One of the challenges we’ve seen to true equality of opportunity is that schools and books often can’t (or choose not) offer access to one of the most equalizing resources – first hand stories of how successful entrepreneurs made their ideas a reality. If you grew up in a family or community that had many successful entrepreneurs you may have been lucky to hear many conversations and stories about starting and executing on an idea, but there are millions of people across the country who haven’t had the same advantage and so our hope here is to create a space where those stories can be told in a more public forum for the benefit of any and every aspiring entrepreneur.

Quantal Langford

As far as my process goes, when I initially started my design + creative business, and deciding to go full-time, I had a few freelance clients at the time. I had a full-time job, while I was doing freelance work, but I really felt like I could go full-time with the business. With a blessing from my wife, I sent an email to everyone that I had been doing freelance work for and told them I would be starting business as Langfordesign. Read more>>

Joselyn Miller

I was a new mother in early 2018. I had a background in dance and fitness, and assumed that once my baby was born that I could continue doing the movements and exercises I loved. My husband and I were (and still are) very involved in the Crossfit community. I followed professional athletes on social media that had started families and hopped right back into the sport they loved. No one talked about the challenges and changes that came with motherhood in terms of athleticism, but I was struggling. Read more>>

John McCulley

I’ve been blessed to be a coder, programmer, developer – pick your term – for twenty years here in East Tennessee. Over those years, I’ve been a freelancer on several occasions, worked for firms, worked in marketing departments … you name it. To me, it was my time. I sat down with my wife, we prayed, we laughed, we made notes, and we decided it was time. Read more>>

Tyresa Taylor

I originally started my first business Ego Eimi that was inspired from a traumatic time in my later teenage years age 17-20. When I experienced domestic abuse, being at what i thought was the lowest point in my life. Feeling unloved, worthless, confused and unworthy, i hated that feeling and it didn’t make much sense to me nor did my continuance to stay. Read more>>

Hira Majeed

How did my idea, become my reality ? To start I’d like to summarize my background. I graduated college, and earned a degree in the medical field. For years I would work 6 -7 days a week at times shifts ranging 14 to 16 hours. I wasn’t happy, and that’s is when I started to think more about my future, my passions. Read more>>

Lasandra Powell

Reflecting on my childhood, I have always wanted to start my own business and write a book. I knew I didn’t want to work for someone the rest of my life. My dreams are now my reality. There have been many obstacles along the way, which influenced and motivated me to do better. There were so many things to do and be done but the question posed was where do I start? Planning was very difficult because I wasn’t sure where to start. Read more>>

Desiree Reyes

As a dual business owner, I have many different styles and ways to express them. Today I’d like to share my endeavors that I’ve encountered with my boho-western boutique “My Bohemian Lover.” First, it started with inspiration. Seeing another successful business not only catering to my type of style, but having fun with it as well. I wanted that! I began with research, and figuring out what I needed to do to actually call myself a business owner and the steps it took to make it official. Read more>>

Joshua Coleman

It started when I went to my first barber convention with an invite from a close friend. It was Pacino the barber and he was the first person I ever saw to have what he had from barbering. Accomplished what he accomplished from barbering. I couldn’t believe that and it lit the fire. Nothing is easy in building your own business. Read more>>

Aliya Postell

I always tell people when I describe how I went from idea to execution is a lot like the story of Noah’s Arc. If you build they will come. I never imagined being a restaurant owner. I always envisioned being a serial entrepreneur and creating generational wealth and I had so many ideas on how but restaurant wasn’t one. I was bartender through college and as I earned my bachelor’s of science in nursing and became an RN, one day I felt like what’s next. Read more>>

Bre Campbell

I must say when I started BréLa I didn’t have a clue of what I was getting myself into. Lol of course it was just a thought but I had a vision for something so much greater! At the startup stage I was all over the place, with so many ideas. That was mistake one, instead of me focusing on one thing and executing each idea one by one, I wanted to bring everything to the table at once. Read more>>

Erica Nathan

I’ve always loved to decorate, As a teenager when my grandmother would leave the house I would change all the furniture around and move things around on the tables just to make it look different. Whenever we went house shopping I wanted to go with her to pick out different patterns etc. I knew that was a gift that God had given me even as a teenager. Every year for my birthday I would throw myself a party.. I would choose a theme, look for creative ideas, hire a decorator and give them the idea I had to execute my vision. Read more>>

Mai Vang

I actually started off just selling eggrolls to raise money to pay my medical bills. One day in 2014 I woke up and found that my hearing was totally gone. I started seeking medical advice and saw many professionals but my hearing would not return and my medical bills were starting to pile up. I started selling eggrolls from my house as a way to raise some money to pay off some of my medical bills. Read more>>

Bridgit Crider

Our business started as a franchise from another cbd company in 2019 when hemp/cbd was newly legal somewhat but there weren’t many cbd stores in Atlanta. People actually thought we were selling marijuana. Right then we knew we had to position ourselves to educate our community and clients. But, in order to do that we knew we had to get away from the corporate style franchise to be able to branch out and create a platform that suited us. 2 years later the birth of SAHAA CBD ATLANTA happened. Read more>>

Tonka Baj

I started Bullbizz in 2014 trying to be a sports agent for bullriders/rodeo personnel, but the agents made their way from primetime sports to rodeo athletes and I was a little late on it. So I decided that some of the rodeo/bullriding shows going on around town were all traditional. I need to mix it up a bit. So that’s when I came up with the Big Red Bullriding. Read more>>

IB Majekodunmi

I started Refine Collective as a passion project to build out a directory that makes it easy to find and support women & minority-owned businesses after being irritated at seeing my neighbors choose Starbucks over a local Black & Queer-owned coffee shop with objectively better coffee. Read more>>

Bianca Vang

I wasn’t always interested in doing nails. I was originally going to UW-Oshkosh, however, I wasn’t sure which major I wanted to go for. After three years of attending UW-Oshkosh, I ended up dropping out and doing nails became a hobby for me. I started off doing nails on myself and then branching off to doing my family and friends. Read more>>

Ashante Griffin

My mother used to own a catering business and she specialized in wedding cakes. I have always been around good cooking and baking. Everything was always made from scratch as well. I had always wanted to follow in her footsteps because I admired her so much. I loved to cook and bake, but I never had the time or focus to venture out and start my own business. Read more>>

Jenieka Dixon-Spencer

I always knew I was destined for more than the traditional 9 to 5. Even when I was graduating high school and planning for post secondary I was so torn on what I wanted to do next. I planned on applying to a business management program and my Mom immediately told me “Jen, don’t do it! You’re not going to enjoy office work or sitting at a cubicle for hours.” Read more>>

Kevin Atkinson

It started with a few sketches and a thought…. Oan a friend that was doing shirt designs, lol. I came up with the name StakkMoney really because it sounded kool and to my surprise, it wasn’t out there so I ran with it and made it stand for something totally different from what most people may know. Read more>>

Shavis Morgan

Piggybacking off of our last conversation I had with you guys, we had spoken about the initial inspiration to pick up cameras in the first place and I can still say that it was initially a purely selfish endeavor of wanting to “cut out the middleman.” From a place of not wanting to have to hire photographers/videographers to shoot for me, in what I thought was going to become a music career. So the idea itself evolved quite a bit along the way. It went more like idea, idea, idea, and then finally execution. Read more>>

Kristina Zontini

Oh man, it all started when I stumbled upon a new cookbook at one of my favorite ice cream shops in Chicago called Pretty Cool Ice Cream. The Book is Hello My Name is Ice Cream by Dana Cree – it’s the holy grail of ice cream cookbooks among ice cream enthusiasts, but at the time I just thought it had a fun cover and I like to collect cookbooks. Read more>>

Laura McKenna

All the credit for the idea and early stages of execution go to our founders, Susan and Pat Mooney. Their concern for their son Ross, who was diagnosed with an acquired brain injury at 14 began exploring future residential options for him, knowing as parents we all someday will be gone and will need a place for our loved ones to live, socialize and work. Read more>>

Nikki Jencen

While walking one day with my husband, Matt, we talked about starting a business together. At first, we wanted to start a golf cart business in Carlsbad, but after doing some research, that was going to take a lot of capital not to mention the liability. In June 2021, we had family come to visit us from Wisconsin, and they had requested a beach day. Read more>>

Suzanne Gladstone

I started by believing in myself. I stopped telling everyone my moves and just moved. I learned I didn’t need to tell everyone my plan’s because some people just wanted to sabotage my ambitions. I learned not everyone who smiles in my face is on my team. Read more>>

Shannen Mythen

My whole life I have loved and appreciated art and always had painting as a hobby and an outlet. After school I went to college and got my degree in early childhood education. I thought kids of various ages for a number of years in Ireland before moving to San Diego where I taught for a further 2 years. For me the pandemic was what shook up my life. I realized time is so valuable and precious and I should be using it doing what I love in ways that I can help others. Read more>>

Thomas Kelly

My passion for print and design can be traced back to my church roots, where I spent significant time working on various programs for Youth Day, Church Anniversaries, and the College Ministry. I would also often create party invitations, flyers, obituaries, and other projects for myself or friends and family. Read more>>

Lori Orlinsky

Ever since I was little, it has always been a dream of mine to write a children’s book, but I never had an idea that I felt would resonate with audiences. However, when my daughter Hayley (now 10) was 3-years-old, she came home from preschool in tears because her teachers had hung a growth chart on her classroom wall. While all of Hayley’s friends were at the top and middle of the growth chart, her name was all the way at the bottom. Read more>>

Mona Daiban

I have always had a soft spot for cooking and baking. I started an Instagram page in 2017 to share my recipes online. I come from a very unique background and I wanted to share my culture with the world and put my bilingual abilities to good use. I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii but I have a Yemeni background. Read more>>

Taylor Cross

My career story began as an undecided college student living in New York City and working a model and marketing assistant for a popular music and entertainment company. I was the type that has big dreams and ambitions. I struggled with faith and patience and everyday felt like I was running out of both. I easily excelled in school and other areas of my life where I could predict the outcome (go to class, pass the test, get an A) but in the areas where I thought other people controlled the outcome I was challenged. Read more>>

Monica King

When thinking about launching King Concept Interiors, I wanted to create something meaningful and mass appealing. Some of the ideas In order to get to the launch phase, I had to just take a leap of faith and jump. Read more>>

Caleb Davison

When I think about the development and execution of the idea of Verde Massage, I am brought back to an assignment I was given in massage school. I was instructed to give a presentation on my vision statement and goals as a massage therapist. My paper and presentation were more or less an argument as to why I didn’t have or need a vision or goals but I would throw fate to the wind and windup where I was supposed to be. And though I do believe there is merit to this perspective, the reality is that it was just a cover for not believing in myself. Read more>>

Joseph Abitol

I have been in the jewelry business for over 20 years and realized that all jewelers just tend to sell anything that comes their way. I always loved jewelry because of its sentimental value and wanted to sell something that doesn’t lose its value that is where I got the Idea of starting Gem Jewelers Co. We specialize in Tennis Necklaces and Tennis bracelets and Diamond Studs Because these items never go out of style and do not loose value. Read more>>

Jenny Johnson

I started this venture as a way to spend time with my grown kids and build a family business. Both of my kids LOVE to cook! I love people and dream of doing fundraising for families and community programs. It just seemed like a win, win! The adventure of chasing the good ole American Dream is amazing! It has ups and downs, twists, turns, curves, and sometimes a dead end or two. Read more>>

Kellyn Roth

From the very beginning of the idea, I knew that it would be a risk to start an indie press. At the time, I was already several thousand dollars in debt from my author business, and I wasn’t sure that would ever change. That was around 2020, and the year was one of hectic changes and unsure situations, as it was for everyone. In my personal life, I was also working through several relationship losses and mental health challenges … in addition to a big problem. Read more>>

Ashlee Sang

Like so many people, I’m an accidental-turned-intentional entrepreneur. I started freelancing on the side when I was living and working in Senegal and when my husband and I were going through the green card process in preparation for a move to the States. Read more>>

Vanessa Gutierrez

I’ve always had a passion for makeup, I meet 2 makeup artist who loved my makeup and wanted me to work with them, at the time I was in shock like wow you want to work with me I had always done my sisters makeup and hair friends but I had never done anyone else I was scared of them not liking my work, of people being rude or mean. After I had my first clients it was game over I loved it even more. Read more>>

Lacheisa Chambers

A business doesn’t start with a physical product, its starts with an idea. That idea stems from a problem that needs a solution. I started my business to be a solution. There’s a great percentage of people who don’t have the knowledge or the wherewithal to start a business or to even build business credit. With the proper information an informed decision can be made, and lives can be changed. Read more>>

Lionel “Kuma” Alexander

The idea for Nerdy Bear Studio didn’t start yesterday, in fact, it started many years ago as a young boy who fell in love with the art form of video games. I remember being in love with the pixelated wonderlands of early Nintendo and Sega. At a very early age being enamored with not only the games themselves but how they were made and the business of video games. Read more>>

Liz McCalley, DVM, CCRT

About 1 year before I first launched ZumiVet, my mobile veterinary practice, I first began dreaming about the concept. It was the summer of 2020 and I had been working as a relief veterinarian in several different veterinary clinics for a few months. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, none of the clinics were allowing pet parents to accompany their pets into appointments. Read more>>

Sabrina Jean Baptiste

I had no idea that I would want to start my own business. I went to school to study mental health counseling so I had a one track mind of only practicing as a therapist. Fast forward to 2020 when Covid hit. At the time, I had my own therapist whom I was discussing with about my coping skills which is to draw and write. I showed her a few of my drawings and she was fascinated by my art work. Read more>>