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.

Clarissa Stewart

Ten years ago after a career in the business and restaurant industry, I wanted to switch paths to something that gave me more personal fulfillment. I decided to become a Registered Yoga Teacher through a 200 hour Yoga Teacher training. This opened my eyes and helped me realize how much I am able to help someone (in this case, with just my words) and started my new journey to where I am today. Read more>>

Michelle Moody

I remember when my husband was still in Chiropractic school and how he would come home and chat with me what he was learning about. A lot would go over my head (especially the deep biology, chemistry and neurology he had to learn), but the physiology and basics of what was happening in the body always fascinates me, as I have my education in exercise physiology. Read more>>

Josie Harris-Walton

Tell us the story of the early days from when you decided to start your own firm to establishing the firm I was working for a law firm in the tax division. The firm did not have any black partners. I knew I was going to be the first black partner in the firm. When I realized, they were not going to give me a seat at the table. I decided to start my own table and that is when the Walton Firm was formed. I started my firm in the middle of the pandemic. I knew I did not want to stay at a firm where I was not valued. Read more>>

Ilona Wolpin

I decided to start my own Public Relations firm in 2014. Prior to starting my business, I had worked in professional sports for over 14 years. Entrepreneurship and owning my own business was always a goal of mine. Through many years of hard work I was able to combine my love of public relations and philanthropy to help my clients. For any young professionals, I think it is important to have experience and work hard for your clients. When I was in college at the University of Florida, I spent my summers interning at tv and radio stations and it helped me gain experience. Read more>>

Brittany Cheri

I’ve been working for myself for over 15 years now and its been a rough road. In the beginning, I did not have any structure, plans, goals, absolutely nothing. I treated my business like a simple side hustle. I was working two different jobs at the time, plus being in school when I finally decided that I should take my work more seriously. It all started with setting goals and creating a plan. I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else the rest of my life and I needed to figure out what I needed to do to get to a self sustaining point. Read more>>

Summer Smith

In 2019, when I started my fitness journey, I took it and ran with it. About 1.5 years later, into this new profound passion, I decided I wanted to make something out of it. I unfortunately have a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them, but fitness seemed to be the one thing that’s stuck with me. With that being said, I ventured into starting my personal trainer certification, my nutrition coach certification, then developing an LLC for women’s fitness apparel called ‘Summer Body Fit. Read more>>

Reina Lombardi

Like many people, I was afraid to take the leap to go out on my own. I read a book about opening a private practice, all the responsibility, the business administration and closed the cover and didn’t think about it again for a couple of years. At that point, I realized I either had to go out on my own or find a new career. I thought it better for me to learn through apprenticeship than jumping in the deep end without a floatation device, so I became an independent contractor at a trusted colleague’s practice. In the beginning, I kept my full-time job and began building a caseload and getting my feet wet marketing myself. Read more>>

Keyonia Williams

I started my own practice as a result of realizing a need in the community for Mental health education. There is a big lack of understanding mental health and mental health needs specific to the Black Community. Our mental health is impacted on a daily basis due to historical and generational trauma as well as the trauma of racism. When treating Black folks in any capacity those factors must always be acknowledged. Read more>>

Kelli Schneider

I always thought I’d end up creating my own physical therapy practice for dancers. In fact, I even completed a project in physical therapy school where I built out a fictious performing arts physical therapy clinic from the ground up. However, this thought remained in the background. I assumed starting my own clinic was something I would do after years and years of practicing. That it would be the natural next step in maybe 15 years or so. Read more>>

Cassandra Williams

Starting my own practice was passion project as I worked as a therapist in community mental health. Fresh out of graduate school and participating in agency work I noticed a glaring lack in trauma informed and attachment based therapy practices. I realized the common place cognitive strategies and interventions weren’t meeting the needs of the clients I had grown to care for. Through tons of research, any mentorship I could find and a lot of self-teaching I found new ways to support people. Unfortunately, not everyone in agency work loved it… Read more>>

Trise

Starting out it was all or nothing. I was quickly outgrowing the current space I was in. Although while there I met a lot of people and made such wonderful connections it was my time to progress. Collaborating with my Mom the Master Cosmetologist/ Instructor of the salon was one of the best decisions I could’ve made. I grew up in this setting so to be able to create my own and thrive in it is amazing. I mean who wouldn’t want a one stop shop, family affair right?! So I found a building and decided it’s Shop Time! The key thing was because I’m growing I now have to upgrade everything. My equipment, my status,and my life. Read more>>

Dionne Middlebrooks

I had been debating starting my own practice for a few years and finally decided to take the leap of faith after giving birth to my third baby. I was tired of the traditional physical therapy model and in need of a change. I wanted to be able to give my clients the care and attention they deserve, to increase my longevity within the field, and be more involved with my family. Starting my own concierge/mobile based practice was the best step for me to be able to accomplish the balance in which I was searching. Read more>>

Katerina Lubek

While I was professionally dancing in NYC, performing and training in the best dance studios I also started teaching. Although I find it very different from dancing, I always enjoyed it and I always thought of how can I make my class better. Adults who came to take ballet lessons are all there for different reasons. Some just want to dance while others would like to dig deeper and learn the technique. There are some who also would like to improve their posture and flexibility and some who used to take ballet and want to come back to the atmosphere of a dance studio. Read more>>