When businesses are covered in the media, often there is a lot of focus on the initial idea, the genesis moment. Then they almost brush over the middle part – the scaling up part – and arrive at how big and awesome the business is today. It makes for a fun read or in the case of a movie or show an entertaining watch, but it’s also a missed opportunity. The middle part – the scaling up part is where so many small business owners get stuck. It’s the part so many of us need more guidance with and so we wanted to get conversations going on the topic of scaling up.

John Batchelor

I started the business with modest aspirations. I had been working in business development for various B2B service companies. At the same time, I was working on our 1890’s Queen Anne Victorian, and I began sharing furniture and furnishings that I was building in our house to social media. It did not take long for people to begin reaching out and asking me to make them things. Read more>>

Alicia Padilla

Scaling my wedding photography business wasn’t a straight line, it was more like a series of steep hills, tough pivots, and occasional leaps of faith. When I started, I was doing everything myself: shooting weddings, editing until 2 a.m., answering emails between school pickups, and managing bookings with a baby on my hip. I wasn’t building a team at that point—I was just trying to stay afloat. Read more>>

Andrea Eppolito

When I launched my wedding planning business, few believed that Las Vegas could ever be synonymous with large-scale, opulent weddings. At the time, the city was known more for fast elopements and kitschy chapels than it was for luxury and grandeur. But I had a different vision. Having helped open the Bellagio in 1998 and later working with the opening team at the Venetian, I saw firsthand that Las Vegas had the core competencies, the talent, and the infrastructure to produce extraordinary events. The potential was there — it just needed someone to tap into it with intentionality and artistry. Read more>>

Maisha Colter, LCSW, JD

We have built a strong reputation in the community doing the unique work we do. We have made collaborators of stakeholders. We do not duplicate services, and we try to offer something relatively unique and solution-focused. Read more>>