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.

Hank Ebeling

I knew I wanted to own my own fitness facility back in high school when I would spend hours designing my logo in graphic design class. At the time my vision was a sports performance gym which later would end up changing over time. My goal after graduating college became to follow the steps that were needed for me to be able to gain the finances and knowledge necessary to open my own facility one day. I would spend time attending seminars, taking courses, and getting real-world experience in the fitness field to increase my chances for future success. Read more>>

Dr. Alexander Nelson

What a ride this has been! My wife and myself have been practicing Chiropractic and seeing children with special needs for 10 years now. It wasn’t until 2020 that we were able to open a place of our own – HML Chiropractic & Functional Care. Up to that point we were working at other offices getting ourselves established and saving money to open a place of our own. We opened HML March 2nd of 2020, March 23rd, our county shut-down. Thank God we were seen as essential and were able to remain open. Read more>>

Hugo Mijares

The road for an Architect is very long, internships, apprenticeships and cutting your tooth at a respectable firm before getting to apply for a State License. I did follow the book but in different order. After working for several firms I landed a dream job at oppenheim Architecture in Miami, designing at top level and winning lots of awards until it was the time to set my own studio. The main challenge was to handle the practice as a business since my training was exclusively in advanced techniques of design. Read more>>

GIANGTIEN NGUYEN, AIA, NCARB

In 2019, I formally set up the company’s first phase called Creative Collaborations. The company provided BIM and CAD services for the Architecture and Engineer industry. As my experiences in my career expanded, I had a chance to learn more about myself professionally. I noticed my love for business management and operations. This journey of self-discovery has been very enlightening and taught me many valuable perspectives along the way. As a Project Manager for 8+ years, it has taught me many practical skills and knowledge. I believed that this was the initial seed for my passion for business management. Read more>>

Fuada Velic

It’s never easy running the show, especially when you’re starting a new business. When I started AAAC, Inc., I dealt with my fair share of struggles. Sometimes I was unprepared. Or ignorant. Most of the time, I never saw hurdles coming my way until I had tripped right over them. I knew from the get-go that I will face many chalinges and being enterpreneur will take a lot. I love the fact that my personality connects people and this made easier on my side when I started and was facing business chalinges. Read more>>

Shanice Love

My journey in finance started in 2010 when one of my older cousins asked me join his accounting firm as a tax accountant. My very 1st year, I only had 15 clients. In 2013, I relocated to Charleston, SC and opened my own small tax firm under his supervision and direction. Unfortunately, I had to move back to Miami a year later due to the passing of my father. I continued to grow my clientele and in 2016 I relocated once again, this time to Atlanta, GA. As my clientele grew so did my financial knowledge. Read more>>

BreaRose Smith

My business has developed as a byproduct of the wisdom and skills I have cultivated from my own healing journey. Throughout my life I have been guided to pave an untraditional path, one that is defined by my own inner callings and truths as opposed to what I perceive as “normal” in society. My personal desire for spiritual meaning and inner connection led me to seek out multiple therapeutic healing modalities and their various training programs. The resulting knowledge and certifications from these programs became the backbone of my business. Read more>>

R. Romona Jackson

I have led several start-ups over the last 10 years. In 2011, I started a law firm to represent immigrants with dignity and respect. A few years later in 2014, I moved to Europe with my husband and started a grassroots organization in Krakow, Poland. The organization, Unchained, was focused on raising awareness about human trafficking in central and eastern Europe. Returning to the United States, I started a nonprofit in 2018 to empower and support survivors of domestic abuse in suburban communities. Read more>>

Beatriz Robinson

Smart Touch Skin Solutions was established in Murfreesboro, TN in 2013 and it is owned by Beatriz Robinson. Bea Robinson, 52, has been in the permanent makeup industry since 2000. She was born and raised in Brazil, South America and her medical background was an inspiration to develop safer and more effective techniques to deliver the most natural results in the permanent cosmetics field. She was one of the first professionals in Brazil to offer medical tattoo, mostly pro bono jobs for breast cancer survivors. Her passion for the craft together with the will of helping so many made her step out of her comfort zone and start Smart Touch Skin Solutions in USA. Read more>>

Christi Clemons Hoffman

When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs, I was “different.” Highly intuitive, I was interested in things my classmates in the 1970’s weren’t: Ghosts. UFOs. Mediumship. Spirituality. I had no one to talk to who shared these interests, and I had no idea I could do anything with my clairvoyant and claircognizant abilities. Read more>>

Riki Shore

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I went from teaching Pilates in person to being stuck in my home with nothing but a laptop and Zoom. Without knowing how to do it, I started teaching Pilates online. I got lucky: I had a room in my house that was only being used for storage, so I pushed the boxes to one side, propped my laptop on a stack of them, and began teaching. In the back of my mind, a small voice said, “Is this a business?” Read more>>

Elaine Dove

I actually didn’t “plan” to start my own business, and that’s why I feel sharing what DID happen that led to that is important, especially in these times. After a lifetime of being an artist and scraping by, it was a huge decision to decide to go to graduate school to attain a counseling degree. As someone who grew up in poverty, I already knew that for someone like me – a non white woman who didn’t come from affluence – my only road to changing social class was education that would allow me to work independently in a field I cared about : healing. Read more>>

Danielle Kelley

Get more training. Spend more time in the field learning about individual bodies and how they show up on the mat differently. It’s not just about teaching a class flow, you need to tune into learning how our bodies and our minds and just how beautiful and uniquely different they are. Read more>>

Sheila Zayas

My business came about as a result of my own healing journey. Before, mornings felt like a bag of bricks lay on my body and tired eyes. Worry and sadness had kept me awake all night and getting out of bed was full of effort. My anxiety that was so intense that my whole stomach vibrated. Cries from my soul became louder and louder with allergies, muscle tensions, and anger. It was time to finally face myself and my pain. So, I began to experiment with meditation, conscious connected breathing, sound healing, and crystals. Read more>>

Jennymelva Moral

There were definitely a lot of bumps & setbacks on the road for me. There were some self-doubts about resigning from my full-time job at the University of San Diego. Having worked there for about 5 years. It was learning to trust the outcome of my business and start taking steps to make it happen. Read more>>

Elizabeth Burton

When I started out, I invested in an 8-week course on how to build a practice which helped me clarify my practice focus, develop my practice policies, put language to how to market my services, and during this time worked on building my website/social media. When I was ready to launch, I chose to maintain my full time work and started with a sublease working a few evenings a week, eventually adding days and moving to part time work, and then it was not long before I had the capacity to shift into a full time work schedule and lease and furnish my own space. Read more>>

Alessandra Colon

A recent graduate and doctor, I took a job opportunity in Margate, New Jersey. Soon after Hurricane Sandy had left my area in devastation. That said, I decided to hop in my car and drive to sunny Florida. I asked a friend if I could crash on his couch promising I’d find a job to help out. Within 48 hours I found a job listed on craigslist working as a chiropractic assistant, with a doctoral degree making $9 an hour to make ends meet. Within 6 months, I quickly realized as much as I was learning, my potential and creativity was being wasted. Read more>>