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.

Ivory Howard

One of my students shared the reason she traveled from another city for a class with me was because she didn’t think she, as a person of color, fit in at yoga studios in her area. It breaks my heart to hear this because yoga is practiced by many different people with different body types and that diversity should be welcomed, visible and celebrated so that everyone feels welcome in this community.Read more>>

Mariangela Parrodi

With a background in Biomedical Science, I completed training as a Naturopath. I started working part-time from home because I had two young boys, which reduced my outgoings to a minimum. During my ten years working in pathology, I began to learn different healing modalities to heal my childhood anxiety and a workplace injury. Read more>>

Pamela Reynell

I took the decision to retrain as a business and professional development coach at a later stage of my working life. I was terrified at the prospect of all the administration and finance side of running my own business. I was much happier developing the practice deepening my skills and learning how to adapt them for each client. I need not have struggled so hard I really just needed to ask for help. Many people who are self employed or build their own businesses are not really business trained and so there are lots of resources to support this. I have now integrated my practice and business skills into a new role working in community inspired business and it’s the best thing over ever done for a living. I feel able to take full ownership in my role as custodian of a delightful community centre from within which my practice flourishes. Read more>>

Dr Sarah Druckman, DC, CAC

Coaching other female doctors and entrepreneurs is one of my passions. I started my practice with NOTHING. Literally from an ex-boyfriend’s basement and as a mobile chiropractor. All along while launching an online functional medicine detox program before coaching was “a thing” and getting my first yoga teacher training. I knew that I wanted to be more than just a chiropractor, I wanted to live and sell the wellness entrepreneur lifestyle. Read more>>

Semi

Starting Nature’s Ambrosia was born out of both a calling and a craving. A calling to be in deeper service through spiritual and holistic healing, and a craving to build something of my own that reflected the sacred, intuitive, and ancestral parts of who I am. I didn’t wake up one day with a perfect business plan, I didn’t know where to start.. I just started because I had clarity in my spirit. I knew I wanted to create a space and brand that fused ritual, Reiki, herbal wisdom, and intention into one soulful offering. Read more>>

Krysta Bryars

I always dreamed of having a wellness studio, but the concept of a wellness studio when I was graduating with Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2008 wasn’t an option. Many of my experiences during grad school has influenced what I’m doing now- health promotion in diabetic patients and research in saunas. I had student loans from grad school and knew I had needed to get a job. Fast forward 15 years later, I started to feel less and less in alignment in the current health care model with the business aspect and lack of quality care related to COVID. I worked with COVID patients and I didn’t want to see chronically ill anymore. Read more>>

Mandy Crist

My story starts as a young 17 yr old that got first job managing 60 dogs a day at a local doggy daycare. With this position I found my passion was in dog behavior. It also showed me the struggles that we create putting so many dogs in a small space together. I chose to learn more about our canine friends medically and went to school in 2003 to be a veterinary technician. I graduated in 2005, worked in urgent care and general practice in the Veterinary field. I loved what I did. Dental cleanings, monitoring anesthesia, helping animals, helping people and being a shoulder to lean on when decisions became difficult. I quickly worked my way up to management and led my team and often training the veterinarians which has little to no experience in dog and cat body language. Read more>>

Becky Rasmussen

“One of the first things the Lord said to me was, ‘Unite a community.’” shares Becky. “At the time I had no idea what that meant, but as this has evolved, I realized people in the community did not have tangible ways to get involved. When they hear about trafficking, most people want to be part of the solution but do not know how to do that. We come up with unique and creative ideas for people to leverage their gifts and passions to serve this mission.” Read more>>

Janice Twesten

When I first decided to start my own practice, I knew I had the clinical skills—but what I didn’t realize was how much I had to learn to truly run a business. Like many therapists, I assumed that if I had a website, business cards, and a logo, the rest would fall into place. But the reality was far more complex. Read more>>

Revée (Dr. Ray) Barbour, ND MS

Starting my medical practice happened much earlier than I wanted to, thanks to being unexpectedly laid off from my previous job as an associated physician at another private practice clinic. It was an unsettling experience because I was recruited for the role, relocated to Sacramento, California, and promised an opportunity for growth. I was the only African-American doctor in the practice and was excited to join their team. However, over time, as I became successful in the practice by building my patient panel and receiving high accolades for the care provided, the other physicians began to distance themselves from me and exclude me from events and invites. Read more>>

Elisabeth Mack

I followed my heart and used all of my prior career knowledge to create a needs based business to help others. After I crashed my bicycle in 2014, I was introduced to CBD as a healing option by my chiropractor. I was surprised, because I had been in healthcare for 30 years and no one told me that this is legit. But it worked – better than anything conventional care had offered me! I used CBD topicals, tinctures, and oils, and I healed. As a long time nurse, I knew I needed to help others so I created Holistic Caring to be the bridge between conventional and cannabis medicines in 2015. Fast forward to today – I have created online educational programs for patients and professionals globally on how to heal, and we’ve built a free private network to host our programs, podcasts, and support groups along with an interactive feed to learn, grow, and develop. Read more>>

Adam Tripp

My journey to starting my practice wasn’t a sudden leap but more of an evolution built on a decade of experience. I had spent 10 years working in various roles within the treatment industry, seeing firsthand what worked, what didn’t, and where the gaps were. During that time, I’d also started doing some private coaching and consulting on the side. It was meaningful work, connecting with clients and helping them navigate their paths, but it wasn’t growing. My “marketing strategy,” if you could call it that, was purely word-of-mouth referrals. It was steady, but small-scale.  Read more>>