Growing and scaling a business is hard and we wanted to hear from business owners who have successfully scaled a business. Below, you’ll find our conversations on scaling with some very talented and insightful folks.

Christian Wilson

The way I grew to where I am today I feel was a bit of effort, connections, and marketing. To grow your company you have to give a large amount of effort. You are the only one who can make or break it. So go as hard as you can. For connections – From my previous years of playing college football – I was able to meet a lot of people. One of my largest events(which grew my name) was Diner En Blanc. It’s an event where everyone wears white, Invite only, and you bring your own tables and meals. Read more>>

Belinda Santos

I was born and raised by a single mother in The Bronx, New York in the 70’s. My mother worked hard and made sure she provided for me. Even though we lived in public housing my mother made sure I went to private school to get the best education possible. She wanted to make sure I would graduate and leave the projects and achieve more out of life. Seeing her work ethic made me also want o work hard to achieve more for my children. My mother eventually retired from work and moved to Kissimmee, FL. I stayed in NY and had my 1st son when I was 18. I made sure to still go to college and work hard to provide for him. Read more>>

Holly & Andrew

Scaling is HARD. To be perfectly honest, we wouldn’t say we’ve scaled yet. We’re still a very small channel and it can be daunting work, especially when you see other channels you look up to growing with seeming ease. But the key is persistence. In our world, we have to continue to focus on the why behind what we do. We make travel vlogs because they’re a fun way to capture our trips, watch them again in the future and remember the good times we had. If we weren’t building this because we loved it, would it really be worth it? (Something to ask yourself!) Read more>>

Nicole DeHoff

Being a photographer is both rewarding and difficult. The market is so saturated with other photographers and finding the right clients can be a challenge. I’ve built my business on a luxury brand. I want to stand out from the others and provide my clients with something that they can walk away from saying “wow”. Read more>>

Leslie Sharp

Thank you for allowing me to share with your readers. Yes, my marketing business is significantly larger than I first began. Today, our agency has a full roster of both retainer and project clients. Within our first year in business, I could pay myself two and half times what I earned at my most recent job. I have two paid team members, and our agency revenue increases quarterly. Read more>>

Bryce Alsten

There are many factors that go into scaling a business. Arguably the biggest factor is building scalable, repeatable systems and processes throughout the company. Tied to that is automation of old tasks. At some point, you will find yourself repeating the same tasks over and over. This is the point at which you must ask yourself how you can automate this so that you can get back to “working on your business, not in your business”. Read more>>

Dianne Lawson, Astrologer

Being an astrologer in Topeka, Kansas and making a good living at it seems improbable. The reason why I was able to scale up and build my business was because I continually have treated what I do as a business, as well as a service to others. I had worked for many years as a social worker and have degrees in social work and psychology. I knew that I needed to take classes and workshops in business, marketing and public relations. Read more>>

Chance Shannon

Starting a business is one thing, but maintaining a business day to day and working to make it a successful one is totally different. Trying to make beneficial investments, marketing to make your business well known, and creating consistent revenue can be very nerve wrecking to say the least. When becoming a barber I always knew that I didn’t want to be “just” a barber. I wanted to maximize my skill and tap into the industry as much as I could. This included opening my own shop, becoming a traveling barber, as well as starting my own product line. After cutting in a shop for a few years, and creating a solid clientele I felt that it was time to scale up. Read more>>

Aaron Thomas

I have worked as a professional DJ for the last 20-plus years, which started as a hobby. When I first started, the idea of being a DJ full-time was considered a joke by my family and friends. People only view the job of a DJ as someone just planning music loud, but in reality, we are creating memories for the listener. Starting working events around the college campus for student organizations as a freshman led up to working directly for the university’s large recruitment events and football games. Read more>>

Katie Garcia

I founded Gather Media Co. right before the pandemic and was terrified it would all come crashing down! However, prior to the launch of my business, I scheduled coffees and lunches with as many people as possible. Some were friends, some were acquaintances and some were people that others recommended I meet with. I told them about my business, asked for advice and gave them some free marketing tips if they needed them! My goal during these meet-ups was not to sell myself, but to bring awareness to Gather Media Co. These meet-ups helped me to establish the word of mouth referrals and to build my business to where it is today with multiple employees and a double-digit client roster! Read more>>

Meagan Culkin

A few years into my business, I was asked to coordinate two weddings that happened to fall on the same day. Being that I didn’t have a team at the time, I either had to pass on the opportunity or find someone who I trusted that could help on the wedding day. I called one of my sorority sisters who I knew had worked in events in the past, and over a shared bowl of queso at Moe’s, I hired my first team member. Read more>>

MARIANA MOLERO

My name is Mariana Molero. I am the mother of Diego and Paola Fernandez, Adolfo Fernandez’s wife, a Venezuelan attorney, and a human rights advocate. My husband and I arrived in the US in September 2005. Since then, we started our immigration journey. When I arrived in the US I have very poor knowledge of the language, and I barely speak English until 2010, when after being a stay-at-home mom, I decided to learn the language and pursuit my career in the US. Read more>>

Marixa Okafor

I started sketching the idea of creating a real estate sorority for women of color in 2019. My focus for Black Women of Real Estate Sorority was to (1) change the image of how society view professional women of color, (2) create a safe place for women to grow professionally and personally by creating a bond through sisterhood, (3) encourage motivation, support and education with the understanding that there is room for all women to be success and reach their highest potential with envy, competition or fear from others, and (4) join together to reach the common goals aligned within our sorority mission. Read more>>

Alexis Aro

I grew Lashed and Bronzed from the ground up. I started off in my very own living room back in 2018 where I took on learning lashes on the side after finishing up my 9-5 corporate job each day. When I started out, I would set monthly goals for myself. At first my goal was to take 1 new client every day and gear towards bringing in maybe an extra $600 bucks or so. I focused on building for a year. I worked every other weekend and 2-4 nights out of the week after work sometimes until midnight. Eventually the foot traffic grew so much that I was ready to relocate to a more professional setting. Read more>>

Quinnettra Blackshear

When I first thought about coming into the industry of event planning/decorator it was tough. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to jump out there and begin to plan a major wedding or party from start to finish. So, I had to really sit and think how can I slowly scale up in this business. So, I started out creating balloon pieces in June of 2019. Now, beginning of 2022 I was blessed to be able to branch out and begin event planning/decorator. Read more>>

Eric Tillis

We created our blueprint by integrating new systems and having great team! Our team is composed of long time friends, family, and classmates from Wiley college. Read more>>