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.

Rebekka Adams

Running a vintage boutique is uniquely different from any other sort of retail establishment. We carry one-of-a kind women’s clothing, jewelry, and accessories from the 1900s-1980s. For starters, we cannot hop on a website or head to a trade show and place an order for inventory mass manufactured in another country. Every single item in our shop is pre-loved and chosen with care regarding age, quality, and style. Read more>>

Loreal Patterson

Finding a manufacturer was an intricate part of building the foundation of my business. Having a suitable vendor would help me produce products that I would be proud of and that would meet the needs of my target audience. While I enjoyed all things stationery, I had limited knowledge of how to source paper-based products. Luckily at the time, I was working with my business coach who would help me figure out this uncharted territory. As someone who never planned to be a small business owner, obtaining a business coach was one of the first things on the list because I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I needed someone who could help guide my steps. Read more>>

Keri Bougie

When I began researching skincare companies and how to begin to develop products, I researched what it was that I was looking for – my end goal being a manufacturer that produced quality “clean” products. I began to look at existing companies that I liked, to see where they manufactured their products. I started by looking at product boxes and bottles, determining the major cities/areas where certain products were produced. Read more>>

Medea (and Shelly) Duffy (Bellil)

local makers in our shop. We initially found our vendors at the most ground roots level by going to maker markets around town. Going to markets is one of our favorite past times, so we already had a pretty good idea of some of the makers we wanted to have in our shop. That said, finding the vendors was fairly easy. The deal making was the harder part. Read more>>