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.

Julie Stewart

I have been making decorated cookies for 9 years. It started out as a hobby and slowly grew into a business. During Covid, I realized that our individual item was what people wanted. We did what we could to service people during that time. Taking all precautions and delivering. Our product literally put smiles on faces of people during a unprecedented and uncertain time. While we did what we could to provide a safe product, our customers did what they could to support our small business. Read more>>

Anil Victor

Our business started in our townhome garage. The first few clients were easy because it wasn’t really a job it was more so a hobby that I enjoyed doing. Shortly after picking up a few customers they started to recommend me to their friends/family and thats when the decision to start a business came into play. Once I quit my job I used thumbtack to gain a bit of traction, I will say this was paid advertising that wasn’t really targeted. Read more>>

Gerald Griggs

I was able to scale up my practice by working hard to master trial skills and effective civic activism. All great lawyers of the past were first and foremost social engineers focused on making change to better society. I have been focused on approving my community and seeking justice for my clients. People need to understand that success means hard work with a focus on making the community better. Read more>>

Odalis Saldana

Wow, what a great question.. My business is definitely much larger than what it was when I first started my photobooth business in 2019. Nothing happened for me over night, I put consistent work on ideas and new investments every chance I got.. As I’ve mentioned before on my last interview I did teak a year off while being pregnant and little after giving birth, and it did push me back on growing my business. So I knew once I was ready to network and work I had to give it all I got. Read more>>

Crystal Richardson

Starting my pop up Picnic company a year and a half ago, I had one thing in mind. That was to provide luxury service at an affordable price. I had seen so many other picnic companies in my area provide the same service but they were all so expensive. It turns out, there were a lot of customers who agreed because we received a ton of traffic that we are so grateful for. We received so much attention that we decided to create a sister company called “Chic Charcuterie”. Read more>>

Kathryn McHenry

One of my favorite sayings is that you can’t take an elevator to reach success — you must take the stairs. Over and over again as I near a decade as a Creative Entrepreneur, I’m reminded of this in different ways. Opportunities arising simply as a result of continued resilience and persistence. Opportunities fueled by passion and purpose which lead to a path of excellence. Each individual also has their own ideal of what success means to them. For me, making progress each day is where it starts. Read more>>

Miranda Mitchell

For so many years I believed I had to “put myself out there”, “listen to the experts that have already done it”, and constantly invest in others ideas in how to “make it happen”. I had always been aware of the feeling of struggle and resistance and had always believed that this was part of the process. It was this struggle and resistance that meant that I was “doing it”.  Read more>>

Paula Heaven-Swaby

If I have to choose one pivotal decision that allowed my business to scale up, it would be leaving my job as a nurse in November 2021. I came to the realization that as long as I had a “safety net,” I would never give my all to the business. I didn’t have to, because I knew I had an income either way. Resigning from my job left me no other option but to level up because I was now in survival mode. I can always go back to nursing, but I probably will not have this business opportunity again. I HAD to make it work. Read more>>

Russiena Brand

Because of my shape I gained a lot of male subscribers pretty quickly however at that point I did not understand the quality of the subscribers and how it would effect my future collaborations in business. It wasn’t until various brands started to ask for my analytics on my platforms that I quickly learned that it’s not about quantity but quality. A lot of brands did not want to work with me because I had more male than female followers. Read more>>

Becky Atkins

My husband Ian and I got into wine making as a natural extension of owning and operating restaurants for 10 years in El Paso, Texas and Portland. We started Flat Brim Wines 2016 by scraping together 3 tons of grapes and falling upon the kindness of a friend who allotted us production space in his tiny garage converted winery in the hills of Portland, Oregon. Read more>>