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.

Cady North

It took taking a sabbatical from any work for me to be open to the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. I was burned out in my job and the pressure had been building for months. I had achieved a lot in my work. I was a global media company’s expert in financial regulations that had been rolling out since the 2008 financial crisis and I was about to graduate with an MBA from the prestigious Washington, D.C. university, Georgetown. Read more >>

Laurena White

When the administration changed in 2016, I knew that I had to pivot. The only thing I was sure of? I couldn’t go back to business as usual as a healthcare professional. After living in Cuba for eight years and Haiti for two years, my whole approach to health and wellness had changed and I was no longer the provider/practitioner/physician that I was before those experiences. Read more >>

Dr. Dana McNeil

Your background – how did you get started? Becoming a therapist was a second career for me. I had previously worked as a property claims for a large insurance company. My job was to collaborate with clients who had suffered a crisis to their home, business, and often times their whole community was impacted. I found myself needing to learn how to be a presence in people’s lives when tragedy was present. Read more >>

Michele Sonsino

When I first moved to Nashville, my soon-to-be husband was the chief of optometry at Vanderbilt Medical Center. I was looking around for a position and there were only corporate jobs available. I knew that wasn’t going to be right for me, so we decided to just start a practice. No one would give me a loan, since this was my first time running a business. So, we took out a mortage on our condo to get the capital needed to start the practice. Read more >>

Kevin Nahai

The early days: I was 26 years old starting graduate school. For the previous 7 years I had been suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease that I had just started to get under control. I had major anxiety, I was going through a terrible breakup. no money, and no previous work experience that was relevant to what I wanted to do with my future. All I knew was that I wanted to help people with their mental and emotional health in some capacity, but I had no idea where to start. Read more >>

Kim Egel

Back in 2008 when I was working as a therapist in more clinical type settings, I felt really restricted. Being super clinical never felt organic to me in terms of how I wanted to show up as a therapist. Creating an approachable environment for my clients that was comfortable, client focused, free of massive amounts of paper work and fluorescent office lightning, was always my aim. Read more >>

Erin Callahan

As a Doctor of Chiropractic, it is an honor to serve families to promote connection. Connection with oneself, connection with others, and connection to our environment. When I first moved back to Virginia following the grueling years of Chiropractic school and an internship turned first associateship within the Chiropractic field, I found a home at a busy and thriving practice. Read more >>

Asha Edouard

As a woman that is spiritually in tune with herself and community, I knew that if I were to open a practice, it would have to reflect how I live on a daily basis, spirit included. In the early days of In Grace Yoga Therapy, I started out this work as a Social Worker. I had a strong burning desire to introduce members of my community to alternative and ancestral ways to heal. Read more >>

Christina Popoola

I got the idea for my non-profit while studying for my doctorate and specifically while preparing for my final capstone project. I noticed a gap in my area of expertise and developed a program to fill that need by conducting research and identifying any existing solutions. After graduating, I turned my project into an actual non-profit. Some challenges I faced were identifying clientele, stakeholders, creating a marketing strategy and procuring funding. Read more >>

Doris Garrett

When I was eight months pregnant with my second child, I was preparing divorce paper. Thousands of emotions surrounded my broken heart. The situation was giving to me, not against me. As I helped myself, I started to get inspired to help others. Read more >>

Patrick Davis

Starting your own medical practice is a challenge and we have run in to our fair share of obstacles, however having professional autonomy was something always important to me. They’re surely is a steep learning curve, especially for a surgeon or physician. Most of our adult lives have been spent studying medicine, perfecting our techniques, and maintaining our certifications through life long learning — nowhere along this journey was a formal training in business. Read more >>

Dr. Mitch Scarmardo

I always knew I wanted to establish my own sports medicine practice, but was never sure if I had the right skillset or mindset to do it. Thankfully, my mentor and partner Dr. Ben Bumguardner saw something in me as a young chiropractic student and wanted to team up to open the second location of Alpha Sports Performance Medicine. After working at our College Station office, my family and I made the move the McKinney, Texas to begin the process of opening our new clinic. Read more >>

Kristen McNeely

I remember the moment I knew I needed to start my own practice. I had been stopped in the parking lot of my son’s school and asked, for what felt like the upteenth time, about a challenging behavior scenario. I knew then that I could make an impact in working with parents and decided to go for it. Read more >>