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.

Gary Kurtis

The year was 2020, the month was May and as we all recall the entire nation was shut down due to the Covid pandemic. I had just ended a very successful four decade career in sales and sales management. Because we had recently moved to Ambler PA I had no local business contacts or connections with network groups and under these conditions I decided to start my venture, Salestips 101 sales coaching. From my career I was aware of large sales training companies that offer a “cookie cutter one size fits all” approach to the masses, but the pandemic resulted in so many losing their jobs and in many cases falling into a new career. I knew that many would lack sales experience and needed skills and not be in a position to hire these large companies or quickly accumulate these needed skills. Read more>>

Sarah Rossmiller

I never planned on starting my own private practice. The idea of running a business felt overwhelming, and I doubted whether I had what it took to make it work. But working for someone else? That drained me in ways I couldn’t ignore. By 2016, I’d had enough. I took the leap and started my practice, unsure of where it would lead but knowin Read more>>

Gloria Geer

When I completed the training, certifications, and licenses I would need to practice my profession, I realized that I didn’t know how to attract clients to my business. The first thing I decided to do was to establish an online presence, so I created a website. The I joined a local group of alternative health practitioners that met once a month. We would network and share ideas about how to advertise our services. That’s where I learned that having a YELP business page would be an excellent way to inform potential clients of what I did, and they could read reviews from my existing clients. Read more>>

Amy Homer-brown

I always used to think I didn’t want to own my own practice. I watched my parents run their own clinic my whole life and always thought business ownership looked so stressful. Unfortunately, in the acupuncture field, there are few clinics that offer employee positions for new graduates and I couldn’t find an independent contractor position that was a good fit at the time I was looking. In the end, I decided I didn’t have a choice but to start my own practice. As it turns out, I absolutely love being self-employed and running my own practice which has now grown into a multi-disciplinary clinic in just 5 years. It’s, of course, still stressful just as I expected, but it’s the kind of stress you (mostly) enjoy. Read more>>

Darlene Marshall

I spent 8 years in the fitness and wellness space before I decided to step out on my own – in February of 2020. I’d been hesitant to make the leap for a long time, but I was in graduate school studying Positive Psychology and my employer just didn’t understand the vision of fitness for wellbeing. Read more>>

Erin Siegel

My journey to creating Fortitude & Flourish began in 1997 when I became a master esthetician. After opening my first skincare practice, Skinnovations, in 2005, I quickly realized my work wasn’t just about skincare—it was about empowering women to feel confident and strong, both inside and out. In 2020, I expanded my services to include holistic coaching, focusing on integrating spirit to nurture my clients’ overall well-being along with their external appearance. Read more>>

Christy Sanger

I began my career as a traditional physical therapist. I completed my Masters Degree in Physical Therapy and started working only to discover there was so much more I needed to learn. After one year in the work force, I returned to school to complete a second Masters Degree in Orthopedic Manual Therapy. This degree helped fill many gaps in my knowledge base. This second degree was just the tip of the iceberg as far as what I needed to learn to create my unique treatment approach. Read more>>

Melissa Philippe

The Early Days: Building Blissful Connections & Blissful Births
Starting Blissful Connections LLC and Blissful Births was a journey rooted in passion, purpose, and a deep calling to serve. My work in holistic wellness and traditional midwifery was never just a business idea—it was my livelihood turned into a mission to bridge gaps in care, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and other marginalised communities. I knew that wellness, birth work, and spirituality needed to be accessible, culturally relevant, and deeply personal, and that was the foundation of my practice. Read more>>