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.

Ashlynne Barnes

I’ve always loved plants. My interest really kicked off in mid 2019. I continued learning and collecting, and daydreaming about being able to make my “hobby”, a career. In 2021, I went through a series of life changing events that really gave me the push to start the business. It really hit me that life is short, and I want to spend it doing something that makes me happy. I began selling on Etsy, which I did for about 6 months. I knew I wanted more than what that platform had to offer me. I wanted to not just sell plants, but build a community for plant lovers to learn and build connections. I started off by working with Be- Efficient Solutions to design my logo. She helped me bring my vision to life. We then moved on to creating my website. Read more>>

Chelsey Bichay

When I first thought of starting my own luxury picnic business, I felt a lot of conflicting emotions before actually committing to my business. I was so excited about the idea of taking my passion for design and party planning, and turning it into something that could go beyond just a hobby, but this question kept playing in the back of my mind- “what if I put all of this time and effort into a business, and I’m unsuccessful?” That question instilled fear and panic, but I decided at this moment that I’ll never know unless I try, so I may as well give it my best effort. Read more>>

Alexandra Bendayan

The hardest part, in my opinion, is creating your vision to life. I’ve always been a very creative person and that’s both a gift and a curse. When you imagine wonderful & different ideas in your head, it’s frustrating when you’re trying to figure out where to start. For The Picnic Haven, I wanted to offer beautiful picnics to Miami that just screamed: “unique.” There’s a lot of event decorators since Miami is the party capital, but I believed I could offer a more elevated experience. It’s not just buying the decorations and furniture but actually finding your “signature look.” Clients will always want consistency and quality. With my picnics, I was able to just pour my entire creativity into the execution and create some picnic magic. My goal was and still is to offer Miami with a unique experience that escapes the ordinary. Read more>>

Letosha Daniels

The love of celebrating my birthday and special occasions have always been important to me; whether a holiday, graduation, wedding, anniversary, or any festive event. I soon began to realize that I had an eye for the big picture and embraced it. It was all about the “look in the moment”, the presentation, the color scheme, the clean lines and the overall WOW FACTOR that sets the tone. It was in 2010 that I began to seriously internalize that I wanted to make this reoccurring vision a reality. Read more>>

Jenny and Mary Morales and Cardona

Higher Calling Papers started as an idea in 2017 to make smoking more beautiful. We wanted to offer a rolling paper that could be customized for birthdays, anniversaries, anything anyone can image. In the beginning it seemed so easy, just stick the paper in the printer and bam. That was definitely not the case. The papers were so thin that they would tear in the printer, when we were finally able to print on a paper the images were blurred and oversaturated. Read more>>

Sheila Montas

For years I had others ask me to promote their brand and/or be apart of it since my image was marketable. Even though I was getting paid for the services I provided I eventually decided to start my own brand/business and fully profit off of it instead of getting paid to be the middle man. People would always come to me and ask me “where I purchased this and that,” “ Do I sell this or that “ or “Can you help me with this or that”, so I took it upon myself to make a name for myself and make a brand and turn it into my own business “U Collection LLC”. Read more>>

Alexandra Hernandez

Here is our story. Before I begin, I really want the reader to know, “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” – Lena Waithe. I am quoting Lena because hopefully you, the reader, will take something from what we have created and be inspired to act on your passion. Now, here is the story of how El Elote went from a dream to a reality…one elote at a time. There really wasn’t a specific plan behind creating El Elote. Read more>>

Naki Carey

Ok so my mind is always going about what I want my collection to be and look like. When I first came up with my collection I would say I slightly failed. Things just didn’t go right and production was never finished. I had this really fashionable, and stylish idea for leggings. I wanted them to look a certain way that you really don’t see, and I knew my followers would love them. I spent lots of money trying to make it work but it just didn’t.. Read more>>

Devante Williams

I was out in Minnesota stuck in a snow storm and a artist I was working with was sending me tracks back to back all night. So we’re going verse for verse on like 25 maybe 30 tracks in and I was like if we started a label what would we call it. He was like I don’t know but it’ll come. So I got back to Texas, went to Temple and booked a lock in at CTB studios. I want to say I had over 8 different artist there. We all vibing. I ordered pizza,, had bottles, you know whatever made them comfortable. Read more>>

Fara Charles

Ok… where do I start? I’ve had my company FaraCharles & Co for 10 years now. I’ve done so much under that 1 umbrella: photoshoots, music videos, a modeling agency, events, photography and what we’re mostly known for my love and passion TFCP (The FARA Charles Project) our Fashion shows! I’d say about 3 months ago I was conversing with my pastor about being creatively stuck and she suggested maybe I should try to do a reality show. Read more>>

Marcia Allen

I have always been creative, refinishing furniture, painting, or designing graphics. However, delving into making products for more than just my family and me was a new direction I hadn’t thought much about pursuing. With a family of people with sensitive skin, I was always looking into better skin care options on the market and would make products when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Eventually, I wondered if I could pursue this as a business venture. However, I didn’t want to be like everyone else by “just” making products with nothing unique. Read more>>

McGregory Frederique

When I began my career in this industry, I knew that it wasn’t going to happen overnight. I had to come up with a plan that worked for me. So I decided to write out all of my goals and what I wanted to accomplish. From there, I started strategizing using the Blue Print and Red Plan. It’s something I created to help me stay focused and on track with my goals. Read more>>

Hope Conley

Going into college I had my mind set on being an athletic trainer, but very quickly I realized my heart wasn’t in it so I dropped out. With the idea to try new things and see what I liked, I had at least 5 jobs until I started doing makeup. After my first client, I instantly fell in love with the way it made me feel. The more faces I did, the deeper my desire to know more grew. So I searched makeup programs and came across some aesthetic courses. Read more>>

Tron Banks

The idea of starting a market came from the need for start-up business owners to perfect the business model and gain customers. It all started with the Pittsburgh Yards Community development meetings. The developers had community members split up into break out groups that evolved around what the culture of the space would look like. There was a group that focused on branding the site, construction, art, preserving the history of the neighborhood, and also a farmers market group. Our initial group was intended to be a farmers market until we realized one big problem. We had no farmers! We pivoted from farming and would later return to the idea. Read more>>

Lauren Breegle

In 2020 many things have changed, sadly my paint and sip company was one of them. Events were no longer happening, so I had to make an adjustment. People didn’t stop their desire for painting, they simply were not able to join in groups of any size to do so. Therefore, why not send people the supplies directly to their homes? That’s exactly what we did! Without knowing how we would execute the teachings, we decided to start with paint by number kits. After a bit of testing, it was ready! We came up with some standard abstract animal paintings that we would be able to easily produce. Read more>>

Lia Abels

]I have always been into makeup. Since high school. I would sneak and wear eyeliner or lashes behind my moms back lol. She would catch me but it wouldn’t stop me. My sophomore year in college I had a roommate who did makeup really well. She would help to teach me a few things and after years of practice on my own face using professional makeup I was able to apply makeup flawlessly on my friends/family. I decided why not get paid for this and started to service clients. I worked out of the living room and bathroom in my apartment and was able to build a nice clientele list. Shortly after I had my daughter and so it pushed my MUA career to the back burner while being a full time mom.  Read more>>

Jennifer Skinner

I’ve always been extremely administrative and business savvy. I didn’t see anything special about it until I got to college and peers/employers started complimenting me on my ability to keep things organized and efficient. I knew I wanted a side-hustle to make money while I was finishing my degree, so I decided to do some research about starting an administrative assistance business. Virtual Assisting seemed to be a popular title to go by, so I read lots of blog posts about it, followed a few people on Instagram that were in the same field, and started applying for open virtual assistant positions with online business owners. Read more>>

Maya Holloway

(This will honestly be the realest ish’ I’ve ever said to anyone!) I DON’T BELIEVE IN HAVING A PLAN B!!! If I have an idea the only move after it is to Execute! From the beginning,I knew I wasn’t going to be a regular person, cook, line chef, sous chef, CDC, executive chef or anything like that. I honestly just needed to be fed up enough to quit working and making dreams come true for someone else. The Apartment Chef started off as a YouTube Channel – where I would teach young chefs in the industry how they could do everything they do in commercial kitchens at home. Read more>>

Learnel Williams

Before I started my catering company, I had about ten years of catering experience. I moved back to Florida to continue to pursue my executive chef career when I was faced with rejection due to me being “overqualified”. For the first time in my culinary career, I’ve never heard that before. Two straight months of hearing I was “overqualified” the thought immediately came to me about catering and how much money was in it. I wasn’t a caterer per say but I knew how to cater. I had the experience. I went to visit a friend in Atlanta and he is a business owner. Rite before I was about to leave, he started talking about federal EIN. I had no idea what he was talking about so I went home to look it up. Read more>>

David Falloure

Well, there are two sides to my writing. The first is for my day job as a marketer. I began right out of college as a copywriter in the 80s and continued in various forms and roles ever since. Today I work for a global technology company running a full-time writing crew of 6 with a baker’s dozen of contract talent. And I am stoked to say I’ve done some of the best work of my career in the last five years. And I directly attribute that to my writing alter ego. Like many writers, I write for my bosses or clients. But after quitting time–I write for me. In the late 1990s I began writing articles for a couple of local Houston newspapers and magazines. That later morphed into a column, which later kicked off an idea for a blog. It was the blog that really set things into motion because I was blending my interest in history with my branding experience as a marketer. Read more>>

Tk Burtin-Johnson

The idea of Red Hazel came to me in 2018 after trying to identify other passions of mine. The spirits industry has always been an interest of mine, not just the different taste but the production process itself. The industry is one that is ever changing with so many unique options available for any and everyone of legal drinking age. When I came up with the idea, I gave my brother a call and let him know what I was thinking, his response was simply “what do you need”? We spent a few years doing research and identifying the best was to produce the ideal product, the taste, and who our target market would be. Read more>>

Kristen Williams

I had an idea when I cam out with my own line of lashes called Eyelash4Me-2 I had no idea as a new business onwer how to get my business out there. I came up with an idea to throw an Eyelash Party women can come get their lashes done and spread the word. As, I was marketing it online for potential customers. I started getting calls from other business owners asking to join me I was like sure need a drink vendors and food for the customers. LOL had no idea i was unkownly putting together a popup shop. Read more>>

Nicole Palmer

When I first started. Honestly, there was no strategy I just jumped in. I think because I had no choice, I didn’t really think about it. It was messy, I was afraid, but I showed up anyway. And because I showed up, I was able to make mistakes sooner so I knew what I needed to fix. I didn’t initially have anyone to learn from only my own mistakes. And while learning from your own mistakes isn’t always bad thing, in business, there are some legal and foundational things you need to have in place or else! Yes, I had talent and ideas in spades. I was able to learn from my trials and errors, Google a few things, and even gained some insight from a few books. Read more>>

Christian Cashelle

I fell in love with writing the age of 8. This carried over into high school where I found a popular message board filled with fanfiction (stories where the group B2K were used as main characters and placed in fantasy positions). My writings grew in popularity online, so I decided to print them and grow an audience at my high school. I was surprised at how much my stories grew in popularity. I even had to create a library system where people would come to my locker and check them in and out so it was easier to keep track of them. Kids would get in trouble in class for reading my books instead of doing their work. Read more>>