Coming up with an idea for a business or creative project can feel exhilarating. Inspiration for a new idea can come from so many places and we’ve asked some great folks from the community to share their stories of how they came up with their ideas.

Lauren Scorey

I’ve wanted to do photography since I was in high school. Some of my favorite memories are of my dad letting me use his “fancy” camera. I’d take pictures of wildlife, of nature, our family pets… really whatever was available. There’s something special about being behind the camera and being able to create these memories for people. It wasn’t until last year that I really started moving from taking pictures of just my personal dogs to making this into a business venture. Read more>>

Precious Monèt

Everyone has a story and Precious Monèt story started when she was a little girl being influenced by her father who started his entrepreneurship journey at the age of 16. She always knew she would become her own entrepreneur one day, but she just wasn’t sure what she wanted to do that would be impactful. Her parents are always her inspiration and as she grew older and continued to see the ongoing strength in her parents and how they would impact their community, it is in her DNA to become who she is. Read more>>

The Herbal Cup & Bakehouse

In our personal lives, we strive to nurture our bodies with the best quality foods and drinks that we can find, yet at the same time searching for delicious variety. We noticed a need for more high quality, nutritious options in our community and decided to venture out to find a way to fill the void, while also putting our own unique spin on the typical baked good or elixir. Read more>>

Eric Carpenter

I started shaving my head back in 2010 and I used the normal name brand shaving products that you would get on a shelf at any local grocer or retail store. In 2017 I decided to start using shaving products that were more geared towards bald heads. Back then there was only one company that was solely catering to bald men, so I tried their products and was left a little disheartened. Read more>>

Ryan & Courtnie Delpesche

I was looking to pick up a hobby during the pandemic in 2020 and initially I tried YouTube but because of my work schedule it was difficult to find a dedicated time to do it. I use to create bracelets when I was in elementary school so I figured I could take that same hobby and elevate it. I bought a small bead kit from Walmart and started trying different patterns and designs and tested it out with family and friends to get feedback. There were alot of fails at first with design flaws and not being happy with the integrity and durability of the bracelets. Read more>>

Amy Tipton

I have always wanted to help shape the literary landscape—I was an agent for 13 (almost 14) years—and I believe in truthful stories, even if/when hard to tell. I know women/WOC/LGBTQIA and disabled folx have a harder time breaking out—this industry is slow to change and there are “rules” to follow/accept and I just don’t want anyone to feel excluded–which is really why Feral Girl Books exists. It was born out of this necessity. It’s for all women (including women-identifying) and NB/GNC writers. Read more>>

Chelsea Oats

Ever since entering the work force I have always worked for someone else and would hit these walls with my jobs where I did not agree with how things were ran or just was not happy where I was. That did not change when I began my grooming career in 2017. I hopped around from shop to shop to mobile to then shop again to just to find my happiness in my workplace. I never seemed to find that. So October of 2020 I got to a point where I was no longer happy where I was working and I wanted a big change. Read more>>

Amber E Price

E.L.E.A.S.E. Ensembles L.L.C. is a movement apparel company founded in February 2020 that promotes Establishing Leaders, Encouraging Achievers, and Structuring Entrepreneurship. The company was named after the C.E.O. Amber E. Price, native from Birmingham, AL middle name. It is derived from my grandmother’s first name and mother’s middle name. Read more>>

JaiNishia Njie Savage

I started Love and Happiness Sanctuary when I first moved to LA in 2017. I attended a candle making class in Santa Monica and was intrigued. I started to researching organic materials, natural wax solutions and market trends. Read more>>

Timothy King.

The idea to start The Kingdom Living t-shirt business was birthed because of a gaping hole that I observed in today’s society. The thing that I observed is that a lot of people are living unfulfilled lives. There is a lot of people that are unhappy with their jobs, relationships, and the mundane tasks they do everyday. This leads to problems with their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. We want to help these people who are living unfulfilled lives. We want to tell everybody who would listen, “There is a better way to live your life. You can have a life that is full of love, peace, and happiness.” Read more>>

Judah Townsend

Photography was such a random thing for me to get into. Growing up and coming into adulthood, I would never have imagined that I’d become a professional photographer. Initially I discovered photography through Twitch – I bought my first camera in 2019 to use it as a webcam for my streams. It never even occurred to me to actually use it to take pictures for like a month after I bought it. When I did my first portrait session and saw the results, I was hooked immediately. Read more>>

Sarah Wilding.

Every girl has a dream of who or what they want to do when they grow up. For me, growing up in California, I was enamored by the Disney princesses. I still remember the first time I met my favorite princess and how beautiful she was. How her eyes were bright blue just like in the movie, and her hair was just the right shade of red. I was in awe with her shells covered in sparkles and her majestic tail! Read more>>

Alva Jones.

Well, fifteen-plus years ago, I lost my job. I wasn’t concerned about getting a new job because I’ve always been a good interviewee. I took some time off for some R&R (reading and relaxing) and to think about my next move. After thirty days, I started sending out my resume and interviewing again. I went on interview after interview and I was not getting the job. I was unemployed for three plus months, and I could not understand what I was doing wrong, I thought to myself is it my hair (natural, braids, afro), attire, my brow ring, my shoes, my communication skills. WHAT IS IT???? Read more>>

Niko Johnson

Higher Being was created to motivate and inspire everyone to become the best version of themselves by chasing their dreams, and taking control of their health. People tend to develop bad habits, without ever finding their purpose. The Higher Being brand encourages everyone to take control of their health and pursue their purpose . Once you begin your journey of chasing your dreams, and taking those risk you slowly begin to transition from a human being to a Higher Being. Read more>>

Lucia Girolamo

Pursuing a creative path professionally was never my dream as a child. Since English was my second language, reading and writing was a struggle for me. In high school, I finally became a fluent reader, and I became comfortable with my writing abilities in college. One of my collegiate writing classes required a short story. I wrote about my dad’s civil justice fight in Cuba. My professor said it was a great story and that I should write a book. I was shocked, not realizing I had that potential, and said, “Thank you!” but I was not interested in writing anything other than what was required to receive my degree. Read more>>

Cindi Goodeaux

Inspiration is everywhere, you must know how to find it! I take part in a blog activity for authors, illustrators, and teachers every January called Storystorm. Each day, someone in the business writes a guest blog that helps train our brain to find story ideas all around us, with the goal of producing thirty story ideas in thirty-one days. We learn to find the smallest nuggets of inspiration from the world, whether it be a conversation, something we saw, or something from our past. It is a wonderful way to set the tone for a creative year! Read more>>

Christopher Maguire

Coming up with the idea was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in awhile. A couple friends and Myself spent many nights sitting out on the front porch trying to come up with names for the bus. We had pages and pages of ideas, Some terrible, Some hilarious, Some that would have probably gotten us kicked out of events, but Ultimately I decided HauteWheels was the winner. I had been tinkering with menus for a food truck for years, but once this was all coming together and I had found the bus, I really started to hone in on something I hadn’t made a ton of professionally- sandwiches. I had been making wood fired pizza and vegetables for over four years at my previous job, So I was ready for a change. Read more>>

Ty Manegold

My co-founder and I began the journey of creating an “airport gym” company back in 2013 while we were beginning our MBA program at the University of Oregon. The idea had surfaced during one of our classes, “Recognizing Business Opportunities,” as a potential class project. We certainly weren’t the first to have the general idea, nor the last to bring wellness to the airport environment, but we recognized that what we were envisioning currently didn’t exist in the US airport market and terminal experience. Read more>>

Valerie Thompkins

I have loved to read since I was a kid. Read more>>

Jeannine Warrick

I came up with the idea to start doing virtual assistant business coaching and virtual assistant matchmaking after many inquiries for both services came across my plate. I started only providing virtual administrative services to construction trade businesses, then expanded to assisting small business owners in different industries. I then began receiving messages from virtual assistants asking me how I got started, gained clients, what business structure was best, etc. It was flattering to be asked for help, and I love helping people grow! Read more>>

Erika Gilsdorf

I am passionate about the environment, sustainability, conservation…you get the picture. But, not being a biologist or scientist I din’t know how I could throw my hat in the ring to make a difference. I was talking with a biologist and he said ‘video is the future’. I was like, well then I’ll do video! I can do that. I can be the voice of the biologists, researchers and leaders leading change. Read more>>

Bj Kim

The invention of Red Sesame stemmed from my love of Korean cuisine and my thirst to bring something unique to Cincinnati. Korean food in this area was not mainstream so I wanted to create a way to bring Korean taste with a familiar flair therefore the Korean/Mexican fusion was born. The Cincinnati area was familiar with such items as burritos and tacos therefore I was able to slowly introduce the area to the distinct flavors of Korean by executing in a familiar format hence Red Sesame was born. Read more>>

Harleny Vasquez

As a licensed social worker, in all of the roles I have held within my social work career, as a therapist, social work supervisor, I always found the joy when it came to helping others towards their professional development. I am known to be a natural career cheerleader and always found myself to help others advance within their career through mentorship. I assisted others with their resume, cover letter and interview prep. These were skills I had to learn myself as a first gen college graduate Once I earned my master of social work degree, Read more>>

Christy Lynn

As a young teenage girl I had this vision that I would be a star. A star to me was being the person infront of the camera! But little did I know how important being the person to help create the look was the star! I created a motto as a young aspiring artist that if limited my skills, I would limit my money! It was so true. Because after 10 years it began to pay off. I knew that I had a gift and I knew it was a career that would never go away! Read more>>

Afra Nehal

In July of 2020, around the peak of Covid-19, My co-founder/roommate at the time were stuck in our apartment in San Francisco. The celebration of Eid was coming up, and neither of us could travel back home to celebrate Eid with our families. Stuck in the apartment, with a significant amount of zoom and virtual screen fatigue, we wanted to find a different way to celebrate with our loved ones from afar. Read more>>

Emma Canoles

When I moved to the USA in 2005 I noticed a few things that was different to living in the UK. Firstly food desserts meant that she people did not have access to fresh food, secondly that the grocery stores did not sell GM free, local or Organic produce readily, thirdly that even when they did and it was accessible, people did not really know what to do with it. Read more>>

Chan Blue

Thank you for asking this question because it really is the foundation for not only the book series, but the question gives insight into other aspects of Mac and Roni Read. I will answer this in two-fold. Firts, I came up with the idea of developing human characters for my children’s book to meet a need in the early educational classroom. I notice that most children’s book characters were animals. Secondly, I came up with the name of the characters based on wanting the name to be easy to remember, fun and have a phonological connection. Read more>>

Evita Giron

I’ve been practicing affirmations for several years now. This is my second children’s book, it felt befitting to come out with a book that relates (similar to the first book) to the theme of beauty and self- love. Years ago, I started reading books like, Key to Your Inner Power by Joanne Chase, Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain to name a few. I also watched videos from positive thought teachers like Justin Perry (You Are Creators), Jake Ducey and Aaron Doughty. These tools helped me to develop my own practice of incorporating affirmations into my life. Read more>>

Kelsey Bates

A little over a year ago I was planning our daughter’s first birthday party and I really wanted a white bounce house (they were all over Instagram)! I searched google and social media and could not find a white bounce house company near the Charleston area, so I told my husband that someone should start one, and he said “why not us?!” And the rest is history! Read more>>

Abreail Foreman

I’ve always wanted to own or have my own business especially in the cosmetics industry. I just never had the time to actually start or focus on the idea(s) until 2020 when the pandemic started. I began working from home with my fulltime job and while doing that I decided to go ahead and start my vision. I researched and googled everything from vendors to products and much more. I started two different businesses during the beginning of the pandemic. I got my Empowerment Life Coach Certification and became the CEO of my beauty and skincare business called B’HER BEAUTY!! Read more>>

Alexis Solomon & Taylor Price Alexis Taylor Interiors

Five years ago we decided to start our own design firm; however, we wanted to work in a new and different way. We both loved the design process, helping people problem-solve, and creating beautiful spaces that they love. We decided to concentrate on those aspects of design. We’d consult, advise, design, and then hand off the project with detailed instructions for our clients to execute. Our Design Packages were born! Read more>>

Nora Germany

Thank you for this question, Truthfully, I’ve always been one to assist and service others in whatever they would attempt to execute. My examples were my parents who were ministers, and their mission was to help others in life, give them hope, and share the goodness of faith and God. My mother would say, if you’re opportune to help someone, always give your very Best!!! Learning from them, and their lifelong work of serving others is where I began, my start in hospitality, assistance and service. Read more>>

Jessica Fernandez

It all started from a very young age. Since I can remember, I have always loved everything artistic. I remember when I was little, my grandma used to take me to all the courses she used to take, to learn how to do anything handmade from Crochet to painting, and then we used to go to many festivals to show and sell people everything she had done. That was, for me, the moment when I realized that even being super young and without being clear about what I wanted in my future, I loved everything that was creative and the feeling of showing the world what you have done. Read more>>

Brittany Bri.

Well, the idea actually came from an traumatic experience that was occurred in my life as a teenager, I was kidnapped and forced into human trafficking by a stranger it was the most hurtful traumatic experience that I had ever experienced, I am so grateful to be alive, drug free etc. things could’ve taken a different turn honestly I am so blessed to be able to come this far through all of the pain I endured, the different abuses I had to deal with and the fight I had to put myself through and to still be able to wake up everyday with any ability to do anything is a blessing, I was definitely literally rescued for a purpose. Read more>>

Justin Ra

I decided to create “Galactic Jungle Music” to help heal and inspire the mind, body and spirit and show that everything and everyone is connected. Music is medicine and I felt and noticed a need for something different and authentic. I started off singing in different rock and roll bands for a few years though I have a wide variety of music that I listen to from rock to electronic, jazz, new age, world, pop, the list goes on. Read more>>

Courtney Broughton

The year was 2016. My best friend’s birthday was approaching. We’d gifted each other wonderful things throughout the year but I wanted this particular gift to show just how well I knew her. At the time, my creative juices were running wild when making charm bracelets. I headed to the nearest arts and crafts store in search of the perfect charms. Mentally, I took a deep dive into our friendship. Almost 4 hours later, I left the store with a bangle and charms that intricately matched her goals, hobbies and other things that brought her joy. Read more>>

Tanya Wideman.

I have worked in the medical field for many years as a biller and coder. I had a successful career at Emory University Hospital. I was making great money and had incredible benefits, but I really didn’t enjoy what I did. I wanted to do something that I felt was fulfilling and satisfying. I also wanted to be in control of my schedule so that I could spend more time with my family. I had been doing photography as a side job while working in the medical field, but in 2020, I decided to go full-time. Read more>>

Shekirah Mckenzie

Sitting in my apartment in Cupertino, California, I was staring at my low stock of shea butter. If you’ve been to Cupertino, you know that there aren’t many stores that cater to African Americans. There I was stuck with finding someone in Atlanta to either ship some to me or create my own, so I won’t be in this situation again because who doesn’t love a nice smooth, hydrated skin? Read more>>

Kimyata Bryant.

To be honest, it all started when I saw a t-shirt that I wanted but they didn’t have it in my size. Then I thought to myself, girl you can make that shirt yourself, maybe even something better. So I started researching how to make my own graphic tees. I researched what I need to make the shirt beside a blank tee. Once the research was done, I set out to by what was needed. Heat Press, vinyl cutter, and vinyl. Read more>>

Allan Strapasson Pin

I was a nomad, cycling in Italy during the summer in 2021. At the time, I felt very connected to the nature and in a good headspace to create… then I thought: why I don’t go back to a marketing plan I created a year ago about sustainable swimwear? That was wild!!! In a couple of weeks, I had my first collection designed and ready for production. Half of my collection is created with pictures I photographed along my career – showing a bit of my passion for nature. I was able to combine so many passions at the same time: fashion, sustainability, design, photography and LGBTQIA+ community. Read more>>

David Bruce

David Bruce grew up cherishing his mother’s desserts and always enjoyed sharing them with friends. Of the many tasty treats, the peach cobbler was by far the most popular. For most of the last 25 years, David, his brother, and his mother, Evelyn, were inundated with requests for her delicious cobblers, from family, Read more>>

Lisa Jones Graham

Having a child with a disability, and being a devoted dog lover and owner, helped lead me to the business of making dog treats from craft beer grains (malted barley). Witnessing the struggle for my daughter, Natalie, to find employment ignited a fire within me to help figure out a solution, not just for her but for many others in our community of Cincinnati, Ohio. Living in a city with such a strong German influence, you gotta love beer! Making the connection between beer and dogs manifested itself after a visit to San Diego, specifically to The Coronado Brewing Company, where I saw and purchased my first bag of dog treats made from spent brewing grains. Read more>>

Greta Bates

My story parallels a butterfly laying its egg and then its journey into becoming a butterfly. As a butterfly lays its egg on the back of a poisonous plant upon which it will eat to survive, that is how I was. I was born into poverty. My kinky hair, skin color, belief system, political affiliation, the community where I was born, lived, raised, and was educated, and the culture of exposure were not my choices. I was on the back of a poisonous plant upon which I fed. Read more>>