, life circumstances changed and Royal Collection grew to become the “smell good shop” it is today largely because of my son. Read more>>

Amie Williams

I was working in corporate American and I was to the point where I felt like there has to be something more prosperous and less stressful in life than doing this same routine. My last day at work I had an intense exchange with management so I called my husband and he said quit. I immediately sent an a letter of resignation. My husband DJ‘s so when weekend he was out of town for a wedding and he sing a concept that he said that will be able to do and work together. It was a photo booth! Read more>>

Jill Lanyon

Traveling has always been a passion of mine, as is planning and being organized. After planning several Disney trips for my own family and then helping many friends with theirs, I asked myself, how can I get paid for doing this? The timing was right with my husband traveling so much for his work where I needed to have a more flexible job that allowed me to work but also be present in my young girls lives. We got back from a Disney Cruise and I applied. 2 weeks later I accepted my dream job from Hi Ho Vacations as a travel planner. Read more>>

Erin Willis

The idea of opening a restaurant has always been a dream of mine. For nearly 3 decades, I had worked in the restaurant/catering business working for someone else. I didn’t consider starting my own business until I had pushed my 2 kids out the door to college (still working all the way!) and just waiting for the right time. When that time came, which was totally unexpected, I was presented with the opportunity to open a restaurant in my neighborhood, Lake Highlands. Read more>>

Miriam Temple

The idea for this company developed while I was working in Houston, TX in the county health department. I encountered a lot of food truck and restaurant owners that were not educated in food safety. Many owners did not have the time to keep up to date on food regulation changes and in general needed continuing education from food safety professionals. I decided to create a company with a group of food safety professionals in order to provide our customers with an affordable way to help restaurant owners promote food safety in their establishments. Read more>>

Diana Diaz

I’ve always enjoyed going out to eat to new places and exploring my city and I wanted to share my experiences with others. Couple of years ago my cousin suggested that I should start a food Instagram page about restaurants In Houston and around our city. During 2019, I started a food Instagram page called Dianadhtx where I shared pictures of all the restaurants and local places in Houston that I’ve been going to. Read more>>

Terry Rickman

Coming up with the idea of where to take my business was something that developed over many years. I started out wanting to create portraits of people just being themselves, appearing comfortable and confident in front of the camera. I began as a commercial headshot photographer specifically focusing on creating headshots that helped people stand out and not look like they just went down to the DMV. After a few years of this I felt like there was something missing that I wanted to be doing to better serve people, and more specifically the LGBTQ+ community as well as marginalized bodies. Read more>>

Brad Todd

We were 2 years into starting our agency—This\That—and were struggling with 2 major issues. The first was an inability to deliver work to our clients in a timely manner. We were taking on too many projects and behind on everything. The second issue was that we were struggling to find our unique position in the market. What can we say that no other creative or branding agency can? Because of this, we were facing major burnout and uncertainty of how sustainable This\That could be. Read more>>

Vanessa Liebl

Most good stories start off with a rough beginning followed by a tumultuous struggle to thrive before success is obtained. Choice MD’s story is no different. The concept of Choice MD came to me after living with a Multiple Sclerosis for about 10 years. Ultimately, it was necessary to struggle navigating the healthcare system to come up with a better solution. Only after facing the challenges head on was I able to come up with a better solution. Read more>>

ML Preston

The idea of writing was never a foreign concept to me. Since I was in middle school, I always wanted to tell stories or depict the lives of others in a way that would allow those who read them to live vicariously. In fact, my friend and I had produced our own magazine. She was good with the graphic arts side of it and I was responsible for the articles. We went as far as to calling printing companies for price quotes to actually have it published. We were very ambitious in our desires, but being in the sixth grade kind of limited us at that time. But my desire didn’t end there. Read more>>

Elisha Davis

I came up with the idea for my company, Diamond n the Ruff, after I lost another job due to my health issues. I decided that I didn’t want to go through that anymore, I didn’t want to lose another job or keep losing jobs due to my health issues. I was already taking care of my own hair and I wanted to come up with a product line so I decided to go to beauty school so I can learn about hair and come up with my own products. Because at the time of me doing my own hair there weren’t as many natural hair products for locs at least none that I really liked or cared for lol. Read more>>

Tonica Johnson

Before I started my business, I was a high school English teacher. As I was helping my students with their admissions essays, it spiraled to helping them with other parts of their applications, finding schools that had their majors, showing them which schools they’d be most likely to get scholarships at, etc. I remember sitting there wondering why there wasn’t more personalized guidance for a process that is such a huge investment of time and money, and boom- that’s when I initially started to think about Cardinal College Planning. Read more>>

Kelsey Davidson

Whimsy Charcuterie actually started as Whimsy Picnics, an idea born from a tired and defeated nurse during the pandemic. In 2020 I was still a fairly new RN working in dialysis, providing treatments to some of the ICUs most fragile patients. The work was interesting and fulfilling and I thought I would continue working in dialysis for the remainder of my career. When the pandemic hit I quickly went from loving what I did as a nurse to dreading waking up every day to go to work. Read more>>

Justin Mathys

I have always wanted to open a restaurant since culinary school.  I did not know it would be a bakery. I had spent 3 years working as a chef with north beach village after they opened their first property the royal palms. I worked for the company while I was in school. I wanted more experience as I had already been working in kitchens since I was 15 but never as a chef.  I got my degree in baking and pastry but took the path of the private chef right after culinary school. After a few years of working in estates and yachts, I missed being in a kitchen atmosphere. Working in a team is something I really enjoy. Read more>>

Ellyce Fulmore

The story of how my business came about is definitely not conventional, but I think it really highlights how the most important thing you can do is just START. As you make decisions, fail, get rejected, try again, succeed, rinse and repeat, you’ll learn more about the direction you want to go. My story begins when I was in my 4th year of my kinesiology degree, and just admitted to myself that I no longer wanted to pursue a master’s in physiotherapy once I graduated. I was feeling very lost and confused, so I threw myself into personal development. I started listening to podcasts, reading books, and attending local entrepreneurial events. Read more>>

Chloe Lewis

I came up with the idea of PicturePostcard when I realized my life was Postcard worthy. My blog encompasses all the things I love: good food, travel and romance. PicturePostcard originally started out as a creative outlet for me to pour more into the things I’m passionate about. As my page started to grow in size, I decided to start looking at ways to monetize my talents. Read more>>

Tyler Leclerc

I would honestly say I fell into the business over time. I started out as a player myself, training myself to be the best player possible all throughout high school. I also noticed one of my teammates, Evan Cook, had a lot of potential, with him being younger than me I took him under my wing and had him start working out alongside me. Slowly that progressed to me training him for free on the side just because I enjoyed helping him so much. We did this for about 2 years continuously trying to progress his game and through this, I started to gain a love for training other people. Read more>>

Safeera Inayath

One morning in October of 2015 I decided I bake pretty well with good flavors, so why not make it a business as I did not want to join the corporate world for a job. I had only learned baking that same year by watching tv shows and YouTube. I did a 4 sessions of learning how to make buttercream flowers at a local craft store.,,, and after that it was practice. Read more>>

Ricardo Mompremier

The idea for FrshFaith, Make Jesus Famous started with me being ashamed of my faith. Before I started FrshFaith, I owned and ran a street brand apparel called DesignerSouth. I’m from Miami so the brand reflected money, fun, pleasure, or plain and simple, the fast life. That brand conflicted with my faith so I did DesignerSouth to become known as an apparel brand designer and I thought it was the quickest way to making it in life. Read more>>