Finding the key partners to work with can make or break your venture.  After thousands of conversations with aspiring entrepreneurs, it’s one of the most common obstacles and risks holding folks back from pursuing their idea.  So – we asked some of the smartest, most resourceful entrepreneurs in the community to share their lessons and insights to help inspire and educate the next great set of entrepreneurs.

Melina Mayfield

The key to finding good vendors is RESEARCH. You must do your due diligence and take the time to really research your industry and see what is being offered. Go that extra step and create price/offering comparisons and see what is best for you and your business. I personally did just that. I researched several companies supplying wholesale flowers, compared prices and narrowed my choices to two vendors that I felt would suit my needs. I went with my first choice but found that vendor to be a bit disingenuous. Read more>>

Mackeisha Peeples

I utilize my relationships with the local farming community’s across the valley to supply my clients with fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and more. I found these purveyors by doing my research and networking. I choose to purchase fresh products because I strongly believe in holistic health, farm to table cuisine and I understand the benefits for both parties. Read more>>

Khadine Schultz

This is an exhaustive process, it may take years until you have your own reliable list of vendors. If I can give a tip is always get some references and to check their license. Read more>>

Shannon Ashley

Owning a service + appointment based business, quality products that are effective is my number one priority. Because I want the absolute best for my clients, I am very picky about who I choose to associate my brand with. This is why I did a lot of trial and error picking supplies and products leading up to opening my doors, as well as for the last 2 years I’ve been in business. What I’ve concluded is that being a woman-owned small business, it was really important to me that my vendors were also women-owned small businesses, Read more>>

Dennis Butterworth

When I first started out, I was bottling by hand in a commercial kitchen. 8 months later, I won HEB”s Quest For Texas Best and landed a deal to get in over 250 stores. I began a search for a copacker. HEB wanted me to deliver by December which gave me very little time to secure a location. I went with the first place I found in Houston. They were a large factory that bottle a huge amount of different products. They replicated my recipe and we got the first orders for HEB ready to go. It gave me a huge relief to know I had this taken care of . Little did I know, my year was not going to be easy. Read more>>

Amy Savinon

As a small business owner, finding your preferred vendors is key to running a successful business. While being in the wedding industry for over 10 years, developing relationships with vendors and suppliers has been a crucial part of my growth. The first year is all about trial and error. Really performing as a hobby for friends or word of mouth, I began PaperTales inside of my home office printing on a single laser office printer. I credit my production skills that first year creating, scoring and trimming each and every single paper by hand. Read more>>

Alyssa Belanger

As an event planner, finding the right vendor means everything! One bad vendor can make or break an experience. I strive to find vendors that have a strong passion for what they do, and similar work ethic. I have found vendors in many different ways. Some from networking events, social media, researching online and referrals. I love to have options when it comes to my vendors. Not all my clients have the same budget and I want to be able to accommodate everyone. I also work off of intuition and the vibe/energy of a vendor. Read more>>

Fermin Bergouignan

When I first got in the business I found my first manufacturer online doing a basic online Google search. It lead me to Ebay at the time. Part of being a business owner is wearing multiple hats and carrying duties otherwise distributed into tasks via department heads at competing larger firms. Entrepreneurs don’t have the basic luxury of help so i quickly prepared myself to take the role of doing “everything” for the freshly founded company. The first hat is research and development. Second is customer service and last is product the delivery department / installation. Read more>>