In our view, far too many ideas die at the imagination stage. It’s not because people are lazy, we think the primary reason is because many people don’t know where or how to start. So, we connected with some sharp and generous entrepreneurs who’ve agreed to share their stories of how they went from idea to execution.

Tareva Woodard

All of my businesses start from my love of caring for people. After facing adversity in the corporate world i took matters into my own hands and chose to go to school to become a barber in 2013 and have been going strong ever sense. In my constant interactions with different clients i noticed a few things, black people wanted to support reputable black owned businesses and i missed being able to celebrate the holidays with my peers. Read more>>

Ashley Bowens

Well, when it comes to my journey of the launch of Salon D.Renee, I was in my late 20s working in a salon with my fellow co-workers and I noticed at the time as my career came and went, I wanted a bit more out of my profession. I never actually set a goal of having my own salon, it just what happened at the right time. As I started my journey, My business mentor at the time helped with a realtor and we started the research of looking for an ideal location. Read more>>

Everrett Stephenson

Everything starts with a thought or an idea. As humans the greatest ability is for us to be able to think. My journey started over two years ago with the idea to help people. From the idea of helping people with a more natural way of a healthy life, I was inspired to create my first business. Every day was a day for research. Read more>>

Sheena Eizmendiz

I started my business when I was 23 years old. A recently divorced mom of two children ages 11 month and 4 years old. It had been a passion of mine to work for myself since I was in high school. I wanted to start a business that was purpose driven in the hypnotherapy and coaching industry. Back then, there wasn’t a buzz around coaching. Read more>>

Maddie Peschong

I had been a photographer for a few years, and eventually worked up to doing weddings. I always enjoyed weddings when I shot them, but I knew they weren’t my end all, be all. I had young kids and was starting to be pretty protective of my nights and weekends – two things you lose pretty quickly as a wedding photographer. I knew I needed an exit strategy, but I was still enjoying myself and my work was great, so I wasn’t in a hurry. Read more>>

 

Grace Bentien

I was one of the many college students who graduated in the midst of the pandemic disturbing typical workforce norms, and who had experienced some remote learning environments during my collegiate career. I started out in an in-person office position, working over 60 hours a week – slim space for creativity and a whole lot of time with my butt in an office chair. As much as I have ambition, that just did not fit with my past lifestyles or my passions. Read more>>

Sonja Green

Ever since I was a young girl and as a teenager, I always had friends, male or female, that would come to me just to sit down and talk. Somehow I easily attracted people who wanted to just share their story or their situations with me and they would allow me to give them advice. I was always able to see things in a realm that most didn’t see. Apparently I was giving really good advice because they kept coming back. Read more>>

Candice Merritt

Since middle school I have always loved to take photos. Any events from middle, high school and college games, dances, proms, slumber parties, graduations, college parties, weddings including bridal showers or rehearsal dinners, trips and get a ways. Then once I had my son it was pictures for everything. I would always develop the photos and create photo albums or create collages and calendars with the photos. Read more>>

Charlene Ridley

Honestly, I have always been the idea person, the problem solver and a cheerleader for my friends to help them hit their life goals. For a long time, I wanted to start a business but was stuck because I didn’t believe my gifts were tangible like other businesses I knew. You couldn’t come to me and leave with a painting, clothing, cupcakes, your taxes done or any of the things that I thought made a legit business. I’d never heard of coaches or consultants so even though I dreamt of being an entrepreneur I didn’t see how it could happen. Read more>>

Jill Turanski

When I think about it, HeartBreath has really been developing organically alongside me for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until a year ago that it finally became a legitimate business. The need to create began as a young girl – feeling that visceral push to get an inspiration out of my head and into the world. Read more>>

Johni Demeatri

I started as singer. I’m still a singer but my dreams grew a lot bigger as I started my music journey. It’s no secret that the music industry can be cutthroat. First hand experience gave me the drive needed to prepare myself as an independent artist. You often hear stories of how artists were lied to and/or manipulated out of what they earned from their hard work. Read more>>

Robin Bennett

It started as a little interest, that turned into a small-scale hobby, that turned into a side project, that turned into a small business trying to help open doors for others. Our story begins when my daughter, Katelyne, wanted to buy a bunch of jewelry for herself to wear. When I told her no, she got a creative idea and decided could make her own, which she did. A few years later, she decided she wanted to do a business class at the homeschool co-op we were attending at the time. Read more>>

Tiffany J. Wymbs

I remember sitting in my bedroom praying and asking God for clarity on what would be the necessary steps to completing the next chapter in my life. I always knew that I wanted to help young girls and women execute the vision and birth out that spiritual baby God placed inside of them. I had the passion, I had the faith, but the only thing missing was the blueprint. Read more>>

Paola Bradfield

A Life with Accent was born out of two things: my love for all things home&design and my love of sharing my experiences, stories and things I’ve learned. I was born and raised in Brazil, daughter of a single mother who struggled to make ends meet for years. Me, my brother and mom lived with my grandma, uncle and aunt under the same roof in a very small house. Read more>>

Jasmine “Luna” Brown

I remember when I first had the thought of creating Honey, Be Au Naturale, It was the summer after my freshman year at Clark Atlanta University. Having the opportunity to attend an HBCU gave me insight into the lives of those individuals that were very much like me but also very different. Seeing so many different types of Black people from all types of places and backgrounds destroyed the stereotype that much of society places on us as a collective that “we are all the same”. Read more>>

Haley Poinsette

I have always been in the Health & Wellness industry, I was either contracted by companies to build their brand or I was working full time in the corporate environment to build their brand. In 2021 the idea & foundation of Unique Houz began – I spent time researching, planning, & creating the Mission/Vision. During this time, I also started to work on branding & creating lasting local connections with other businesses in my community! Read more>>

Angelala

I’ve always loved Techno and House Music so to actually be a creator in this community has been a dream come true. I started my music career in a female pop duo. After a couple of years I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to pursue. That was when I started making writing and singing to House and Techno. I sent vocals to some producers and the collaborations turned out amazing. Read more>>

Princessa Williams

For many years I have heard that if you write down your goals you will manifest your goals into reality. So at the age of 12, I gave it a try. I took out my journal and started writing out my goals. One in which I remember was “I am going to have a store by 30 years old”. I remember ripping that page out, in particular, for whatever reason putting it away in storage. I later found that journal entry in my early 20’s where I read it and cracked a big smile, not really thinking too much of it. Read more>>

Shaykara Webster

To me, ideation has always been the easy part. We all have ideas and dreams and hopes. Executing is the hard part, because it requires the faith and courage necessary to share your idea with the world. A few years after completing my MBA program there were countless interactions I had with previous bosses, colleagues, and other young professionals in my network that resulted in successful consultant projects. Read more>>

Tara Jackson

The Idea started in 2019. Tara J was an independent music artist who felt that there were not many media resources for independent music artist. As a music artist herself she wanted to be able to spread her brand around the world. Tara J started HotxxMagOnlineRadio as a media outlet, as well as an online radio outlet dedicated to the independent music artist and businesses. Which allowed them to be able to get their brands promoted and pushed out for the world to see and to learn more about their crafts and talents. Read more>>

Paul Allen

While working for a large corporation that doesn’t really appreciate its employees i decided there must be something better. I started looking at doing dairy goats. I visited the federal Institute for Goat Research. I attended their trailing classes once a year for over 20 years. I bought the family farm and started converting it from a cow operation to what was needed for a goat dairy. When I finally retired i decided it was time to give it a go. Read more>>

Kathleen Day Gomez

When it comes to formulating and later founding PEPPER Magazine, it was definitely not a cake walk and there was no linear “from A to B” path to getting to where we are now. Imagine coming out of the Pandemic and the financial aftermath of it with your current streams of income not cutting it and having no particular plan B—that’s where I was January 2022. Read more>>

Pamela Fortin

After belonging to a local art gallery during my children’s elementary school days, I wanted to do more with my pen and ink work than just wall art. A dear friend had attended an art festival and called to tell me about tea towels she saw and how my art would look perfect on them. I just had to figure out how to do that! Over the course of a few weeks, I researched screen printing, looking for the tools and material that I would need. Read more>>

Deena Marie

I’ve worked for a utility company for the past 14 years. Although, I’m very grateful for my day job, I’ve always wanted to be a business owner. I actually started my first business in 2007 as an event planner but got offered a job I couldn’t refused shortly after. I left that dream go for my corporate job. In 2019 as I sat at my desk and realized that I wasn’t able to use my creativity and the fact that early retirement sounds like heaven; I started thinking of ways to have multiple streams if income. Read more>>

Nathan Jackman

The thing that kick-started the idea of Pyvott . . . what it currently is, and what it will be, was when my brother, Josh, wanted to buy a pair of shoes but was having struggles getting the purchasing to work on one of the current social media sites. Both Josh, myself and the others on our founding team are all quite entrepreneurial in nature – many of us already running established businesses and well on our way through the entrepreneurial path. Read more>>