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.

Claire Sinelli

Finding my niche with photography has always been the hard part for me–I love to try all sorts of things and I always felt like a master of none. I never wanted to settle down onto one style of work. Instead, I just sought out people and things that I liked. I have been working with restaurants in some capacity for 8 years. I was a server for a bit and then a barista for 3 years, managed a cafe and a food cart, and catered weddings just to name a few. Restaurants, food, coffee, and the service industry quickly became a focus in my work and my first ever social media and photography job was with a restaurant where I had worked as a barista. Read more>>

Allison McDonald

In the wedding and events industry, the vendor team for each wedding is the most important key to success. You can have all of the logistics, plans, and personal skill in the world, but all will be worthless if you don’t have a team you can trust to execute when it counts. Obviously, when you first get started you don’t have those relationships in place. Read more>>

Jenny West

There’s one lesson you need to learn if you’re going to succeed in Nashville – it’s still a small town at its heart. That means community is everything, especially within the entertainment industry. Do you bad-mouth your co-workers? Do you always come in hungover? Your reputation will precede you and you’ll find yourself losing gigs or clients to your competitors. Read more>>