Almost every entrepreneur has had to decide whether to take the leap now or wait– perhaps they wanted to acquire more capital, experience or connections. Given how common this predicament is, we asked some successful business owners to reflect back on whether they wish they had started sooner or waited for a better time.

Emily Alderete

It’s been officially a year that I’ve been a licensed Esthetician in the state of North Carolina. I graduated from Dermacademy in 2021 and I’ve been enjoying every minute. Before I started school I was making homemade natural body scrubs for my friends and family, then it turned into my small business at that time. I couldn’t have done it without the local support system I have in Winston Salem and the surrounding area. If I could go back, I would have gone to esthetics school sooner! Read more>>

Kelsey Tara Nicole

I wish I had started my business sooner. I feel the push for designers is to start working in an agency, gain as much experience as possible, grow their skills there, then branch out into their own business. So the emphasis is on getting a job, and I thought my design life would start after that point, which ended up being a struggle for me through the pandemic. Read more>>

Callie Durham

I started my own business in December of 2020. I know that sounds like a terrible time to try to get a new business up and running, but it made sense for me at the time. Read more>>

Leticia Vicotti

Looking back, I think most people would say, “if I knew what I know now back then, things would have been easier,” and for me, it is no different. However, I would never know what I know today if I had not gone through what I did. I started my corporate career in 2016 after graduating with a master’s in Marketing and Branding. I traveled the world visiting manufacturing plants to improve our marketing and communications. Read more>>

Megan Manchester

In May of 2021 I was currently working full time planning corporate events and trade shows for a company out in Nashville. I was traveling before COVID hit over 200+ days a year, living out of a suitcase and in hotels. I was getting burnt out and needed to find something else. In September of 2020 we had decided to move from Dallas, TX to Panama City, FL with our 2 dogs and newborn daughter. Read more>>

Amar Jones

I’m very satisfied with the timeframe of when I started because I was so young and that gave me the opportunity to experience way more than I would have, had I started any older. Being exposed to entrepreneurship at 17 was a great feeling because I only had one job prior, which was Starbucks. However, if I had started later I would have been able to see the people around me start their businesses first and that would have gave me the chance to learn from their mistakes to better myself and the brand. Either way there would have been lessons to learn. Read more>>

Leslie Taylor

In 2020 the pandemic was at its peak and I was working as an RN in PACU in a hospital. Coming home and changing my clothes in the garage, wearing a mask constantly and the lack of interaction with anyone aside from fellow nurses and my family was taking its toll. I needed to do something to de-stress. I had 3 things going for me. 1. with everything closed down I had time on my hands, 2. I always wanted to be crafty, and 3. I had a ton of plants! I told my husband I was going to try and make one of those “plant hanger things” and began searching YouTube for the easiest instruction video I could find. Read more>>

Katie Callahan Neginskiy

I had been day dreaming of this organization for about eight years before I took any action. It always seemed just a little out of reach, because I was not sure how I could balance a new enterprise with time for my family. Additionally, I could not wrap my mind around sinking money into a physical office space for a venture I could not guarantee would succeed; A physical office seemed additionally daunting considering I aimed to work with international clients. Read more>>

Sandi Williams

This is one of the best and easiest times to start a business in my opinion, especially when it comes to e-commerce. Entrepreneurship keeps rising each year, and you can really take your success in your own hands. Read more>>

Akaieshia Sanders

I’ve always been interested in becoming a music artist since the young age of 5. Back then, all I could see was the glitz and glamour on TV, with no knowledge of how everything went behind the scenes. Throughout the years, I learned I possess many other talents besides singing. Although I was multi-talented, my love for singing never faded. By this time, I had already graduated high school and was heading into college, thinking it was my only way out. But eventually, I discovered that if you don’t love it, you won’t give 100%, which led me to drop out of college and into a situation where I began to question my purpose in life. Read more>>

Felicia Cripe

Do I wish I could have started my creative career sooner? The answer to this question is no. There was a time in my life when raising my daughter, finishing school, and navigating a new relationship took precedence over everything going on in my life. Had I not made those things a priority in my life. I would not have been able to create the solid foundation my family deserves. I also would not have grown into the individual I ultimately became had I not taken to work through the trials and tribulations. Read more>>

Brittany Moore

I’ve actually thought about this quite a bit. I moved to Nashville when I was 25 and have always felt sad about the delayed start. I feel like so many people that I collaborate with now, started their Nashville journey right after high school to come to college here. Read more>>

Jaslyn Biebl

Makeup photography isn’t exactly what it used to be. With the ever-growing presence of photographers online, trying to stand out can be quite the challenge. Online platforms, such as Instagram, have become increasingly popular as time goes on. Read more>>

Manlike DEJI

I am an individual that firmly believes that everything happens for a reason and at its one time and I tend not to spend too much time looking back on things but if I had to go back in time, I would have definitely started my creative career sooner mainly because the more you work at something, the better you get at it.. Also because as a musician you need as much time as you can to perfectly hone your skills and talent as the type of creative you are. Read more>>

Luiz Prado

I belive that every step in my previous endeavours leaded me to where I am today, I don’t know what impact it would have on my creative drive if I did not learned the lessons I did with previous experiences, the bad and the good ones, for insteance I’m graduated in civil engineering and worked as a project developer for houses and buldings for 5 years, in those years I had the guidance of a great supervisor who taught valuable lessons not only for my career on how to deal with different personalities of clients but how to manage finaces, how to invest my time in creative pursuits, how to be patience, how to deal with work/liofe balance. Those lessons I brought on to my career after as a freelance artist . Read more>>

Lexie Choate-Bewley

I opened my business in 2020 during the thick of the pandemic. I was employed at a large day spa, and was on maternity leave prior to the pandemic. Having an infant at home and thinking of all the unneeded contact I would have at my place of employment scared me. I no longer wanted to be the “day spa queen” I just wanted to be “the esthetician mom who doesn’t bring covid home to her baby but still needs to service her clients.” I needed control of my space and needed to know I was doing all I possibly could to keep my son healthy. Read more>>

Martha Reineke

If I could go back in time and know I’d have the same success with my editing firm, I’d have started much sooner. I spent a few years teaching in a private school, but I realized that homeschooling my children was really my passion. I left the work force to teach them from the time my oldest was in 3rd grade. It was all I thought about for so long I almost forgot who I was other than “mother” or “teacher.” Read more>>

Alison Green

I think about this question a lot. I started Atomic Tangerine 2-3 years ago when my life felt like it was at a standstill. All through college and my youth, I was very passionate about sports, mainly soccer – but once I graduated, I felt like I lost everything that I worked and practiced so hard for. I had nothing to fill that space! Read more>>

Denise Scalf

My career has been event planning for over 6 years but in the corporate world. I worked for Harley-Davidson for the past 6 years along with corporate Managing at a local wedding venue. My daughter was married a year ago and being a planner of course I planned the wedding it was during that process that I sat back and thought about where life was heading after she got married. She would be moving out and our son was right behind her heading off to college. I always wanted to take the leap to start my own planning business but never had the guts. Read more>>

DJ Doop

Basically, if we want to get technical, I started my journey of djing at a young age traveling with my father doing high school homecoming dances and our own family functions. Once I got to high school, I ended up throwing parties Fridays and some Sundays when we didn’t have school on that Monday. I sort of took a break from “djing” when I graduated from high school and started back up my sophomore year in college after being broke juggling 3 jobs, an internship and taking 21 credit hours in a semester. Read more>>

Cindy Guzman

If I could go back in time, I would have taken a little time off after high school and went to college for something art related. I went to the High school of Art and Design and after I graduated, I wanted nothing to do with art. School made art work, what teenager cares about work? During my high school years, looking back I suffered from Imposter Syndrome. I never felt like I actually belonged even though you had to audition to get it. I went to college for Health Science and graduated with my Bachelors. Read more>>

Jennifer Alba

Hi, I do wish I had started my fashion creator account earlier than I had. I had been eyeballing Instagram as a creative platform for quite some time, possibly it was 2010. I would see other influencers creating and telling myself, I need to show my creative side and my style edits. I had this fear of others judging me and not being good enough. I wish I hadn’t let those fears get to me. I wish I would of been brave enough to do it. If I had started sooner, I think I would be further ahead in my influencing career. That means I could have more brand deals, more active followers, more collaborations. Don’t let fear stop you from accomplishing your dreams, let me be the one to say start now. Read more>>

August Aguilar

There’s a large part of me that wishes I had started pursuing my creative career much sooner than later. I’ve had the itch to be a storyteller and make movies since I was a kid, going as far as making home movies with friends and family and learning basic editing. However, it wasn’t until college when I really discovered the love of the craft, everything it took to piece a project together, and most of all, writing proper screenplays. Read more>>

Benj

If I could go back in time, I personally would have started my career later. I began rapping at the age of 14 years old. Growing up, I was always surrounded by music in some way, whether it was attending my father’s band practices, watching battle rap DVDs with my older siblings, or listening to r&b with my mother as we cleaned the house on Saturday mornings. So it didn’t really surprise me when that love for music transformed into me wanting to make my own. It all started in my parents basement on our old Dell computer. I wrote my first few freestyles to some popular beats at the time and showed them to my brothers; it was history from there. The response I got from showing my art made me want to continue to do it but on a higher level and that’s when things started to get muddy. Read more>>

Chantell Smyre

Omg I wish it would have started sewing sooner. I may have been a master seamstress instead of a jack by now lol. I used to always DIY my outfits in high school during homecoming week since. Looking back I always had this sense of individuality with fashion when the opportunity was presented, it was all over the place but authentic. On the flip side I’m grateful I started later because sewing takes a great deal of patience I didn’t have before. Read more>>

Lauren Whitney McClain

I definitely feel I would have benefited from starting my creative career sooner. My passion for content creation started back in 2012, when I turned to YouTube creatives to teach me the art of personal beauty and hair styling. I, often times, found myself down a rabbit hole of content, indulging in Youtube more than any other leisurely activity. I feel like starting my own Youtube channel was always the ultimate goal, but at the time, I didn’t have the courage to just start. I finally got the guts to start my own journey as a Youtube creator in 2017, which is the year I got married and launched my channel. Read more>>

Laurie Skantzos

My art career began relatively late, after having two children and living “another life”. This life included my young kids, a family restaurant with my ex-husband, numerous pets and an active martial arts practice….and then I went back to school for art! I was in my mid thirties when I got my first studio and began showing my work in small local venues. It wasn’t until my early forties that I began to consider myself a “real artist”, showing, selling and doing some teaching. Read more>>

Courtney Smith

Wishing for things to happen sooner in life can be such an easy thought to creep inside our heads, but I honestly believe that the right things happen at the right time. I’ve had too many beautiful things develop in life that I knew happened at the perfect time. As I reflect back on the past versions of me I know if certain moments had taken place sooner I wouldn’t have been ready to handle it even if it was seemingly a wonderful opportunity. Read more>>

Nakita Poleon

Almost near the big 3 0, i honestly wished i started my creative career sooner. i have let not being the standard female artist in Hip Hop deter me from pursuing this path earlier, but sometimes you have to be the start of change so others see you be the representation they always needed. I’ve always knew music would be a part of me, growing up being the kid to bring the CD”s/music to middle school parties rather than food or rapping random freestyles with my best friend in high school in my moms car while we drove around. Read more>>