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.

Kelsey Moore

I think this is an interesting question because most of the unsolicited advice I get is how I should expand my business. Well-meaning friends and family always come up with suggestions and ideas about how I can grow my business, as if that is the ultimate goal. But for me, I prioritize work-life balance, which means maintaining the business where is it at the moment, and possibly expanding in the future. Read more>>

Steffi Carter

It was June 2020, early days of global quarantines and heightened awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. The political landscape was changing. If we’re honest, many of our relationships were changing, too: Our relationship to our own beliefs and biases, our family and friends, and our work. Read more>>

Swetha Tandri

It’s been 3 years since I started my business, Melodies for Math, but the idea has been intertwined in my life story since the beginning :) From a very young age, I’ve always loved music and math. I first combined the two when I was in 7th grade and chose to write a parody for an algebra project! It got over 1000 views, and I felt motivated to make more. I wrote my first original song in grade 8, but that was about history. I wanted to continue, but things sort of fell apart when I reached high school. Read more>>

Alyssa Brown-Tomanek

It all began in December of 2021. After a 5 year hiatus from crochet, I picked up a hook and yarn that had been given to me and made roughly 15 hats for the homeless, two pair of mittens, and some ear muffs. Upon further inspection of the yarn I’d received, I found many of the wool yarns came from overseas. I said to my husband, “Your uncle and cousin have sheep. Could I buy wool from them and make my own yarn? I could have a lifetime supply of beautiful, locally sourced and produced yarn!” Read more>>

Victoria Carlton

Carlton Creative Co. was born from my own experience as a freelancer in the communications industry. Like many people, I always had this picture of what work looked like post graduation: a 9-5 job with two weeks of vacation every year. This was the norm and the overarching expectation of society and I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to fit into that mold so easily. I didn’t want to become a part of the “rat race.” I wanted to build something truly unique and customized to my own needs while providing the best work product possible. Read more>>

Tani Lamb

It was a warm Caribbean night in the summer of 2016. The tropical island of St. Croix was warm and pleasantly humid as I descended the stairs of my vacation suite and inched toward the rhythms of kuduro and reggaeton vibrating from the outside dining area of the hotel. As I drew closer to the balcony, guests and staff were eagerly gathered, anticipating a larger celebration. I quickly grabbed one of the few spots left at the crowd’s edge and watched as the Moko Jumbie made their grand entrances, and the party erupted. Read more>>

Keisha “Keezy” D

I am a first-time entrepreneur, continuing to educate myself every day personally and professionally. My journey has been filled with a few challenges since creating my brand, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I worked as a commercial truck driver for 8 years and during that experience, I endured a few discrimination incidents that I will remember forever. After competing in a male-dominated field for so long, I decided I needed more. Essentially, I was “tired of being tired,” so I started making personal changes in my life. Read more>>

Scarlett Baily

Little did I know when I made the leap as a full-time artist… that I was actually signing up to run my own business. It all began while I was living in New York City. Following my favorite artist’s footsteps from the ’60s, I arrived in NYC fresh outta college… in the dead of winter, with no winter coat- OOPS! After a few years of working around the clock in the fashion industry (and every odd job I could get my hands on to pay the rent and the winter coat), I realized…I had not painted one thing! Read more>>

Karen Krinsky

It’s fair to say that Like No Udder is the culmination of all the jobs I had ever had prior to doing this. As a vegan of 30 years, who identifies as this in every aspect of my life, I would have landed working in the veg world in one way or another. Just happens that food memories are the greatest memories from my upbringing. I’m not surprised in the least that the food industry is where I’ve spent a majority of my adult working life. Read more>>

Mikey Ramirez

I had always been into making videos, editing and telling fun stories with my friends in jr high and highschool. There was something about the freedom to create any kind of story and world that I wanted. At the time, however, there was no real money in video. You had to have some sort of connection in hollywood to play with the best of the best gear. If you weren’t in hollywood, you might as well go and get a “real” career. Read more>>

Jasmine Magee

I was working as an esthetician at a waxing studio for almost 5 years. New management made the work environment very stressful. At that point, I decided that I could either find somewhere else to work; but with that I could be in the same situation just with different people. Or just start on my own. Both options would require me to rebuild my clientele, so I decided to bet in myself. Read more>>

Julia Riddle

I’d be remised if I started my “success story” off by just speaking to this season of my life. Because in all honesty, every phase, every role, and every failed business idea has lead me to where I am today. I jokingly admit to clients that I’m a “Jill of all trades.” You’d probably be surprised if I told you that I’m a formerly trained pastry chef, certified sommelier, wine author, operations manager, designer and mother. Read more>>

Eliza Evans

From making keyrings and playing shop in my bedroom when I was little, to designing and making jewellery as a full-time job, I suppose I’ve always wanted to run a business – and a creative one at that. As a creative, the thought of setting up a business and selling work can be overwhelming, especially when coupled with the imposter syndrome that many of us are inclined to feel. Starting a business had always been a pipe dream, but mine began completely organically. Read more>>

Shaina Walker

The way I started my business was completely random. I am very big on journaling and I like to reflect on previous journal entries. It was September 2020, and I was going through my journal entries from a few years ago. I stumbled upon my “business plan” entry and I was writing about how I wanted to start my own spiritual shop and make jewelry. The entry was from 2018, so I said to myself, you’ve been writing the same thing for 2 years, it’s time to just go for it. Read more>>

Samiyah Hall

In The Middle Ent was created to make space for black creatives in LA through events, networking and production. When we first started our business we hit the ground running. We had one meeting and decided to start a business together. All we really knew about each other was that our goals were aligned and we ran with it. Most of our business has been based off of faith and us holding one another up. We learned each others strengths and leveraged that. As time went on we have had to learn both sides of each other and the business. Read more>>

Janine Hernandez #1 Best Selling Author and Book Coach

I got started in my business when I finally decided to publish my first book. But to be honest with you I had no idea what I was doing. I had other authors reaching out to me asking if I would coach them and I tried the best that I could but I had no real structure or sense of how to grow business. I spent the next 3 years perfecting my craft and learning from other trainings and coaches. Right before the pandemic I was coaching up to 12 people at one time and as you know that can be exhausting. Read more>>

Taylor Gonzales

When I first started my business, i started with a friend of mine who had helped as my editor! In October of 2020, we had the idea to start something based around authentic relationships and storytelling through photography. Through the rest of 2020, we asked friends to model for us all the while of making logos and a social media presence. It wasn’t until 2021 that things had shifted, for what the business is now. Read more>>

Chelsey Palmer

Going from idea to execution of Training Block was quite a process. As a tech company, there are a lot of “little” things you need to do, like incorporate your company, open a bank account, get servers and a domain, create a logo, and trademark your company name, among other things. And then there was the whole website build! The whole story is that I came up with the scope of Training Block exactly two weeks before finding out I was pregnant with my first child, my son Pax. Read more>>

Gia Roche

When I first realized I could take iris photos in December of 2020 I was so excited and thought I was doing this super cool unique thing that was going to blow up and go viral. Laughing at this now but when I showed my friends and one of them pointed out that it was already being done and showed me some tik toks I was pretty heart broken. There were several companies and even a big franchise in Europe. I was relieved when I googled USA locations and realized there were none. Read more>>

Adam Matricardi

So the idea for Elixir Kava Bar in Hollywood Florida, extended from my current businesses. At Soulful Herbals, my online herbal market, I sell euphoric herbs and teas including Kava. We do pop-up events in Hollwood Florida. This is where I met my partners and put together a team to create a kava bar focused on wellness and with incredibly tasty recipes for teas and Mocktails. Read more>>

Amy Lee

5 years ago I was at a crossroads in my career. I had been cutting hair for 18 years and although it was something I genuinely enjoyed, I was looking for a change, I had been working out of my home based studio for over a decade, and my body was starting to tire of the repetitive motions of the trade on my hands, arms and shoulders. I have always had a keen interest in natural healing and Cannabis was about to be legalized in Canada. It was an industry that I was interested in, so I was immersing myself in everything I could to figure out if there was a career path for me within this brand new budding industry. Read more>>

KYESHA LINDBERG

It’s funny, if I were to ask the 30 year old Ky where she would be in 10 years, never would I have stated that I would be remarried, compensated for doing something that means so much to me and living in another State, hundreds of miles from my birthplace. You see, I was raised in a household that didn’t really believe in risk taking and largely we were encouraged to just find a decent job, work and retire. The notion of leading an organization or aligning your passion with your profession was never really an option. Read more>>

Kate Bandmann

A common response I get from people when they ask what I do for work is that being a therapist must be so hard. I would agree that it is, but not in the ways most perceive. I will say that answering this question was hard because over the past decade that I’ve worked in this field I have had countless heartwarming moments with colleagues and clients. Choosing which of those stories to share proved to be difficult. Read more>>

Michael Jacobs, PhD

One of the many rewarding experiences I had during training involved a client who was struggling with performance anxiety at work. He worked in a corporate environment, and despite admittedly being a skilled presenter, his anxiety had progressed to the point where he ran out of the room during a presentation. Not every client arrives to therapy motivated to do the work, but he had a very specific goal in mind. He was up for a promotion based on receiving a new certification. Read more>>

Keya Rogers

I look up to Nipsey Hussle, his ambition, determination and drive set him apart from so many others. He wasn’t given the tools he needed to succeed but instead he created his own, and gave back to his community while doing so. His approach to his success was unlike any others, he was innovative, creative and a leader in his community. His story motivates me in multiple ways and I aspire to leave a mark on my people that’s just as influential as Nipsey’s. Read more>>

Clarene Mitchell

I have a lot of historical figures I look to for inspiration on a personal basis. As a business owner, I have a great deal of admiration for A.G. Gaston. He had humble beginnings, but he became a very successful businessman in Birmingham, Alabama. His first business endeavor was as a young child when he sold rides on a tree swing. He went on to actually become a multi-millionaire in the middle of the 20th century from his various business endeavors. This was a significant achievement for a Black man. Read more>>

Greg Ghering

My hometown is Grand Rapids, Michigan – the same place where former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford grew up. His presidential museum is there, and he and Betty Ford are buried there, too. I really admire his integrity, although I didn’t always understand how remarkable his character was. Read more>>

Ryan Pope

Our business’ story starts about 10 years before it was ever formed. It’s a tale of how a silly decision to be clever turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to me. I am originally from Jacksonville, FL and was raised with a small business owner parent. My grandfather started a business back in the 1950’s and it eventually made its way in the stewardship of my father roughly in the early ’90s. Read more>>

Angela Flake

Well, I have always loved to write. I actually wrote my first “book” in elementary school and used my classmates as characters. I loved writing and thinking of ways to put words together. That concept followed me through life as I found myself falling in love with books, reading, creating, poetry, organizing events and connecting with people and events that merged with my ideas. Read more>>

Danielle Marietta

When I finally wrapped my head around the idea of self publishing a book, I wanted to make sure I did it right. And by that I mean, I wanted my book to be able to stand on the shelf of big bookstores next to traditionally published books. The first thing I learned was that I needed to look at this entire project as an investment. What could I do to make it succeed? Through thorough research, I started to learn more about publishing and becoming a publisher. Read more>>

L’Vasia Holloway

I was two years in doing nails, still working my full-time corporate job wishing I could resign but at that time I didn’t feel confident going full time with the few clients that I did have. So I asked myself ‘how can you set yourself apart and create your own lane?’ That’s when it clicked, PEDICURES! A lot of clients would complain about nail techs not offering pedicures and how much they hated going to the salon. Read more>>