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.

Peng Zhou

I started my commercial photography career in 2005. I started as a camera assistant and also worked as a production assistant on different commercial projects. In his spare time, he gradually accumulated my own advertising photography works. A few years later, I started to have my own clients. After that, I worked for different production companies for several years until I began working as a freelance advertising photographer with various advertising agencies. Read more>>

Beth Drayer

First, get a mentor/coach. I should have done this sooner! I read a book and thought that would be enough for me to get started….and it was a great starting point. Read more>>

Kenya Gray

I decided to start my business when I was homeless so at one of my lowest points in life. In addition to my full time work, I had been working part time conducting sessions on weight loss and weight management and I was really good at my job. I loved standing before people, interacting with them and helping them to change their lives by changing their practices. Read more>>

Kelly Schur Ally Ponte

We like to say that fitness fate brought our worlds together after meeting at a local gym over thirteen years ago. Bonding over our love of all things dance, our friendship quickly blossomed from BFF’s to business partners. With a passionate purpose, we set out to fill a void in the fitness industry by creating exercise based dance fitness programming for professionals. Read more>>

Avital Shuster

I started my career as a preschool teacher in New Jersey where I got introduced to pediatric therapy. I’ve always had a natural connection with kids and gravitated towards working with kids but only after I was introduced to Occupational Therapy at the preschool, did I find my calling and decided this is what I want to do. Read more>>

Ian McCartor

It was a sunny afternoon in San Diego, and I was sitting with an old soldier. A veteran in his nineties, one of the few remaining from World War II. Read more>>

Omery Trevino

Hello all! My name is Omery Trevino and I am a Gonstead Chiropractor located in Flower Mound, Texas. I am one of the two Doctors of Chiropractic that you will meet at Milestones Chiropractic. We focus primarily on pediatric and family care. One year ago, I decided I wanted to build a practice that created health advocates rather than just dealing with the traditional back pain and aches. Read more>>

Jenny Eisenberg

I’ve been teaching Pilates for 10 years now. I went out fully on my own a year ago. I had been thinking about it for a long time but was worried about how successful I would or could be on my own. Last year, I went through a very big hardship in my personal life that really made me reflect on what’s important in life and what I really wanted for myself and my career. It was time. Read more>>

Genesis Espinoza

I always knew I wanted to have my own private practice but while I was in my Master’s program, it seemed like a hard dream to accomplish since there were no courses on how to start up your own private practice. My supervisor and mentor at the time really inspired me to leave my 9-5 gig at the mental health agency I was at. It was scary since I was so used to the benefits and salary that I was receiving. I took the leap of faith regardless and now I have a group private practice with 5 clinicians. Read more>>

Kathleen Sullivan

I have had the pleasure of being a Newborn Care Specialist and Postpartum Doula for the last 22 years. Read more>>

Ren Gutierrez

My story is one of a lifetime. I felt called to the healing path and witnessed healing within my family and friends, at a young age. I always liked the outdoors when I was young, painting, drawing, and being in nature was my home. I loved the simple acts of sitting and listening to the grackles caw, as I drew my neighbor’s house or the cows moo while I wrote poetry. Read more>>

Lesley Tate-Gould

The inception of my private practice in 2014 was not the typical story that I hear told often today, something to the tune of, “I’ve been dreaming of having a practice of my own since I started school and I’ve done all the research to get me started”. Nope, my thrust into this uncertain realm came after many months of contemplating whether to leave the safety net of working within the treatment environment, not entirely having worked out what it would even look like or require of me to open my own practice. Read more>>

Faith Streng

When I started my business I didn’t know anything about entrepreneurship, so I started watching every free masterclass social media sent my way. I read books and blogs about business, SEO, marketing, money, leadership, and branding, along with expanding my knowledge about the healing arts. Read more>>

Cheri Fogleman

My business came together over the course of 22 years. As a lot of people in the health and fitness service industry, I started by working for someone else, and then someone else, and then still someone else. Only in the past 2 years or so have I worked solely for myself. However, because I worked for other companies for so long, I knew very little about running a business. Read more>>

April Harrison

I love the personal, intimate relationships I’m able to develop with my patients practicing aesthetics. I get to know about them, their families, and many become friends. I wanted a practice that reflected the same. Read more>>

Ayanna Quamina

I’ve been practicing naturopathic medicine for about 15 years, mostly as a part-time practitioner in various integrative clinics. My time at each location taught me a lot, both about health care as well as about the intricacies of running a business – a person can be a fantastic doctor, but a horrible business owner. About mid-2017 I created an LLC and started seeing patients on my own while still working as an independent consultant at a clinic. Read more>>

Robyn Goldberg

I knew from the time I was a student I wanted to have my own private practice as a registered dietitian nutritionist. I was fortunate enough to start my career at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and not only obtain wonderful exposure to various medical conditions but also the most intelligent and successful healthcare providers. I knew it was necessary for me to obtain the experience so I could have the credibility with various medical problems. Read more>>

Charmaine Benjamin

Mama Me Time was created back in June of 2021. We began our journey with concierge services and within weeks decided to move into our first studio space. We began seeing clients July 26, 2021 in single 150 sq ft suite and on July 26, 2023 we received our keys for our new 1,650 sq ft spa location. Read more>>