Establishing your own firm or practice is an incredibly daunting task. From myriad of legal and regulatory hurdles to the financial and career related risks, professionals who choose to start their own firm have to overcome so much and so we wanted to reach out to those who’ve done it successfully for advice, insight and stories.

Olivia Figueroa

When I was in college I was teaching barre and figuring out which career path I wanted to take in the wellness space. I always knew it was going to be something that aligned with my ballet background and my passion for movement. I also knew that I wanted to create something unique of my own completely different from the average 9-5. Taking this path can be quite challenging, especially when you aren’t receiving assistance financially and also putting yourself through college. There were many difficult times where I doubted myself and felt lost. Achieving this dream of having my own brand took a lot of hard work, consistency, and authenticity (also very tough skin!). Prioritizing your career goals and surrounding yourself with other like-minded individuals would be the best advice for anyone starting out. Read more>>

Amy Adler

I actually only made the decision to start my own firm about 2 years ago when the CPA firm I had worked at for 6 years delayed my promotion to partner due to the pandemic. I’d always thought I’d work my way up the corporate ladder throughout my career and never even considered starting my own business. It seemed way too risky as a single mom with a need to provide for myself and my kids on my own. Read more>>

Breanne Turner

I worked to earn my Personal Training Certification in 2015 while I was in the process of breaking up with a fitness MLM due to misalignment with values. What’s that saying? ‘Know better, do better,’ right? I think it’s important to give a bit of context to help understand why and how I got to this point so allow me to share a bit! Read more>>

Miche’Lynne McCarter-Bell

After years of working in corporate, I decided to step out on faith and start my own HR firm. I decided to start my firm because HR was misunderstood and often misrepresented in organizations and I wanted to play a part in redesigning the narrative. While HR handles, hiring, firing, compliance, and development, we also play a huge part in helping the organization and team grow. Read more>>

Curtis (CJ) Jones

Sitting in a church service I found myself researching in the bible the word Crowns. The why would come later. As I searched the meaning of Crowns in the bible I found 7 that would become the ethics, basis, and speak to how I would conduct business. This would be a business whereas I would apply Department of Homeland Security Mitigation practices used to prevent domestic terrorism in critical infrastructure protection. I would rewrite the book, develop programs for protection and provide training to places of worship regardless of denomination. Read more>>

Nannette Ray

My husband and I decided to start our own firm back in 2000. I was eight (8) months pregnant with my third child and working at PriceWatershouseCoopers, one of the Big Four accounting firms. I was assigned to a project in San Francisco, CA and had to get a doctor’s note to fly at eight (8) months of my pregnancy to San Francisco. Read more>>

Camecia Clark

I opened the doors of my private practice in March of 2019 amid COVID. When opening my private practice it was very scary crossing over from clinician to owner of a business. The key challenges were finding location, and getting credentialed with insurance panels. There were several key challenges in opening a private practice such a taking insurance vs self-pay. I got into therapy to help people who looked like me get the treatment that they needed. I decided to take insurance because working class people need affordable, effective and quality treatment. But the biggest challenge was COVID and face to face therapy transitioning to Telehealth which was new to everyone. Read more>>

Richardo Jackson

Over the last 21 years, I’ve worked for other companies building and growing their organizations, and I was really satisfied with just doing. A few people would say Richardo – you are really great at this, you should really go into business for yourself. For some reason I just kept saying I love what I do. I love helping companies to develop, implement, training and evaluate programs and staff. Read more>>

Andrea Russo

Starting a private practice from scratch was both exhilarating and frightening, especially when there was zero training in how to run a business while in grad school. I come from a long line of business owners and dreamt of having my own business one day, but once I started my career I was fearful that was a pipe dream. I started in community treatment as a team lead; I had no idea what I was doing, I was overworked, underpaid, and the team that I led lacked passion. I was seeing a side to running a business that did not seem attainable or fulfilling. Read more>>

Molly Poenitzsch

We started our physical therapy from an empty building, which my husband helped to design to make it optimal for patients as well as the physical therapists. One of the key challenges in setting up our practice was establishing ourselves in the community and getting referrals from the different doctors in the area. It was a struggle trying to get to share our story with many doctors because they already had established physical therapy clinics that they sent their patients to. And when we felt like our clientele and our reputation were being built up, COVID hit us hard and we lost so many patients. I wasn’t sure if we would get through the pandemic. Read more>>

Aaron Turpeau

I have always valued my freedom. I also believe that time equals life. So an hour is a unit of time but for me an hour is a unit of life as well. So it is very valuable. It also means that if someone else controls my time. That also means that that entity controls my life as well. And if someone is controlling my life, then I am not free. Read more>>