Do you remember your first hire? There is so much that goes into building a company, but few things matter as much the quality of the team you assemble. Given the immense importance of team building, we wanted to create a series where we ask entrepreneurs who have been there and done that, to share their stories and lessons with the community.

Jimmy Everett

My wife Ilia and I took out an SBA loan to purchase a family style restaurant called Scully’s. It was a very successful and smooth running business. The employees that were working there were all great for that type of restaurant and most had worked there over 5 years. We ran the restaurant as it was for a couple months to give us some time to organize permits for our simple remodel that was supposed to be about 5 weeks from closing to reopening. We had decided that we wanted to keep an opportunity for everyone that was there when we re opened as Driftwood, knowing that it was going to take a lot of work to get everyone up to where they needed to be. Read more>>

Carolina Escobar Downie

I started out Namaste Sports as a one-woman show. I taught all the yoga classes and coached all the soccer sessions my business offered, as well as managing all the backend operations of the business. I continued this way for a couple years before I realized that the way I was going to scale my business, was by building a team. Read more>>

Brittany Ranew

I started out as a solo entrepreneur. I realized that if I wanted to grow past where I was, I needed help. I wrestled with my first hire because I was concerned about giving control away and also concerned about the financial commitment. After talking it through with my business coach I realized I was having an “all or nothing” mindset. I was stuck thinking that I had to make the perfect hire and have it all lined up perfectly for it to go right. Once I thought through it more, it helped me release some of that pressure I was putting on myself and whoever that first hire was going to be. It didn’t have to be a perfect. It was fluid and it could change. I just needed to take that first step in delegating and trust that it would grow from there. Read more>>

Bailey Floyd

When I first launched Bais Creative & Public Relations in June 2021, I had the initial idea of freelancing under my LLC until I found a company that I wanted to branch off and make my full-time focus. But with all the initial client interest I received when I launched, due to word of mouth referrals, I re-fell in love with agency life and how spontaneous and different each day can be. Roughly four months in, I had taken on as many clients as I was able to handle by myself. At the time, my younger sister was the manager at Victoria Secret and I brought her on to help me manage company materials as well as a few different client accounts. Read more>>

Diva Velasquez

My journey in the finance industry began as an Agent for my company. I joined New York Life in 2014. New York Life is a company founded in 1845 so there were already processes in place when i joined. I was promoted two years later into the Latino Market which in my new role i was responsible for hiring Latino agents for our office. Orlando is a melting pot of cultures so it gave me the opportunity to hire individuals from over 20 Latin countries and help grow our Latin American Field Force. In 2020, Read more>>