Coming up with an idea for a business or creative project can feel exhilarating. Inspiration for a new idea can come from so many places and we’ve asked some great folks from the community to share their stories of how they came up with their ideas.

Sara Lehman

I was working as a General Manager for a restaurant, fresh out of college. I was set on being a restaurant manager and one day hoping to own my own place. One day we had a reservation for a Food Blogger, this was back in 2012 so way before it became so big like it is today. Read more>>

Armand Peri

I came up with my first business idea because at the time I was a national-level, competitive bodybuilder, model, and actor without a significant source of primary income. I was also unhappy with working a side job as a dancer and working for many different entertainment companies seeing how they operated, Read more>>

Enisa Ray

It’s really hard understanding the line between the idea brewing in my head and the decision of me actually doing it. I was never a baker. I loved to cook and bake but never something so sophisticated/complicated as French macarons. My cooking and baking was for fun, something for my family and friends and never for big masses of people. Read more>>

Sarah Batley

Hon’s Honey was birthed after 16 years of ‘doing life and being a good neighbor’ in one of Baltimore’s most under-resourced and vulnerable communities. After being in the community for 10 years a non-profit was birthed that was based on one principle – love heals. Read more>>

Nicholas Pride

My name is Nicholas Pride and I reside in the St. Louis area. In January of 2021, I applied for and received my medical marijuana card for the state of Missouri. After having my license for a month; my assumption was that my available allotment would reset after the 30 days had elapsed. Read more>>

Natalie Kita

It’s a long and winding road that led me here, actually — a gradual and natural evolution. I was a successful professional photographer for 14 years. A few years after starting that business, other photographers were asking me to teach them the secrets to my success. Read more>>

Claire Chesnut

Creating has always been my solace throughout life. Turning to art to communicate my personal lived experiences connected me with people in such a meaningful way. When I started sharing my art online, I discovered a plethora of hidden artist gems all over the internet. It was so inspiring to see artists building immersive worlds of their artwork for their audiences to step into. Read more>>

Olivia Alfrey

When we adopted our first standard poodle puppy, June, in 2019, I started researching what we needed to do to help her have a long healthy life. At the top of that list was food and treats. So my next step was to find recipes and research the ingredients. Read more>>

Danny Milewsky

I was born in California, raised in Colorado, and eventually moved back to California. There are so many things I love about both places. I wish I could combine the best of these two opposite worlds and live in that utopia. I am so inspired by, and practically lived in brands like Vans, Billabong, and Quicksilver. Read more>>

Monique Wheeler

I was down and out from regular life shit. A friend of mine, Nina, was going to a bar to try some new standup material and since I could use a laugh, I decided to tag along. I loved it! I thought she was funny as fuck and wanted her to keep going. Read more>>

Rachel Amado

I’ve been plus size my whole life. Growing up as a teen in the early 2000’s, the fashion options for plus size younger women were so limited. If I went to the mall with my friends, the stores they shopped at either had nothing to fit me, Read more>>

Abbey Hunter

I’ve always had an interest in themes of death and dying. My weird collection of dead things evolved into a desire to be a mortician. When I got into college, however, my other passions and strengths lead me to the arts but I took the theme of mortality with me. Read more>>

Becky Klinger

I was very hesitant to make this a “real” thing. Business or not, at the very beginning idea of making this something more than just “I’ll do the flowers for the baby shower” or “I’d love to help with a centerpiece for the Christmas party!”, I was solely having fun literally playing with flowers. Read more>>

Michael Myers

“After coming back to the US from a 4-year journey abroad in 2020, I noticed it was difficult to find a space for Black, Queer people in New Orleans. I decided that if I couldn’t find that space, I would create it. Thus, BLACK&GAY was born on my porch. Read more>>

Patricia Davis

Beautiful home décor and fashion was ingrained in my life at an early age by my grandma, mom and aunts. My family was made up of fashion divas and home stylists who sewed and hand made their own clothes, home furnishings and even furniture. Read more>>

Cardano Slim

The story behind how StripperCoin was created isn’t a usual one. It has gone from memecoin, to utility token, to a larger overall web3 adult brand. It began during the meme-coin hype of 2021, which would have been around March. Dogecoin was pumping, and tons of other meme coins were reporting record gains – and I had only just begun my journey in to crypto. Read more>>

Maria Hurtado

I was living in LA and wanted to join the creative world, I began going to underground events and concerts. Soon I realized there was a need in that area– reliable fun photographers. I am super outgoing and love to meet new people. Read more>>

Ayisha Wilkins

Cooking really has been apart of me since childhood. Growing up, I watched my both of grandmothers, mom and my dad cook. My grandmother would cook big dinners on Sundays and family and friends would come over and eat and fellowship. My mother cooked every. So as I got older I began to cook for myself. Read more>>

Raven Barrett

So I’m going to paint this as vividly as I can. I was laying in bed one night after nursing thinking about starting a business. Now this wasn’t my first rodeo at thinking about starting a business. Read more>>

Marianne/ Jamie Laury/ Wiechens

After working together for almost 5 years as freelance art handlers, we (Jamie & Marianne) decided to branch off to start our own art handling and fabrication company. Read more>>

Dakota Poorman

How Dakota Poorman came to be.. All my life I grew up around music, and all I ever wanted for the longest time was a guitar. At age 7 I asked my parents for a guitar and that Christmas, Santa brought me one. I started taking lessons, but realized I wasn’t ready for it. My hands couldn’t do the chords on the full size guitar I had, so I set the guitar down. Read more>>

Jed Anglade

The other day a friend asked me why I created this brand with an emphasis on football (soccer), the beautiful game. My brand stems from my time playing the sport. Read more>>

Joyce Burson

I came up with the name Cute pieces based on my years of working in the fashion industry. I have worked in many high end retail stores where customers didn’t necessarily need a full wardrobe or come to by everything they saw. Read more>>

Andrea Brooks

When my daughters were little, I used to make them chocolate chip cookies all the time. When my girls got older they told me the cookies were so good I should sell them. I just thought to myself “it’s just a cookie. Read more>>

Sincere

I actually got my start writing music reviews on Myspace and going out and taking photos. I have always loved photography. and had a lot of free time, so it was a natural thing for me to do. I was returning photos back so fast and doing reviews others weren’t I started building a network locally and nationally organically. Read more>>

Deshannon Celestine

At the young age of 17, I decided to enter into women hood before my time. What I mean is I made a choice to become a teenage mother. Some may read this and disagree with me referring to this as a choice, but we choose to do right or wrong. Read more>>

Tariq Brown

Good question: The idea actually came from my creative side and my surroundings. I had recently moved to the Atlanta area from California. While in Cali I was in the Bay Area and was exposed to a lot of different cultures. Out there, Oakland had the most black culture but certain areas started to become gentrified. Read more>>

Cliff Walker

I have always used fitness as my mental medicine. Life is going to try and live you any which way it can so I say, “Live life and don’t let life live you” Read more>>

Melvin James

It’s really funny how I came up with the idea for my new baby Mercer + Lenox! I have always loved and been into fashion (I mean hey i did go to school for it) and loves everything innovative and everything luxury. So I thought to myself why not make a brand and/or something I know i would be proud of whole heartedly. Read more>>

Kenneth Andrew Williams

I’ve been directing features and commercials seemingly, since the dawn of time. But when Covid first hit, it allowed me time to realize that I was getting bored with aspects of the industry. It started to feel like a massive grind. So, I decided it was best to take a breather from feature film work and focus on commercials only. Read more>>

Brittany Williams-McNair

I love this topic so much because it really allows me to take people through the creative process, which is the best part about being an artisan. I knew soap making was a worthwhile endeavor because I couldn’t stop doing it! Whether I was paid or unpaid for the work, I was so passionate about it that it didn’t matter. Read more>>

Christopher Eubanks

In 2016 I watched the documentary “Cowspiracy” and was immediately impacted after learning the negative impact raising animals for our food production has on climate change. Read more>>

Clyde Edwards

The idea for Sneakerbox NFT was born from my love of art, sneakers and community. During the pandemic, like everyone else; I was spending more time at home. That increased my screen time and led me to learning more about crypto, Read more>>

Sy V. Tran

It’s hard to say how I came up with the idea for my business. I think its a little bit of imagination for the type of life and future I wanted, but also paying attention to the blessings that come our way. Read more>>

Meg Palumbo

Back in 2016, I saw my friend who owns Wichita Moms putting amazing content across their social media platforms. I followed and read but some had to do with local. I contacted her to see what the site was about and how I could do something similar here in Palm Beach. Read more>>

Tanya Judge

I have always enjoyed baking. From a young age growing up in the Bronx, I would go to my grandmother’s house on the weekends and watch and help her make carrot cakes that she would sell at church. I would recipes and make things for my family and friends. Read more>>

Jaime Hobbs

After teaching Women’s Self Defense classes in another state for several years, through the police department where I worked, I moved back to Colorado in 2015. Not only did my new police department not offer anything similar, but as I looked around the area, Read more>>

Kelley Troia.

I started the business 10 years ago, in 2012. And I actually came up with the idea because I got divorced. I was working for an ad agency in New Orleans at the time, as their VP of Operations and I was going through a divorce, with a young daughter. My husband at the time was living in Baton Rouge, so I was the primary caregiver. Read more>>

Monique Russell

I went to college to pursue studies in Communications, and left with three degrees. One undergraduate in Broadcast Journalism, and 2 graduate degrees– Public Relations and the other in Advertising. Read more>>

SONiA Disappear

just after graduating from University of Maryland with a bachelors of Arts degree, my first job was Projects Director for the Baltimore Center for Victims of Sexual Assault. Previously I had worked in Sonoma County, Read more>>

Nicholas “Nick” Plessett

First and foremost, Spar Wars South Beach would not be possible without Spar Miami. I got the idea while I was talking to fellow trainer and one of my best friends Frank Montoto about the idea of hosting high level sparring matches to go along with our grand opening back in November 2021. Read more>>