Establishing your own firm or practice is an incredibly daunting task. From myriad of legal and regulatory hurdles to the financial and career related risks, professionals who choose to start their own firm have to overcome so much and so we wanted to reach out to those who’ve done it successfully for advice, insight and stories.

Jill Roth-gutman

I was the first in my immediate family to graduate from college and law school, I attended New England Law Boston, followed by a clerkship with the Superior Court of New Jersey. Practiced family, estate planning, and employment law at a small firm before becoming a Law Guardian, which is a state-appointed attorney who advocates for children involved in alleged abuse and neglect cases. I spent over 13 years advocating for hundreds of children and becoming a Child Welfare Law Specialist certified by the National Association of Counsel for Children, an organization approved by the American Bar Association. I loved working as a Law Guardian and was initially drawn to the work based on important relationships throughout my life. Read more>>

Desi Williams

Starting a business is no easy feat. And while I was often advised that starting a successful business would be the hardest thing that I ever did, I had participated on the show Survivor and competed at both Miss USA and Miss America, so I thought to myself….how hard could it be? Well, it turns out all of those cautionary tales were correct. Starting a business has stretched and challenged me in ways I never could have imagined and continues to force me to learn and grow daily. I have made several expensive mistakes along the way. Read more>>

Kara Swinney

In March 0f 2021, as we were emerging from Covid quarantines, I decided to open my own office to treat children with disabilities using my new certification in Cuevas Medek Exercises (CME). I never thought I’d own my own practice, even though I grew up knowing my entrepreneurial father would love for me to venture out on my own. In my experience, pediatric therapy clinics had lots of specialized equipment, space and therapists of staff to manage. This was never what I envisioned for my career. To my surprise, I found a different model during Covid that caused me to re-evaluate my preconceived notions. I began seeing videos on Instagram of children from around the world working with therapists using wooden boxes and equipment that were unfamiliar to me. Read more>>

Josh Fulwiler

After completing my fellowship in autism testing and diagnosis, I was interested in working in an area where services were in high need; my wife, Coco Cockrell, is originally from north Mississippi, where there were virtually no psychological assessment services. The decision seemed like an easy one, and since I established my practice in 2018, I’ve had the opportunity to work with over 1200 children and families. However, going into solo private practice was more challenging than expected. Many of the lessons learned from working in a large academic medical center don’t translate as effectively to small business ownership; having to learn to manage costs with unpredictable flows of revenue was the initial challenge. Because my services are billed through insurance, I often don’t receive payment for six to eight weeks from the time I see a patient–which makes navigating the day-to-day expenses of a business more tricky! The other challenge that is specific to young professionals entering the medical field: insurance reimbursement rates don’t increase yearly to reflect inflation or other rising costs. Read more>>

Dina Lucchesi

I started my private physical therapy practice in 2020 after working 8 years in an insurance-based practice. I was totally burnt out from seeing a very high volume of patients, and didn’t feel like I was actually helping any of my patients achieve their long term goals. I also didn’t feel like I was consistently treating a population of people who were motivated, active, and looking to better their health long term. I realized that in order for me to treat the type of person who I connected with and to use my skill set effectively, I needed to switch to a private pay model. Read more>>

Isis Arce

When I first started off it was based off alot of gym knowledge. I read alot of articles and books, became apart of a few public groups to start networking with other individuals in the same field of work as myself. My Coach at the time and now Boss at Barbell County Fitness taught me alot firsthand and I really appreciate that. I personally learned alot from trial and error. You’ll never know if your idea is the GREATEST one yet unless you take the risk. I had struggles as far as what is my unique superpower? All other business owners have one WHAT IS MY UNIQUE TRAIT that will set me apart from my competitors. I spent a year doing workouts and exerting myself physically and expanding my mind somewhere in the grand scheme I realized I am a woman and there is not an All Female Inclusive space anywhere from where my eyes can see and that is when the trajectory of everything changed.  Read more>>

Successful Brim

I have always wanted to put together a network of minority mental health professionals and advocates to help break the stigma surrounding mental health and to also spread mental health awareness. My goal in the process is to create and highlight more minority mental health professionals. The event featured a variety of mental health professionals and mental health advocates, all of whom provided insight into their respective professions as well as their own mental health journeys. Read more>>

Sarah Torti

When I first started my solo private practice, I had no idea how to run a business. I previously worked for several years in the treatment/rehab setting, which looks quite different than an outpatient private practice. In private practice, you are not only providing direct patient care, but you are now in charge of all the administrative work, marketing, networking, and collaborating with multidisciplinary providers—all while establishing the structure of your business. As a solo practitioner, the pace and relational flow holds different demands and at the end of the day, it can be a lot to manage and sort through. Read more>>