When businesses are covered in the media, often there is a lot of focus on the initial idea, the genesis moment. Then they almost brush over the middle part – the scaling up part – and arrive at how big and awesome the business is today. It makes for a fun read or in the case of a movie or show an entertaining watch, but it’s also a missed opportunity. The middle part – the scaling up part is where so many small business owners get stuck. It’s the part so many of us need more guidance with and so we wanted to get conversations going on the topic of scaling up.

Issac Roybal.

Playing in 3 bands was the last thing I saw myself doing two years ago from today. My first 2 1/2 years of high school consisted of sports and nothing to do with music. It wasn’t until December 2020 when I gave music a shot. I joined a rock band called, Rocky Mountain Oysters with a group of life long friends going on 11 years, Mason Cichon, Blake Smith, and Zack Collins. When i first joined, I had never played an instrument consistently and neither had Zack at the time. Hours and hours and HOURS of practice finally got us to the point where we can start playing shows in front of a live crowd. Read more>>

Adrianne Hawthorne

Ponnopozz started much smaller than it is today. In 2018, I had recently quit my full-time job at Google and was deliberately unemployed. I felt that I needed to decompress from the fast pace of Silicon Valley. I started painting with a kids easel and some inexpensive art supplies. Each day, I created one small 8×8 canvas while listening to an art podcast called The Jealous Curator. I wasn’t sure where this “hobby” was going, but I felt like I was ready to resign control and let life open some doors. Read more>>

Staci Leszcz

Who would have thought having my first child would be the best thing that happened for my business. Shortly after having my son in 2017 I knew I needed a strategy to streamline my business. It all started with with an Instagram ad. We’ve all seen those ads on social media that make us think our phones can read our minds. This specific ad kept popping up-then my my sister sent it to me. So at this point it was just faith. I clicked the link and joined Hairstylist Business Building Bootcamp with Brit Seva. Read more>>

Jamya Ricks

It’s crazy that just a few years ago, I was a high school student and now I’ve turned my passion into a business. I am so grateful for the tremendous amount of support I’ve received since I started. Honestly, I didn’t expect to grow so fast just by doing something that I love. As a stylist, I dedicate a lot of my time to my clients. I’m so passionate about seeing them happy that you’ll rarely hear the word ‘No’ come out of my mouth no matter how tired or exhausted I may be. Some may say I’m a workaholic, but I’m simply living out my dreams doing what I love. Read more>>

Lori Steenhoek

Scaling my business up has been all about word-of-mouth. For my first few years, I focused on creating REALLY happy customers, and then I would ask them to share with a friend if they liked their custom jewelry designs that I created for them. So many people these days rely on recommendations and references from friends and family that they trust. Think about it: when someone you care about and believe in says to you: “Hey, you HAVE to try this thing…” It’s enough to pique your curiosity and lead you to try it, or look it up, or do it. This kind of scenario has been a key to new business for me. Read more>>

Jennifer Culp

When I first made the decision to formally start my wedding planning and design business, after 3 years of doing so for family and friends only, there was enormous pressure to scale up and demonstrate to the industry, that I was a reputable company with sound profitability. Understanding that the management of growth is an art, of sorts, it was also challenging. In reflecting upon my 15 years, there are a few stratagems that encapsulate how I successfully scaled up. Read more>>

Marina Yanay-Triner.

I started with nutrition coaching – and while that was very fun in the beginning, it started to not feel aligned after a while. I then felt the nudge to switch to my current career – somatic coaching – because it was actually the path I was taking in my own personal development. The more I followed my gut and did my own nervous system and emotional healing work, the more aligned and in tune my business became, the more it grew! It was so incredible to experience (and I continue to experience this) – my business growing and blooming, as I have always dreamed it to be! Read more>>

Audrey Christopher.

When I started Christopher’s Overlook and the farm business, I worked a 9-5 job and was a full-time graduate student. The farm was my passion, but I had to fit it in between all my other responsibilities. Due to COVID restrictions in 2020, I structured the educational experiences to be virtual. That expanded into virtual field trips and eventually on-farm experiences. Read more>>

TAMARA EDWARDS

I love this question. I think it’s more important to discuss the tosses and turns that comes with entrepreneurship as opposed to the victory laps. A PR friend that I look up to once said “Tamara, I AM INSPIRED. Great, now what!!!” What she was saying was, let’s have real conversations with everyone. With each other and through our PR. Simply put: I went for it. All in. Good days. Bad days. Profit. Loss. Hiring the right people. Hiring the wrong people. All of it. Read more>>

Tee Wilson.

My business partner Danielle McGee founded Black Business Boom in 2018 as the “Groupon for Black Businesses”. She was inspired to create the app when she learned so many entrepreneurs of color were having challenges building awareness and reaching customers. However, when she launched the app she quickly found there was another problem. We couldn’t effectively market small businesses without ensuring they were ready. Read more>>

Sheree Cochran

I was 4 weeks postpartum and making the biggest wedding cake delivery to date! As humans, I think there is some innate part of us that likes to make things difficult for ourselves. Why did I decide to scale up my business right after having a baby? I will never know. Sometimes you just get the itch to step out on the ledge and go for it! Read more>>

Alexa Navis

I’ve been a makeup artist in business for four years. It’s gone very quickly but has also felt like a long and winding road. When I first started my business it felt very intimidating. I have been able to scale up from ultimately saying yes. Taking opportunities even when I was fearful or lacked confidence. Starting before I was ready. Doing things afraid I’ve learned is key. If we wait until we’re ready I don’t think we’ll ever be ready. Often times this is a lot easier said than done!  Read more>>

Max Rivera

When I started in the business, I was still working a full time job and running events on the side for about a year. It wasn’t until I was unexpectantly fired from my job that really pushed me to take the business forward. Sometimes in life you need that push, and I’m thankful it happened to me. We ran pop-up markets for a year and a half before deciding to push our business forward and think outside the box a little bit more. We started with our first larger festival, “MAKRS Holiday Fest” in December 2021 and brought 3 new festivals this year (2022). Read more>>

Anisah Nelson.

Say it with me… TIME. Building a successful brand and business definitely is not something that happens overnight… I’m still not exactly where I want to be. When I started Kai Galore Skin back in 2020 (formally known as All Things Aesthetics) it was really……… the struggle to say the least. I was a very very new mom at the time, I had been working full time and attending school while contemplating taking a leap of faith and just quitting my job to fully pursue my dreams. Read more>>

Blake Conner

Scaling up was a process of building a client base loyal enough to spread the word about my business. As a videographer, I’m providing a service that is people oriented, so it started with going above and beyond for each individual client. Slogging more hours than necessary, and anything for the recommendation. I also focused solely on one locale at the time, and built up a nice organic network of recommendations. From there, I was able to reach out and network with people at different events and start building traction on my own. Read more>>

Kiki Taylor.

My business is remarkably larger than when I first started. There were many obstacles along this journey, but I’m so blessed and grateful to be where I am today. I started in the nail industry in high school and immediately went to nail school shortly after that. After taking a brief pause to have my first and only child, Kiaja, I quickly returned to school and finished gaining my nail license. I was eager to build my skill level for the most part. I just wanted to do amazing and creative nails. I started my first job inside Northgate Mall at Glamour Nails. Read more>>