Going from idea to execution isn’t easy. Part of the difficulty is that often there is no playbook to follow and while we can’t offer a playbook either, we wanted to create a space where aspiring entrepreneurs could read the stories of how some very smart, very thoughtful entrepreneurs form the community got started.

Ishani Vyas

I started my own in January 2o21. It took me a few months to get adjusted to be a business owner. I had to learn how to keep up with my appointments and find places to get my products to maximize the cost saving. It is one of the best decisions I made to have my own business as every decision that needs to be made for business are mine. I learn from my mistakes and always looking up for a way to improve my business. I have been able to travel more ever since I have owned my business to attend training classes to learn a new skill being a manicurist. During the pandemic I was not able to work due to restrictions of social distance and during those months I kept thinking everyday that should I open up my own business or keep working for someone else. The fear of failing and giving up on a consistency always lingered around me. I had enough client commitments to start slowly but definitely needed more. I created my Instagram page and my own website and started posting pictures of my work and start promoting in the area as well to get more clients. I provided promotions online if people booked their appointments with me. Read More>>

Chris Edwards and Noelly Loza

Chris: Yeah, so I had the idea for the pod in my late twenties, back in 2021, because I’d spent those years learning hard life lessons and I just knew it was all going to be better in my 30’s. I tabled the idea at the time because I was too afraid, but it came back to me in 2023 when Noelly and I started doing weekly walks. We’d talk about life in such a profound way that I was like “girl, we should do a podcast”
Noelly: We spent the first six months figuring out who we wanted to be and what we wanted to put out. It honestly wasn’t as structured as it could’ve been, but whatever. We knew there was A LOT for us to learn and we were willing to learn on the job, so we got right to it. We thought through all the topics we wanted to cover and flushed those ideas out, which eventually led to us having 3 seasons worth of topics pre-planned. We dreamed of who we wanted on the podcast and reached out to a dear friend who we want to involve in several of our episodes and planned out her episodes. Read More>>

Krystal Norman

From Humble Beginnings to Supreme Eats Houston: A Journey of Growth and Discovery
It all started in a very humble way. I never imagined that a simple moment in my kitchen would lead to the launch of my luxury catering company, Supreme Eats Houston. My friend was staying at my house for a while while her new home was being built. She was all about fitness and was focused on maintaining a clean, healthy diet. One evening, she offered me a meal prep she’d purchased, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I could do better. Not just in taste, but in creating something truly special. Read More>>

Emily Grummel

At first I was selling my clothes just for extra cash. I didn’t really think about starting a business out of it until I started to see the demand it was creating for me. I have 10+ years of fashion retail experience and so I had the inventory available, along with the knowledge of how to sell clothing. I started to brainstorm what my niche would be, and came up with The Design Movement. An inclusive sustainability brand. My objective was providing quality second hand garments to my clients while offering services such as styling. To begin I started using family and friends as my clients to get the word out. I offered discounted styling services in exchange for an honest review. I started to build my client base and my inventory. It took some time to curate the type of items that I wanted to offer in my store. I was able to take my time while sourcing and come up with some really great pieces to sell. This helped build more traction to my shop. Read More>>

Winslyn Parrish

When I arrived at Florida A&M University in 2018, I made a promise to myself: I would stand out and make a meaningful impact. My second semester, I felt it was time to act on that promise. With guidance from my mentor, I decided to run for sophomore class vice president. I campaigned, connected with my peers, and won. That victory gave me a taste of the impact I could have and the potential that came with these leadership roles. Read More>>

Jada Taylor

When I first started Mixd Fashion, it wasn’t my initial dream, I actually had more interest in film and being a costumer designer.

In high school, I was already designing, making costumes for the drama club, interning on film sets, and just loving the process telling a story with clothing. I knew I wanted to take my passion for clothing and design and turn it into a career. Read More>>

Charles And Candice Mintz

The idea to execution process took some trial and error, initially we had another brand in the fitness realm called Hustle Hard Fitness and IAC Lyfestyle (Intelligence and Confidence) was supposed to be a separate project focusing on apparel. While we thought the Hustle Hard thing would take off, we realized it was pretty generic. After speaking to my youngest brother, he actually came up with scrapping HH Fitness and making IAC the main brand and telling our story through it. He then connected me with his graphic designer who drew up the logo for IAC for us, and after much back and forth (I didn’t initially like the design/logo for IAC) we finally decided to move forward with the logo. Next thing we did was get some outside input on the logo, we had folks that loved it, some were indifferent, some flat out told us they wouldn’t wear it… All motivation!! From there we went to finding apparel, which proved to be more of a daunting task than we expected. Read More>>

Lisa Quintana

Back in 2019 I was living outside of Nashville TN and I stumbled across a small shack with rows of paddle boards. It was the winter time so it wasn’t operating. I was so excited about trying it I contacted the owner via Instagram. That summer during Covid limited capacity classes were running and I signed up for my first SUP Yoga class. I was instantly hooked. In 2021 our family decided to move back to Central Florida and we along a chain of lakes. The owner of Nashville SUP offered Paddle Board Yoga training so I decided to give it a go September of 2022. I started hosting classes with friends and decided it was time to start my own business. Read More>>

Kaitlyn Mitchell

When thinking about beginning Lovely Links, I contemplated the idea for a long time. Did I have band with to start my own business? Could I even do it? Did I have what it takes? How much investment would it take both financially and with time? I had seen other permanent jewelry companies and thought it could be a pretty cool thing to do but was there more to what I was seeing? The more I thought and prayed about it, the more I realized the idea wasn’t going away. I felt peace about it so I decided to just go for it despite all the unanswered questions. Read More>>

Adam Allport

The start of Motorized Moments Co was something that had been in the works before I had even realized it. As a child I was always taking pictures on my phone or iPod while attending car shows, races, and local events but little did I know this would later transpire into a dream and eventually my day to day! A couple years back, while the world seemed to still be in slo motion, I started to attend more car events again and dive back into my love of taking pictures at these events. While doing these pictures, editing, watching educational videos I finally realized that I wanted this to be more than just a hobby but be something that my life was centered on. Read More>>

Anh Huynh

The idea of our business came as I was watching an award show where celebrities would do a high speed slow motion video on the red carpet. I thought the videos were so entertaining that even the most famous celebrity would enjoy this. While looking into this device, I stumbled upon 360 videos at smaller events like birthdays, graduations, or weddings and thought “WOW” this is a very cool concept for smaller scale events. We did a lot of research on 360 booths and how to start a small business in the photobooth industry. Our first 3 months, we sought out opportunities within our inner circle and offered our services for free as a way to promote and also to understand the needs, behaviors, and preferences of specific clients. We spent that time to learn from our each events and how to perfect it even more for the next. Read More>>

Madeline Mulvey

My latest venture is starting my podcast, You’ll Get There. It started with my roommate and I constantly having a convo about the state of fashion, marketing, and the creative industry and brands dominating the space. We were comparing life working in advertising for many brands vs working for a fashion brand. Then the idea lit up—what if we started recording our conversations and made a podcast? So, we got to work. We thought … how simple starting a podcast. But no, like starting anything, comes many unexpected challenges. We had to practice our speaking style and synergies, we had to brand the podcast, spend countless days trying to think of a name, and then actually record, and hope we sound good as hosts. But then we stopped overthinking and just did the thing. Recording and posting weekly. Not caring what people think. Read More>>

Mike Prosky

The idea for a trash-to-curb service type business came from my brother. He was very excited to share this with me. When I heard the idea, I knew immediately that I had to bring this idea to fruition. I came up with the name and logo that same day, made a Facebook business page, ordered uniforms and was ready to start….until I didn’t. Read More>>