In our view, far too many ideas die at the imagination stage. It’s not because people are lazy, we think the primary reason is because many people don’t know where or how to start. So, we connected with some sharp and generous entrepreneurs who’ve agreed to share their stories of how they went from idea to execution.

Addie Pecord

At the beginning of 2021, I began to think about how I wanted the year to unfold. With my husband starting a new job requiring constant travel, I decided I needed to create a life where I could have the flexibility to travel with him or at least visit. That goal sparked months of planning, building and eventually launching my own interior design business. Read more>>

Samantha Salzinger

Going from idea to execution for an artist is the name of the game, it’s making the imagination tangible. My process for creating a work of art is a marriage of form and content. To start, it is important that I stay focused on the process, more than the product. Staying present and engaging with the tools I am working with; lenses, lighting, camera angles and the formal construction of the still life will in effect create the meaning of the work. Once in the flow of this process, it is shocking how I will lose all sense of time and that’s when I know I’m in the zone. It is through years of practice, the mastering of my materials with a bit of serendipity, that the magic happens. Read more>>

Amanda Alchemy

I remember when I was a young girl working in a cafe, people used to ask me “What do you want to do when you get older,” and I would always tell them “I want to heal the world.” More often than not, that response was met with laughter, but in my heart it was the only thing that felt true for me. Given how susceptible we are at that age, I let those responses mold me. I went on with my life trying to ‘make something of myself as a professional,’ so I got a degree in Urban Development from Arizona State, made quite a bit of money working in fine dining restaurants and bought my first house when I was 23. Read more>>

Amy Collins

I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to come out of my time studying Fashion Design at FIT. I knew I loved to sew, and I had a growing interest in Women’s fashion. During my studies, I took a course called Pattern Making. At the time, I had never heard of pattern making. I only knew that I was more interested in the construction & drafting side of Fashion than the sketching/design side. It turns out, that’s exactly what pattern making is! Read more>>

Mike Rollerson

Growing up, I’ve always loved looking at photography and the behind-the-scenes processes behind it; Taking an idea, bringing the different pieces of it together (location, model or product, lighting, composition, focus and post-processing) and building that final photo that you want to present. When I first got into it, my goal wasn’t to find the easiest way to the end result, but to experiment with all of the different ways to get there, using each as a learning experience of what worked, what didn’t work and how I can take that knowledge to trying new ideas to not be stuck in a “cookie cutter” mold. Read more>>

Lauren Jefferson

As much as I wish I came up with the actual idea of FocusCopy first, I didn’t. My dad and co-founder, Stuart Broderick, had dreamed of launching a copywriting company because most of a company’s problems come down to its communications. Stuart shared the business plan with me in July of 2019 and within 20 days we launched FocusCopy. Read more>>

Serenity Smith

I’d like to believe I had a pre-mid-life crisis. Let me explain! There was a moment in my early twenties where I knew with certainty that my calling involved fitness and personal training, but I always felt like there was something missing. I’d find myself constantly questioning if this was the ONLY thing, I would be doing for years to come. So, I did a little soul searching. This forced me to evaluate things outside of fitness and personal training that made me feel uplifted and happy. Read more>>

Sharoya Hall

Thrifting started off as a fun, relaxing hobby I would do on Saturdays. Before I knew it, I would become influential amongst my peers and even strangers. People would ask where did I shop and how they could get it. I couldn’t wait for the chance to tell them. I was also the friend everyone would call for fashion advice whether we were going out, had a date, or planning a trip. This brought me so much life. People would ask why didn’t I do styling for a living, at the time I thought it would be so complicated. Read more>>

Lauren Stewart

Green Street Designs launched in the summer of 2021. There was a lot to do to make that happen. First, all the legal and tax stuff that comes with starting a company. Yuck. But after that, the fun started! I decided to do made-to-order clothing. This cut costs and time for me starting as a one-woman operation. Next, creating a customer profile is key. You need to have the customer in mind before any designing begins. My ideal customer is someone like myself – a woman who enjoys the quality and price point of brands like Lauren Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic and J. Crew, but is looking for pieces that are a bit trendier. Read more>>

Andrea Li

Curiosity often reveals opportunities you may have missed if you simply stayed in your lane. Moreover, this willingness to explore further can uncover skills and talents you never knew you possessed. This discovery process planted the seed of my newest venture, Red Pin Geek, and nurtured it to execution. The organic nature of how curiosity leads you to discover more established every step from idea to implementation to launch. My biggest hurdle, in the beginning, was getting past my fear of starting something new. Read more>>

Andrea McEwan Ridout

I have always owned my own business, though they all related to hardware. My last company was an eco-friendly True Value hardware store in Dallas, Texas. One of our missions was to promote local brands such as White Rock Granola. The products were so delicious that my staff and I would often snack on them during the workday. White Rock’s owner, Renee Latour, had begun making the granola at her bed & breakfast and we were one of few dealers selling it. Read more>>

Kiara Doaty

I’ve wanted to be my own boss some kind of way since I was a child, but never imagined this would be it. I can remember exactly how this business venture came about. It was December 2019 and I posted a picture on social media just showing off treats I made that night for my own two spoiled pups because I thought they were cute. The responses were overwhelming and I really wasn’t expecting it, considering I had been making homemade treats for a few years prior to that. It was so many people saying they would love to buy some, but it was one comment that literally still drives me. To this day I have not met the young lady that commented and said, “Invest in yourself sis!” I prayed about it and the decision to go for it just kept tugging at me. Read more>>

Kate McLean

Since returning to Tony’s it feels like my brain has been on fire with ideas for the business, and of course the menu! In terms of food and dishes what I like to do is discard my first three ideas because in theory they are the easiest to come by. Around the fourth and fifth version I get to more of an original and unique idea and then I source ingredients and product with the different purveyors we work with. Read more>>

Brian Cox

About four years ago, I was working mainly as a beat maker and music producer for hire outside my normal gig at work. I was always a creative person starting with writing stories and poetry in high school, then making beats and working in radio in college and just out of undergrad. Podcasting, as a medium, was starting to gain some momentun. I originally floated the idea of doing a podcast when I first got involved with radio around 2006, but balked at the time. So I decided to revisit the idea again. Read more>>

Tara Acevedo

Tyes By Tara was founded with a spark of inspiration after wearing a Halloween costume with a lacy school girl necktie. I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of the soft feminine details and the strong masculine symbolism that existed in this single costume accessory. I loved it so much that went on a search to find more. I seriously looked in every department store, boutique, Halloween shop and online store at the time, cannot find anything like it. So, I decided to teach myself and make my own. I took my idea and I made it tangible by sewing several samples and I kept sewing. I kept trying new designs. I just kept working at perfecting my craft. Read more>>

Theo (Tatum) Garvey

As a photographer, I began my experience shooting the world around me, however that changed during the initial COVID quarantine. This isolation gave me the chance to build a world of imagery that was much different than the world around me. Executing this new aesthetic came with a lot of preparation. I started my research by looking at different artists, photographers, and films. Read more>>

Brandy Mayes

The idea came from believing in myself first. I had to believe that I can do it. I want to thank my mental health coach Javonne Michael Clark for teaching me how to shift my mindset in the Bears and Bubbles class I learned that the way I think is the energy I attract. It was all about shifting my mindset. It is the 5 year anniversary of that class and I have started three successful businesses. I wrote it on a white board and looked at it every day. I have been podcasting for 5 years and I have my own podcast studio and I have my own dispensary. Read more>>

Falin Thompson-Daniels

I had all these ideas in my head, too many to even concentrate on. I realized that I had to calm myself down and organize all thoes ideas. So I started with an objective or niche if you would. I had to figure out my target audience and then research innovational ideas to attract that specific audience. After much research I understood that I needed a way to connect with my audience, so I invested in getting my website up and running. Which, by the way was one of the best decisions I made. Read more>>

Elena Hall

As an adoptee, it is important to me to have adoption related content that comes from the adoptee perspective. After publishing Through Adopted Eyes and Through Adopted Hearts (books from adoptees, birth parent, and adoptive parent perspective) I wanted to dive into the Children’s book arena. I was waiting for a friend, and while I was waiting I started thinking about what I needed as a younger adoptee. What would I have benefited from? What an other adoptees from different types of backgrounds benefit from? I started creating adoptee related statements and rhymes in my head and created some notes on my phone. By the time my friend arrived, Read more>>

Luis Ruiz

Petra Stellam was created in 2019 with the idea of designing garments that we can wear and ultimately take pictures of our designs to showcase. Creating a brand or any type of company at that takes a lot of planning and preparing to make sure everything is how you intend it to be. However with all that planning you need to take action to your ideas and start somewhere. As a clothing brand Petra Stellam didn’t receive much recognition for the designs and the hard work we put into every photoshoot we did, but that just meant we needed to review what can be improved. Read more>>

Rachel Sanchez and Justin Sokol

It’s always been a dream of ours to own a boutique in a fun and vibrant community. We absolutely love the experience of finding unique items that are curated. And most of all we have always wanted to own a business where clients feel special, valued, confident, and happy. Rachel grew up working in her family owned business where she now serves as CEO and runs one of the largest woman-owned, family-owned, custodial and facilities maintenance companies in the nation . She learned so much about business from that experience and knew she could take that knowledge to execute on fulfilling her dream to open a boutique. Read more>>

Bela Malacsina

I little family background on myself, Im actually a third generation beekeeper so thats the core knowledge base. My grandfather kept a few hives on the side during the great depression, that knowledge was passed down to my father as a child in the 50’s, and he picked up the hobby again in the 80s just before I was born, and I have grown up in and around hives the first 20 years of my life. My father always maintained 200-400 hives, but when I was a teenager and got involved on the business scale we grew his business to 1300 hives – until 2006, when Colony Collapse Disorder crashed out hive count down to 30 hives from October to November. Read more>>

Naimah Elmore

Its crazy because we started Alicia’s Coffee during the midst of the pandemic. My job laid me off so during this time I was thinking of business ideas and literally coffee came to my mind. I called my business partner Rashad Harrell(Roc Reels) and said we are investing in coffee beans. We invested in our first blend Brazilian and its been up ever since. We tried different distributors but most had the after taste in their coffee. The company we use now was perfect from pricing to blends. That was 2020 its 2022 and now we have five different blends. Read more>>