One of the challenges we’ve seen to true equality of opportunity is that schools and books often can’t (or choose not) offer access to one of the most equalizing resources – first hand stories of how successful entrepreneurs made their ideas a reality. If you grew up in a family or community that had many successful entrepreneurs you may have been lucky to hear many conversations and stories about starting and executing on an idea, but there are millions of people across the country who haven’t had the same advantage and so our hope here is to create a space where those stories can be told in a more public forum for the benefit of any and every aspiring entrepreneur.

Kendall Baab.

As I finished my undergraduate degree at California State University Long Beach, I was working as a personal trainer, a Pilates instructor, and a dance teacher with about 5 different jobs at one time. It was madness. I couldn’t do it for longer than a few months before I was so burnt out that I knew I needed to find a way to combine these passions under one umbrella. Read more>>

Jonas Royster

Waking up on January 1st, 2018 with my head throbbing and my kidneys feeling like Mike Tyson punched a hole through them enough was enough. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and something had to change. My wife was tired of my b.s., my friends laughed and talked crap behind my back and I felt like I used my last prayer to God six months previous. Read more>>

Shanna Jefferson

I’ve always been an entrepreneur primarily stemming from the hustler mentality embedded in me by my Father, Mr. George M. Jefferson. Upon retiring as an educator following 33 years of service, my Father hustled to support his family. He became the watermelon man, tape man, peach man…you name it! I have vivid memories of essentially going door to door with my Father as he got his hustle on. Furthermore, my greatest lessons and values in life stem from my humble upbringing. Read more>>

Sheila Donohue

2016 was a horrible year for me. My husband left me and the company for whom I worked for 15 years had let me go. The rug was taken from underneath me. Once I got over the shock of it, I realized that this was also an opportunity to build a new life for myself. I call 2017 my year of sabbatical where I did loads of soul searching, networking and research to figure out what I was going to do next. Slowly but surely I was putting the pieces together: Read more>>

Alida Lee

When I had the idea for Web Momster I was working in a wellness clinic. I was the patient experience manager, but also built and managed the website, and was heavily involved in marketing strategy and execution. I was a jack of all trades employee – if something needed to be done, I just did it. I am a very detail-oriented perfectionist, and having job in which I felt pulled in many directions made me feel like I wasn’t doing a very good job at any one responsibility. I felt stuck, but there was no way I could leave the clinic and let everyone down. I desperately wanted a career that would allow me to focus on one thing instead of 1000 things! Read more>>

Anita Douglas .

I was on youtube watching one of my favorite content creators and I noticed the fun she was having creating content. That is when I realized that this was something I wanted to do. I knew that I love Fashion and I really love to travel so that is what I wanted to focus on. I gave myself one full month to do a lot of research before I created my first video on YouTube. Read more>>

Ciara Waters

Growing up in Portland helped me appreciate a lot including nature. The uniqueness that plants are medicine is something that I appreciate from a personal experience. Being around roses was my weakness I always had an appreciation for how fragrant and captivating they are. Not only do roses offer benefits to your health, but the aromatherapy and homeopathic nature of such a fragrant flower is powerful because roses aren’t just beautiful they have a wonderful purpose as well. Read more>>

Daphne Walker, ECMH-E®

I felt incredibly overwhelmed at the idea of execution so I tapped into my resources and talked to the universe about what i wanted and what i thought i needed. I also talked about the emotions that came with the learning curve. My first task was learning how to find commercial property. I remember committing to relaxing and celebrating for an entire summer with the goal of beginning my business journey in the fall. Read more>>

Bonita Nkemeh

Fashion has always been a passion of mine. During my P1 semester of pharmacy school I decided to start an instagram page dedicated to outfits that I styled virtually. This is something that I’ve always thought about doing but I constantly found myself making excuses. My camera roll has always been filled with a plethora of different clothes, shoes, and accessories that caught my eye and naturally the next step was to start making outfits with the pieces. Read more>>

Tangier Wallace

I am currently the Owner/Founder of a Women’s Support Group Eloquently Spoken. I had envisioned starting a Women’s group because of my own personal traumas. I knew that like myself there were many women who needed a support system. I was aware that no matter how many people you may have in your life, you can still feel alone in your problems. Instead of looking for a support group, I got the idea to begin my own support group. Read more>>

Deborah North

My youngest daughter decided to try wrestling. During this journey, we discovered that there were no wrestling shoes for girls. All that was available at the time were black and white shoes. I decided to fill this gap. We are 50 years past Title IX, and girls still did not have shoes and gear- they were still making the size conversion from boys to girls. Read more>>

Voeun Veth

It started as a beloved family recipe. All of my siblings and me waiting for the next batch of jerky that my mom would make. We savored every bite, and couldn’t wait for more. This longing led my wife and I to learn the recipe from her and with her blessing, start making it for family and friends. What began as her original flavor of Cambodian-style, thin sliced, crispy, spicy, beef jerky, turned into seven unique blends of our favorite flavors. Read more>>

Hannah Langford

Being a photographer was not in my mind of possible careers when starting college in 2017. I ended up buying a basic, beginner camera from target on Black Friday my sophomore year of college, and I loved taking photos of all of my friends. At most events, I would bring my camera and just take pictures any opportunity I could. I would try to take my “business” seriously at that age, but with being in college. in a sorority, working full time and trying to keep up with relationships and family time, Read more>>

Michael Byrd

The important thing to remember is to believe in yourself and your skillset. Don’t be afraid to fail at first because you learn important lessons with failure. Failure is a must for success. I’m always planning events that have some type of risk associated with them. Most of the time its monetary where I have to front money and rely on ticket sales for compensation. These risks always worry me but to this day I have never occurred a loss. Make a great product, advertise a great product and you will always come out on top. Read more>>

Noah Iommi.

Starting any type of business is challenging whether it’s coming up with the idea or getting customers. From my experience the idea came easy with the right time and season. The Christmas season is full of joy and decor, what better way to provide a service everyone wants…Christmas lights. In these types of situations of coming up with a company, it’s not always about coming up with a genius idea but finding out what the consumer wants or needs. Read more>>

Aubridginey Jackson

Pheww!! The thought process behind starting my business comes into play as being mother of three and expecting my fourth, a military wife to husband in the army away on duty and work was just so hard to balance in a new state and no family to help with childcare, I became overwhelmed because in the corporate world jobs do not cater to the terms of family and trying to see about my family and work a job not willing to work with you is something that just doesn’t happen, so I had to put my dreams into play and go off faith and just go for it! Read more>>

Marixendra Alvarez

I found a problem and wanted to solve it. The only way I could do that it’s by obtaining those credentials. I knew I needed to obtain my medical interpreter certificate and my court certificate. So then, I took the courses and completed them. Then I thought I wanted to do it for other interpreters as well. That idea in mind was what first started the concept of CJS translation services. I wanted to do what others had turned a blind eye to. Read more>>

Ebony Jones

I was a working wife and mother of one starting to feel like I needed a hobby to keep from losing myself in the cycle of a daily routine so a couple of friends and I decided to take a cake decorating class at local store (Michael’s). On the first day of class I was thinking oh my goodness what have I signed up for. I had to go and purchase all of these tools I had never heard of. I was afraid that I was way over my head with this idea. Read more>>

Lavik Jain, Jacob Abraham, Abhiram Tadepalli, and Parthiv Shah

Toward the end of their freshman year in high school, Lavik Jain, Jacob Abraham, and Abhiram Tadepalli recognized a gap in their school’s instruction: there was insufficient discussion of the practical applications of the theoretical concepts they learned in the classroom. Read more>>

Master Renard Beaty

I actually started my business path about four years before I opened my brick and mortar doors. I was working in human resource (HR) management during the day, and at night I was training in Tang Soo Do with my daughters. I had an opportunity to put my training into practice with students in a martial arts program at a local YMCA. There wasn’t a martial arts program for ages 4 – 7 years old, and I created one called Little Ninja. Read more>>

Judy DeSimone.

I received an art education degree December 1979. Besides teaching in the public and Catholic schools for 39 years I always wanted to “get my art work out there”. I had no idea how to go about that process and I had not found my voice artistically. Art educators are proficient in all artistic mediums with a particular strength. Mine was as a three-dimensional artist. During my teaching years in the public schools, I invented projects for the students that would push the limits of my abilities as an educator and their abilities as young artists. Read more>>

Tasha Boone

In the beginning, I planned to just sell on a small scale, enough to have supplemental money for bills. But before I began anything, I did tons of research. I searched for what I was allowed to sell from home based on state laws. Then I researched local city laws. I visited the commissioner of revenue to find out what licensure was needed to allow me to legally sell. I didn’t want to run into issues with taxes or being shut down without the proper paperwork in place. Read more>>

Maria Walker

After I decided on starting a skincare / Studio Spa Concept. I attended Florida Collage of Natural Health obtained my skincare specialist training it took 9 Mths. I Then passed exam and applied for my license. Graduated. Saved 10,000.00 6mths later opened The Spa Facial. that is the condensed version anyways lol Read more>>

Shannon Bennett

While homeschooling my children, we began working on a project of making something from nothing..a trash to treasure kind of concept. The kids wanted to take the old broken crayons from around the house and transform them. So, that’s exactly what we did. We ended up making brick-shaped crayons and the kids LOVED them! Read more>>

Stefanie Magness

For many years, I had been encouraged by family and friends to start my own business and go out on my own. I was told that I was good at helping people move the needle. When my cushy 6-figure job was eliminated, I used this opportunity to start my own business as many had told me I should have done. But where do I begin? What business would I have started? Read more>>