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.

Allie Shane

I started my business on my own, using my name and built it the first few years on solely my own reputation. Many wedding planners and event professionals are one-woman shows- the hardest working people I know! However, I realized quickly that my business model was going to require more than I could physically handle myself…and that I might eventually want a weekend off! Read more>>

Heather Herr

I built my team prior to owning my own company. I did establish my LLC prior to building my team while I was at my old company. Once I had a strong and productive team, that ran its own process, I decided to start my own company. Before starting my own company I needed to be sure mastered all aspects all the refined role in our line of work. I hired each person one at a time and based on relationships and connections at first. Read more>>

Joy McLaughlin-Harris

It all started with just me. A lot of my team members came from being a client. They went through my program and got major success so I offered them the opportunity to come back and help others by being coaches. My administrative team all came through referrals from friends who were using their services. Building a team is a lot Like building a house. Read more>>

Tanya Gurrieri

Salthouse Catering turns 10 years old in 2023! It’s crazy to think about where we started and how far we’ve come. In the beginning, my business partner, Todd Mazurek and I were doing it all ourselves. I sold the events, he cooked the food and we would load the van and execute the events together, coming back to the shop to wash dishes and do it all again the next day. We had one person helping us with our staffing and a skeleton crew in the kitchen that included mostly chefs Todd had worked with in previous places. Read more>>

Stephanie Gupana

At first, Ruoom consisted of just myself and my co-founder, Kevin. For months, we barely told anyone about what we were developing– even my Mom didn’t know! Fast forward to almost a year later, we officially began hiring. We knew our primary concern was to build a strong Dev team, so that’s exactly what we did. Moving on from there, we slowly began hiring for other strategic roles centered around expansion and brand building. Read more>>

Emily DeRitter

When I started The Best Day Details is was a one women show. Like most wedding vendors, I struggled to take the leap and scale through hiring a team. In January of 2020, I was just looking for an assistant, but I stumbled across the PERFECT fit for my first lead coordinator hire. She is still with the team today! We have since expanded to a team of ten with multiple locations across Michigan. Read more>>

Lisa Miller

We actually had two people start the business – me and Kristy, and one other person. Then it dropped to two people because really, we are not working for salary. We brought in another partner soon after. A couple of years ago we did a big expansion by providing our interns with an option to join as partners or extended paid interns. Read more>>