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.

Erica Burger

When I realized it was time for me to start my practice, it couldn’t have been worse timing. I had resigned somewhat unexpectedly from my current position as an outpatient psychiatrist in a big healthcare system and the week before I resigned, we bought a vacant cabin at an auction in our county that needed a full rehab. I think that it actually forced me to make decisions more quickly and just start with what I had. Read more>>

Julie Shen

The first two steps I took towards building my business were coming up with a catchy name and determining the legal entity for the business. For the name, I wanted it to represent the business ethos but also be broad enough to be applicable if I diversified into different categories. For example, if I named the business Jshen Consulting, it would feel misaligned if I later expanded into non-consulting areas. Read more>>

Taylor Bushnell

I have been practicing in physical therapy since 2010 and worked in hospitals and clinics from Boston Ma all the way to Eugene Or. I spent years learning specialized manual therapy skills and working with patients of all walks of life and age. My favorite skill and tool I learned over the years is dry needling. Dry Needling involves using a small monofilament needle and inserting it into muscles and fascia to treat pain. Read more>>

Patricia Marsh, MD

In 2018, I was on the “other side of medicine” for the first time. Meaning, I was not the physician caring for the patient. Rather it was my father that was being cared for in the hospital. I was so afraid due to the seriousness of his condition. We thought we were going to lose him. I stayed with him for a week straight and noted after a procedure he had signs of a serious complication. I asked the nurse to call the doctor and the doctor never came, despite being called 3 times. Read more>>

Kyle Severson

I moved to Duluth almost immediately after I graduated Chiropractic school in November 2017, having been nearly obsessed over the last year with gathering information and setting up plans to open my own practice. Read more>>

Sandra Coulson

I was a public school speech therapist and did not feel it was working since many of my students were older and still had speech issues. Since I had a background in dance and gymnastics, I decided to start a practice using the muscles of the lips, tongue, mouth, jaw, and face. This intrigued me because I had worked for a dentist at age 13 and saw how many issues people had. So in 1969, I started a practice of orofacial myofunctional therapy to help dental patients. Read more>>

Nari Kaur

The natural place to start would be the initiation of my purpose and how it began to unravel which led me to the position that I hold today as an Empowerment & Leadership Coach. I grew up in predominantly a patriarchal home where I had a lot of love and support but where gender roles were predefined. My mother was a nurturer and my father an ambitious entrepreneur. I was always a fun loving and confident child who growing up loved to push the boundaries and enjoyed expanding my comfort zone – in sports, arts and academia alike. Read more>>

Grace Yum

I entered the dental field at age 18 while studying at Northwestern University. I was a dental assistant for a family friend. I studied Communications and had aspirations to be a journalist. However, fate, turned me into a different direction! I soon fell in love with dentistry and loved orthodontics and pediatric dentistry. I especially loved the idea of being my own boss and having my own business. Read more>>

Dr. Liliana Uribe

My story of “the early days” is better described as pre pandemic and post pandemic. Prior to COVID, in 2019, I was working as a behavior analyst in a private agency located in Miami,Fl. By the end of my 4 year haul, I was feeling like change was about to happen. I had been contemplating leaving the field of behavior analysis to focus more on growing a private client case load and overall practice. Read more>>

Kristin Revere

I created Gold Coast Doulas in May of 2015 with a public launch in October of 2015. My business partner and I wanted to create a one-stop agency that served families from conception though the first year. We spent a lot of time planning, I would have launched earlier and corrected things later knowing what I now know. Things don’t need to be perfect. Read more>>

Dr. Jennifer Rispoli

First step-finding a location. For me, I needed to ensure I had a bathroom in my facility, which is actually hard to find when you are looking for a small space. We actually thought we had a space, but the landlord refused to work with us at all on the buildout despite offering a 5 year lease. We chose to walk away at this time. If someone is completely unreasonable on the front end when they are trying to get you to lease their space, this does not bode well for a future relationship. Read more>>