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.

Jennifer Miller

As an orthopedic nurse practitioner, who has always had a love for health and fitness and helping others with confidence I knew that I wanted to start a practice in aesthetic medicine. Much different than any other medical field I’ve been in, Aesthetics truly is completely different. I knew that starting part time would be difficult and it would be hard to join another practice, so I made the decision to start my own business. It was bold, it was scary, it was expensive, but it was incredible. I made the decision to join a group of powerful ladies in a salon space. This was different than what many others do but I wanted people to feel like they were truly treating themselves when coming in for an aesthetic procedure. As a surgical practitioner, I know that’s the reality is extremely important, as well as explaining the risks and benefits of each procedure. I took many courses, ask many questions, and shadowed other injectors that I thought had the same ideas that I did. Read more>>

Dr. Betsy Usher

I started my private practice and art studio during the very start pandemic which gave me an opportunity to create art and do Telehealth psychotherapy. Since no one was meeting in person using Telehealth allowed me to not pay for office space and the expenses that come with that. I was able to see people all over Colorado which before the pandemic Telehealth was still not popular. This opened up lots of possibilities for patients to see me and within a year I had a three year waitlist to see me. Read more>>

Dr. Rachel Sims

Well, I think my career journey is a perfect example of how development isn’t always linear. I originally wanted to be a teacher and I worked in the public school system for 9 years as a teacher and coach. I found myself counseling more students in between classes, before, and after school. I fell in love with psychology and decided to go back to school to get trained. I fell in love with counseling and therapy and the study of why we “tick”. I graduated with my Masters’s in a year and became a School Counselor in the long process of obtaining my LPC license. (which takes 3,000 intern hours in the State of Texas). So I went into education, and counseling added my professional license, and found my niche in working with couples. I went back and gained my Doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy and really started specializing in Attachment Theory. Read more>>

Dereka Feiler

I earned my BSW and decided that I wanted to pursue a higher education in the field of social work. I went on to obtain my MSW and was not entirely sure what part of the field I wanted to work in, but knew I wanted to have more opportunities by having my Master’s before starting my family. While attending grad school back in 2016, I decided that I wanted to own my own practice one day and never looked back. I knew that I would have to work a few years in the field (a minimum of 2) while I worked towards my hours to pursue my clinical licensure. I worked almost 5 years at Child Protective Services and absorbed as much information in the field that I could. Read more>>

Chikeitha Owens

In the early days of deciding to start my own practice, I was driven by a passion to make a more significant impact on people’s lives beyond the scope of my job as a Texas Works Advisor. While working with clients in social services, I became acutely aware of the deeper emotional and mental challenges they were facing. This realization inspired me to pursue a career in counseling. Read more>>

Rachel Muich

I graduated from my Masters program in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2020. The stress of completing school during the pandemic was immense, but nothing could have prepared me for the stress of then trying to find a job and/or start a business during the heights of COVID-19. Read more>>

Dr. Nicole Lorenz

Like many, I presume, starting my own practice was years in the making. I began considering the possibility of starting my own practice 2 years prior to filing paperwork for my “LLC”. I do not come from an inherently entrepreneurial family, however, I was able to reach out to a cousin and discuss some of the basics required to start a business; the rest was found through trial-and-error and scouring the internet. Read more>>

Leigh Hill

I have the incredibly good fortune of co-owning B Theory Aesthetics, alongside my esti bestie, Brooke Havice, who was one of my amazing classmates in aesthetics school. We connected in class very quickly and knew deep down that we would one day work together. At the time we started in aesthetics school we both had established ourselves in other fulfilling careers, but we both were longing for a change in our work and lifestyles. Little did we know that we would be opening our own practice together just a few short years after graduation. After working together in the spa industry for about a year, we both felt called to open our business. Our inspiration became a reality much quicker than we were expecting after being introduced to a local wellness center that was offering affordable spaces for practitioners to rent. We toured the center, slept on the idea of launching a business, met for tea a few days later and birthed B Theory Aesthetics. We took a big leap of faith and it is paying off for us! Read more>>

Dr Verlisha Goins

After completing my Masters degree and certification as a Nurse Practitioner, I recall telling a friend of mine “I’m going to give myself 10 years to have my own practice”. I wanted to gain the clinical experience and expertise to venture out on my own. The first step is having the confidence and bravery to just do it. My first business was short lived and a partnership with friends. I don’t think I thought I could do something like this by myself, but I also quickly learned how difficult it is to form a business with others. Everyone has their own ambitions, work ethic and even personal lives so it takes a lot of patience and understanding but also differentiating business from personal. I learned a lot from that experience so it has definitely given me the ability to move forward on my own successfully and without fear. Read more>>