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.

Michelle Wendt

The truth was although I had been working in corporate America for over 15 years, I had no clue how to start or manage my own business. When I founded Indigo Healing Acupuncture, I envisioned a thriving medical practice within a few months of announcing a grand opening. Despite many hours/days/weeks of setting up my business with a great location, professional logo, and a polished website, I was desperately missing the most important thing… patients! Read more>>

JON BEAUMONT

Once I made the decision to be a mental health counselor, I always knew I wanted to have my own private practice. However, I knew this would take time. The first major step I had to take was to gain the skills needed to be a great counselor. Though we learn a great deal in our graduate studies, most counselors would agree that the majority of knowledge comes from experience in the field. Fortunately, I was able to acquire this in multiple settings. The biggest lesson I had to learn was to bet on myself. Read more>>

JOSEPH TRAVERS

On September 21, 2009 I was reading an article from the Orange County Register, “Retired Terror Hunters Hope to End Child Sex Slavery” (in foreign countries). This brought to mind the news I heard recently regarding a missing 17-year-old girl who left her parent’s home in New York. Brittanee Drexel was last seen in a hotel video in South Carolina on April 25th. Where was she? (In August 2016 the FBI reported that Brittanee was taken from the hotel in Myrtle Beach by a gang member pimp to a stash house in North Carolina for several days then repeatedly raped by gang members, shot dead and fed to alligators). Read more>>

Ashley-Nicole Russell

My journey to establishing my own firm was unique and even a bit of a surprise to myself since I did this straight of out law school. Despite the challenges, I knew that it was something I had to do in order to practice Collaborative Law in eastern North Carolina. After law school, I planned on focusing solely on mediation; however, that plan evolved while I was studying for the Bar Exam. Read more>>

Eraina Ferguson

I decided to launch my own consulting firm in 2018. Despite special needs daughter on my own while completing three academic degrees, including one from Yale, I couldn’t find a job in tech. I developed a passion for content, marketing, and helping others with their goals years ago. The main steps I took in stabbing my own consulting firm including creating and launching it as an official business, and LLC. Then I started to learn more about what my clients desired, what they needed from me for their businesses, and what I could do to move the digital of their digital marketing landscape. Read more>>

Valerie Anderson Stallworth

The Stallworth’s Brand was established in 2012 after my retirement from the American Cancer Society, Florida Division. I have always provided services and worked in the NonProfit arena, and I was a little too young to pull from my retirement accounts without tax penalty’s. I opened a Stallworth’s Precious Gifts, a small cultural boutique with clothing, jewelry, gift, and designer made gift baskets and Stallworth’s NonProfit Management Consulting, with the intent to help small agencies search for and obtain grant funding, to provide programs and services to those in under resources and under represented communities. Read more>>

Dr. Stacie Barber

After earning my doctorate degree in 2015, I took my first job as a physical therapist in a traditional outpatient orthopedic and sports physical therapy clinic. Working with athletes and helping them get back to the things they love has always been my passion, so I was excited to dive in and start making a difference. Before long, though, I felt ineffective and overwhelmed. Between my double- and triple-booked caseload and the seemingly endless extra hours it took to complete the insurance documentation, it was impossible to give each patient the attention or quality of care that they deserved. I felt like I was failing them. Read more>>

Joy Berkheimer

When I began my practice in 2015, I was fresh out of grad school. Many don’t think that’s even possible, but it is. We have to have supervision when we leave school. With the right supervisor, already in private practice, they can accommodate you having the space to go ahead and start to build your name, specialty, and brand of therapy in the beginning of your journey. One of the biggest challenges to anyone beginning a new practice, myself included, would be no one knows who you are. Read more>>

Cherie Elder

Starting my own business is probably the scariest, most exciting thing I’ve ever done. Since I was about 5, I always knew that I wanted to work for myself… however, I never had a clear idea of what working for myself would actually look like. People always have an idea of a glitzy, glammer-y work life, working for themselves. What most people don’t factor in, though, is the behind-the-scenes work that needs to take place in order for a business to maintain upwards momentum. This was me… before I knew better (lol). Read more>>

Tiffanie Garrison-Jeter

I decided to start my own dental practice after working in corporate dentistry and almost buying into a corporate practice. I got to the point where I was being overworked, not appreciated, and my ability to practice on my terms and values was being put in jeopardy. I left that position and started to work in community health dentistry while putting the processes in place to venture out on my own. Read more>>

Judy Medina

I started EZ CPR when a friend suggested taking over her CPR training business. I had spent 15 years in the Human Resources field and had left a few years prior to be a stay at home mom. I got bored very quickly after having worked in such a fast paced field. My first class consisted of 4 people, 2 of whom were close friends and using equipment that was a little out of date since I did not have a lot funds to purchase all new equipment. Read more>>

Paul Kiger

Starting a niche organization has provided both its rewards and challenges. From my initial research, it did not appear that there were any other organizations providing mental health counseling for artists/creatives/musicians, from a creative, that were doing it through telehealth. This was before the pandemic and telehealth was much less utilized and people were leary of it. Starting Supporting Act Counseling was initially a smooth process as our services are provided through telehealth which eliminated a lot of the startup work and stress that occurs when a business has a physical location. Read more>>

Kendra Foisie Rice

I am the type of person who questions authority. I am sure I thoroughly exhausted my parents with those incessant, “but whyyy?” questions throughout my childhood. I firmly believe that just because something has always been done a certain way, is not enough reason to continue. We as humans must be continually evolving in order to grow. Read more>>

Krystal Jackson

When I started my business, I did not expect to hire staff. I started a mental health private practice as a way to earn extra income while working with people I wanted to work with. When I was first in undergraduate school, I remember making a plan with one of my high school mates that we would start a private practice where I would provide therapy to the adults and she would provide therapy to children and adolescents. I think about how naive I was at to what would be required. I also think about my tenacity and boldness to dream of such a thing. Read more>>

Na’iyma Chew

I would like to begin by saying that I have wanted to own my own business for many years before I actually started. This dream of mine was something I would ponder about yearly until I finally decided to give it a shot. I share this because so many people who want to own their own business don’t realize that the people who are doing it may not have been such go-getters from the start. Everyone has their own process. Read more>>