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.

Stephanie Stone

I wanted to be a professional photographer since I was very young. After High school, I went to an art school for a half a year before deciding that it wasn’t for me. I wanted to do more than what the school was offering me and knew I could do it myself. I’m now completely self taught, but it did take me a few years to build a business and learn how to run one. I started out photographing friends and family and it wasn’t until I started working with local models doing fashion work, when I truly found what I loved to do. Read more>>

Erik Revills

Photography started out for me as a Music Engineer/Producer for my own recording studio Hi-Def Recording studios. I grew up in church playing piano and drums, producing beats, and taking pictures to produce cover artwork for local rappers in the area, never imagining that music would lead me to what God revealed was my real true passion- yes Photography! I didn’t even consider myself as a photographer in the moment because Music/Running my own recording studio is what I really honestly thought was my passion and my calling as most people would state when they heard my work, Read more>>

Melissa Lynn

Azure Event Designs started as Miracles by Melissa. Miracles designed small events for family and friends…For Free! Birthday parties, anniversary parties, corporate events, and themed parties. I would volunteer for any event anyone allowed me to design. In 2020, a friend of my family asked me to help with his proposal. It was extremely over the top, beautiful and she was surprised. From there they asked me to plan their destination wedding in Fort Lauderdale. Read more>>

Misty Prewitt

Starting a business is (occasionally) messy. You have this grand idea, you think it’s going to be one way, or one thing, and then you start the process of launching, talking to people, and you realize it can be something entirely different. I didn’t want a team of people (7 years later, I have one). I didn’t want to be a social media manager – I totally thought I was going to be an event planner since I came from the wedding world. I’m certainly not one (and am very thankful that I’m not). Read more>>

Kuu Sanford

How did I actually start? So, I have a background in executive assisting and over the years I have gained so many skills: from PR, TV and film, influencer marketing, the tech industry. All this time I never realized, but I was building up to understand really how to build a business. I worked closely with CEOs, I worked closely with COOs. And, all that time I’d been working in the corporate world and it wasn’t until I started training to become a professional dancer about three years ago, that I realized how much I love being in the creative space. I loved the graphic design, I loved creative direction, Read more>>

Hayley Besheer Santell.

Back in 2012, I’d recently graduated from University of Missouri, and I moved to a little beach down in Florida called New Smyrna Beach with a college friend. Molly and I didn’t quite know what we wanted to do with our degrees, so we decided to take a break from the corporate job search and started bartending and serving at restaurants. She’d been in the fashion program, and I gained a degree in fine arts – so both being creatives, we started to get that “itch” for something more. Read more>>

Erik Martez

So this is a good question as I’m still in process. I initially was only going to be a food and product photographer. I was afraid to work with people you see. However I soon realized it was pretty much the same creative process and I tried some ideas on myself. After gaining a bit of confidence in my skills I reached out to more people to practice on. That experience and confidence helped me see that I really do know what I’m doing. I’ve been in what I call “lite business” for about a year and a half. Read more>>

Nick Curry.

My obsession with hot sauce started at a young age. In my mid-teens, I started tinkering with my own recipes for fun, which then developed into a hobby that followed me through the years. Family and coworkers had the chance to try my recipes in earlier stages at pot lucks and the like. At least, that’s how things were until March 2020 when, like so many others, I lost my job as a result of the pandemic. Fast forward a few months and dozens of unreturned job applications, Father’s Day rolls around. Read more>>

Austin Schulenburg

Pen & Mug began as a moniker that I used to take on freelance work as a college student. I was studying graphic design and business at the time, and the people I admired most in the design industry were (and still are) all small teams of creative pros at independent agencies who get to work with the biggest/coolest brand names you can think of. Read more>>

Ryan Nolan.

I realize this is a different story for every creator out there, but for me each idea has its own set of parameters that dictate how the process will unfold. If the idea is a purely creative concept that is just for the enjoyment of creation, then there is a different path as opposed to creating an idea for a client and bringing it to life. Read more>>

Begonia Barbancho.

My partner and I have always fantasized about bringing a little bit of the Mediterranean culture to Austin, so around 2016, we gave it a try after completely renovating a house from the 1970s in San Antonio. This baby step was the beginning of LBF Homes. After that project, we continued with a few more renovations in San Antonio and a couple of new residential builds. We soon had the chance to build in Austin, and we took it. Read more>>

Cheryl M

One of the first steps was believing that I was worthy of becoming a business owner. I have my masters in Organizational Leadership. That is what sparked an interest in Organizational Development. Organization Development is the use of self as an instrument of change. Exercising emotional intelligence is one of the key components to success in Organization Development. It is not a very popular subject but it is highly recommended when organizing high-functioning teams. Read more>>

Tiffany Killoren

Well, this is a fun question without an easy answer. So, in a former life chapter, I was an attorney. At the age of 18, that’s what I decided to become, so I did what I had to do to achieve my goal (in line with your average Type-A personality). I studied hard. I got good grades. I set my sights on a great law school. After that, I set my sights on a large law firm. I set goals and worked hard to achieve them, finding myself in Kansas City for a job with a prestigious firm working on high profile cases. Goals set. Goals achieved. Read more>>

Brenda Carlson

Ever since I was young, I always loved a good smelling space, which was my bedroom at the time. When I would have extra money, I would buy the glade plug ins for my bedroom. When I started driving, I always had the tree air fresheners in my car and my locker at school. It wasn’t until I went to my first home catalog candle party that I fell in love with candles. You know the parties where they pass around the new candle scents, and you get to ohhh and ahh and then circle what you liked in the book and when you placed your order, you were then asked if you wanted to host the next party for a certain percentage off or free candles. Read more>>

Kevin Covington

Kcsipngo, LLC was developed during Covid but the idea started before Covid. Our owner, Kevin KC Covington, well in love with the idea of making cocktails! The hardest part was getting the perfect recipes of our own. He wanted to be different from other mobile bartending companies. Once we perfected about 20 recipes of our own, we then started in the PopUpShop field. PopUp shops in Nashville, helped develop a name for us. It help get our momentum going and then we started looking into how we could expand into weddings, parties, etc. Read more>>

Comfy Stennis

I started this journey long ago. At 13, I decided stop letting my mother do my hair and took matters into my own hands. My styles were cute enough for family members and friends to start asking for me to help them. At 17 I went to cosmetology school but after graduating high school I decided to go to college instead of pursuing cosmetology full time. While in college, I still did my peers beauty services like hair and nails then learned how to do makeup. Fast forward 15 years, I am now a full time artist/entrepreneur that specializes in beauty and fashion services. Read more>>

Read Lucas

I’ve been a storyteller and humorist from the start. My earliest childhood memory was setting up a joke. Whenever I gulped down a glass of juice my mom would ask “Were you thirsty or what?” and one day the punchline struck my three-year-old self. I eagerly asked mom for a drink, downed it in front of her and when she asked that question I boldly replied “I was the what!” I’ve been writing and making shorts since I was nine years old. Read more>>

Dj Fergg

Towards the end of 2017 began to joke about becoming a DJ with my friends and family. After while I really began to research the craft itself . In 2018 I took the big step and invested in my Dj equipment. I practiced, studied and took lessons for few months before I made the announcement of me being a DJ . Read more>>

D. Scott

Whew chile! Execution is always the difference between who is just talking and who is actually doing. I own a house that I originally started renovations on last year, in 2021. After a year of theft of services by 2 different contractors and the house being burglarized by one of the contractors (legal still pending), I had given up. There was a moment I completely walked away from the renovation of that house that would house all my brands and my dreams. Read more>>

Tre Dot.

The process from goals to execution was unexpected and directly communicated from the universe forcefully. While podcasting, with The Black Male Podcast platform, a guest was interviewed that immediately became my mentor. he instilled additional confidence in me while introducing me to necessary tools that I didn’t even know existed. To this day, he remans very vocal in assuring me that I have the necessary tools to build a foundation from. Read more>>

Bill Wallace.

I started Tomorrow’s Promise Foundation as a way to give back to my community. Making poor choices as a kid and going down the wrong road brought me to a pretty dark and lonely place and I didn’t want to see other young people go down that road. I literally started by digging in my pocket and throwing community events that celebrated the local youth. We offered free haircuts, food, school supplies, backpacks, face painting, etc.. Read more>>

Jason and Leslie Skinner

Understanding that every Fortune 500 business every one of those began with an idea. Mixed with the vision God has given us, hard work, dedication and lots of sacrifice we came founded We Do Recover Sober Living LLC. When we first began my husband Jason was completely homeless. Through prayer and guidance from God we were blessed with our first property and my husband decided to turn it into the first recovery home while still remaining homeless. Read more>>

Kayla Taylor

As I’m sure many entrepreneurs will agree, It’s never really a straight shot. For myself, I’m big on prayer & manifestation so you could imagine that my plan was colorful and pretty well thought out. My first step to executing my dream was to find and complete a lash certification class. Once found, I quickly enrolled and finished the course. Unfortunately, the class I took covered only the bare minimum and didn’t properly prepare me to join the lash community. I left feeling discouraged and ultimately put lash extensions on the back burner until college graduation. Read more>>

Jesse Case

The idea of building a studio in a barn was not the goal at first. My wife and I loved living in Chicago working in music and theatre, but after 10+ years we reached a point where we needed more space, less cost of living, and closer proximity to family. It had been a dream of mine for a while to expand my home recording space into a full-fledged studio, but I had always envisioned it as some cool brick-walled space in the city, surrounded and supported by a music scene that’s second to none. Read more>>

Phillip Peters

How I started Making rubs and spices and hot sauces. We were making chili and I hated the chili seasoning my wife was using. I was a chef at the time so I did some research and made my own. Friends and family loved it so I started to make some rubs and spice blends as Christmas and birthday gifts. 2 years ago we decided to give it a shot at the local farmers market and it paid off. The hot sauces have always been something I enjoyed eating and one day a friend brought me a case of bottles. Read more>>

Vanessa Infanzon

As a kid, I wrote short stories and read a lot of mystery books. Once I was in college and graduate school, writing was a chore, something I had to do for a grade. When our son, Ben was born with a genetic disorder, I became his advocate – reading and researching about what he needed to live his best life. People reached out to me for help and I found myself saying the same things over and over. In 2009, I started a blog to share the resources I’d found, but I also began exploring my feelings about raising Ben and talking about what it meant. eSpecially Ben (www.especiallyben.com) became an outlet for me. Read more>>

Wunmi Omomo

I have been around food and baking for as far back as I can remember. My mom grew up hawking the streets of Lagos after moving from Liberia to sell small chops & pastries: puff puff, meatpie, sausage roll, the whole nine yard. This business grew into them selling to nearby schools and more. When we moved as a family to America, things were tough. My mom continued selling puff puff, chinchin and other snacks as a form of side income. Read more>>

Anne Stirland

I’d always wanted to be an interior designer; even wanted to switch to a trade tech school in high school to do it but my parents insisted I graduate and go to college (glad they did!). Got my B.A in English and German, and began my career in HR and then Executive Assisting. Throughout college and the s”single life” I’d often rearrange the furniture or reorganize every cabinet in the apartment just to keep the creative juices from melting away. It wasn’t until I was married and FINALLY had my own home, where I could actually make all the design decisions, that my love if the craft was set free. Read more>>

Rick Janusz.

You could say Bumbin Bee was somehow always there, living within a part of each of us. Joey and I (Rick) had both been successful in our professional lives. Joey in staging, events and hospitality, and myself, a 20 year veteran in Creative. Locked down and shut off from pretty much everything and everyone reinforced our commitment to each other and to changing how we wanted to live our life together moving forward. Read more>>

Jahnesta Watson

Jahnesta Watson “Chef Shaiheem”, is the owner and private chef of the Atlanta based catering company, The Guilty Plate Co. The company began in 2016 at a point in my life where I was severely overweight and unhappy. When I began meal prepping to lose weight , my closest friend and fraternity brother, suggested that I should go into business for myself. I began simply by offering to prepare meal prep meals for people in the office where I worked and things really just took off from there! Read more>>

Megan Barna

I think I have always had an interest in photography. The idea of capturing a moment in time is something that brings me a sense of purpose. So one day I decided to get a professional camera and jump feet first into photography. I started with landscape photography and family members and then eventually it started to become a passion more than just a hobby. Read more>>

Mackenzie & Wes Bert

When our first child, Thatcher was around 5 months old we, like so many parents started to introduce purees. Like many first-time moms, I began obsessing over ingredients and was shocked to find out how much sugar and junk were in these products that claimed to be “healthy.” Weston worked for his 3rd generation-family farm which grew different nutritious greens which led us to look into growing spinach and kale as they both are powerhouse greens. Read more>>

Alicia Cole

I actually started 10 years ago selling clothes and handmade soaps at different small events. As the years progressed I focused on selling soaps, skin care, gift sets and candles at bigger festivals. I then starting getting a growing customer base who was looking to shop just with me. (I removed the clothes for a while because setting up outside it was harder to do clothes.) Read more>>

Courtney Cope

I’ve always been a visionary, hard worker and setting concrete steps to execute my future. Being in the beauty industry 25 years, I learned to ride the waves of change. I graduated from a local cosmetology institute six months after high school, at the young age of 18. I knew immediately this industry was meant for me. Shorty after my career started as a hair stylist, I was picked up Paul Mitchell Hair Care scout to come work with their team. Traveling the country doing runway shows and conventions promoting the latest and greatest in hair design and products, was a dream job. Read more>>

Audrey Martin.

I’ve always loved painting and creating. I decided that I wanted to teach kids in small groups on how to paint beautiful works of art. I reached out to local businesses and asked if I could post a sign of classes for kids. I started to get a few kids here in there and when the parents showed up they loved what I was creating with them. These moms would ask if they could come over with their friend and paint. After a few request of this a lightbulb went off in my head. What if I approached restaurants and asked if I could use their any space on their slower nights to have paint parties. Read more>>

Nore Webster

How did I start? Well my business has gone through a series of names and purposes. We started out with my younger sister- building off of her love for customizing clothes to now rebranding with myself as the sole owner and designer. I’m self taught so that’s a story in itself. I literally bought a $50 sewing machine from Walmart and watched YouTube videos. I had never seen myself actually making clothes so to be where am I today is a huge blessing. It’ll be a year since my official rebrand in April ‘23 and I’m excited Read more>>

Logan Bomar

I found a love for photography during my junior year of high school. At my high school, we did fine arts competitions, I never had any interest in these competitions; however one of my friends had entered a landscape photo into the competition, so out of support for my friend, I went and checked out his competition piece. Well, when I saw it my first thought was, “wow, I want to do something like that”, and from that moment, my interest in photography took off. Read more>>

Monica White.

The first time I went to a salon, it changed my life. The stylist that did my mother’s hair was so fabulous, and I remember how fascinated I was by her. Her hair, her nails, and the numerous bangles she wore clinked together when she shampooed her clients all mesmerized me. As a child, I already liked doing hair, but this experience confirmed it was my passion. I didn’t know it then, but this career would help me grow from a painfully shy young girl to a more confident woman. Read more>>

Julie Garey

One blessing about COVID was that I had the chance to slow down, and focus on something for myself. I had always been interested in meditation and mediumship, however never pursued it. After working in the healthcare field for 20 years, I was feeling a little burnt out. I decided to focus on something that would ease my own stress, and bring some positivity to my life. My journey towards becoming a reiki master and medium started with attending one single virtual meditation class. Read more>>

King Kesha

The way my business started it’s like it happened overnight I was sitting down at my kitchen table me and a good friend of mine I told them I wanted to open up a salon my friend told me to write down everything that a salon needs because to see it is too believe it so I did n it’s like the next day ppl start calling me n donating things to me to get my salon within a month Read more>>

Melissa Perry.

I started in flowers as a time of necessity of sorts. I was at the end of one era of my life and needed a new passion/goal/career. It was such a simple moment when my husband asked me, “what do you want to do” and I said, “I’ve always wanted to have a little flower shop”. This goal required some very concrete plans like having an actual shop space which I found by walking a few blocks up the street from my house where a new development was being built. We signed a year lease and that set the fun stuff in motion like creating the shop space. Read more>>

Yonnie

Going from idea to execution for me is about ordering my steps. Once my steps are in order I just start doing things in order step by step. Eventually you end up where you already knew you would. Or close (laughs) Read more>>

Baer Kenney.

So many people have great business ideas that never come to life. Things that would change their life and many others around them, but they never take that leap from great idea to great accomplishment. That was me. I had a million ideas and even half heartedly tried a few of them, but never really went for it. Then I was on vacation with my wife in the small town I’d grown up in. We were talking about how many people wanted me to train them and how could I find a place to do it. So she says why just find a space. Let’s make a school! Read more>>

Myra Brown-Williams

For years I had served as an executive in the non-profit industry. I realized that I was assisting organizations in sustaining themselves through innovative ideas, strategies, and funding (through grant writing). My life to a terrible turn and my mother became ill. I decided that it was imperative that whatever time God afforded her I wanted to do my part as her daughter. She shared with me on a plethora of occasions that I should have been working for myself, yet I doubted myself. This situation propelled me into my future and I begin to bet on myself, skills, and ability. Read more>>

Anthony “AO” Oropeza

My name is Anthony “AO” Oropeza, and I am a sports painter, designer, and comic book writer and creator, and the Chief Creative Artist/Designer and Owner of my studio – AOART5 llc here in Kansas City. I also work 9-5 in the marketing department as a graphic designer / communication specialist for a local park and recreation organization in the Kansas City metro area. Read more>>