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.

Shaneisha Dodson

During the pandemic, I came up with the idea to create an 18 inch superhero doll based off a book that I wrote titled The Adventures of Sugamama. I began to study the doll market while searching for a company to help bring my vision to life. I searched for international companies and companies in the United States. Once I found a company, I sent them my sketch and that was the start of my doll development. It took almost a year for the prototype to be completed. We are waiting for the final doll to arrive so we can go into production. Read more>>

Benjamin Leggitte

The process has been one amazing learning experience .Having a small business comes with many challenges from having content all the time, to making sure your business is running very smoothly so lets go back to the beginning I started the Chef Benjamin Brand LLC in June of 2020 and I have learned a lot about my self and what’s it like to run your own business when I started I had absolutely no clue on running a business I always knew the culinary arts side (cooking) so I started educating myself on running a business by reading books on how to run a business and have to make revenue from selling products. Read more>>

Courtney Spears

ArtSea came about when I performed professionally in The Bahamas for the first time. When I was in college, I joined Ailey 2, junior company of The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. This company opened so many doors, taking me all over the world, doing what I love, and making money as a professional for the very first time. And now, this company was taking me back to my home country of The Bahamas. A committee fundraised to be able to bring us to The Bahamas to perform, and after months of work, we were on our way. There are still no words to describe what that moment felt like. I saw friends, family, and the entire island show up to support us. Read more>>

Chad Yarvitz

In 2010 I knew the key to a successful fitness business was the ability to scale my services. Little did I know how much easier it is said than done. Twelve years later, we have finally been able to capture the unique boxing services we offer at Xplicit Fitness and offer them as a product. Xplicit has been a success since I started offering classes out of my garage in La Mesa starting in August of 2010. I always longed to expand it beyond a single boutique fitness studio, however. I spun my wheels for nearly a decade trying to figure out how we were going to duplicate the special experience of our classes without sacrificing fun and quality. An opportunity presented itself in 2019 that has made this dream a reality. Read more>>

Whitney Ricketts

In 2017 I was deployed to Africa for a humanitarian mission for 9 months. In those 9 months I started a business called Signature Loops where I hand made lanyards, bracelets, and anything you could make from 550 cord. I received over 300+ orders in 6 months. I also helped young girls in Djibouti learn to make them as a way for them to make money and provide a way to escape sex trafficking. Also part of my proceeds were dedicated to the Action Against Hunger Foundation in Djbouti as I love giving back. When I returned I wanted to continue my business in creating things for people but nothing came to mind. I spent months trying to figure out what is something almost everyone enjoys. Read more>>

Gisela Lopez

I was burned out, which happens behind the chair to many of us. I decided either I was going to teach or I was going to start my own business behind the chair. At that time I’ve had been working for salon owners for 10 years! I was hating going in to work, I was stuck, not growing and burned out. One day I simply decided to go on my own. I knew my next move was to try to have my own business or quit the hair industry. I was missing out on seeing my son grow, by spending so many hours at the salon where I wasn’t growing. I was super nervous and anxious. I didn’t even know where to start. Read more>>

Cyndell Addison

I visited New Orleans Louisiana my hometown post Hurricane Katrina. I lived in the Midwest at the time that Hurricane. The devastation that my family and friends experienced after that storm was incredibly sad. I decided to film the aftermath. I was overwhelmed with so much emotion by the damage caused by over flowing flood waters in the city of New Orleans. I was inspired to create a documentary out of that film. The documentary gained me entrance into film school. So, I decided to start a film company called Sheek Street Media LLC. I financed the film company from funds earned from selling the documentary DVD and merchandise ie t-shirts. Read more>>

Joshua Diaz

I’ve always had a passion for Music since I was a child. I grew up spending my days working at a dude ranch in Davie, FL; where we had a tack room that we would convert into a rehearsal space. If you could imagine, a bunch of dirty country boys, jamming punk, rock n roll, hardcore, emo, and pop music for the nearby horses and cows in ancient red barn, this is the accurate setting of my childhood. I knew that “one day” I would build a recording studio and offer production. I think I’m my mind, I imagined myself with salt and pepper hair, and financially stable enough to have a space of my own. Read more>>

Vance Zahorski

A true story of chasing the American Dream. My first product, the Line Cutterz Ring idea came to me while surf fishing and I caught a shark in Pensicola, Florida. When I got it on the beach, it thrashed around and got tangled up in my heavy braided fishing line. I wanted to release the shark safely and quickly so I ran to my tackle box to grab my knife. It had fallen in the sand and I stepped on it. After getting the shark back into the water and attending to my injury, a rush of frustration hit me. I had spent more than 20 years using dangerous knives, rusty pliers, worthless fingernail clippers and I had even chipped my front right tooth on two occasions trying to bite through fishing line. Read more>>

Kristin Marquet

I had worked in consulting for four years, and then during the Financial Crisis, I had lost my job. In fact, everyone in my office lost their jobs. At that point, I had decided whether to get a job or launch a business. I decided to launch my first business, a PR firm. After six months, I had scaled the company to a full-service agency with a team and 30 clients. The journey was grueling because I worked around the clock. I burnt out very quickly, so I reassessed the direction of the company, and decided to niche down and focus on serving a few verticals. Read more>>

Autumn Markley

Building my business has meant taking a step back to look at the big picture. Cultivating sustainable practices for the environment, for my clients, but also for my own finite source of energy. For that to make sense in relation to a hair salon, let me give you my back story. Very early in my career (think 10+ years ago) I began exploring the emerging world of organic hair care after it became clear to me that the traditional, harsh chemicals I was working with would limit my career. I was developing skin sensitivities and I had to seek out a more gentle alternative. I left the salon near my home in Tempe to work at Phoenix’s first vegan, organic salon. Read more>>

Jim Wright

My business started as a mobile recording service in 2001. But the genisis came from two different ideas that are merged. The band I was involved in circa 1998 we recorded by a mobile recording service and I was also trying to turn all my old band demos (stored on tape at the time) in to a digital format to keep them from further degrading. So as I was looking at digital recorders the idea struck me that I could get a really nice Fostex VF16 and ultimately get other people to fund the gear by charging them a crazy cheap price for mobile recording their band in super clean digital. I would also have access to the gear for my own use. Read more>>

Vanessa Raymond

I have always been an entrepreneur of some sort without actually realizing it… At age 23 I already owned my own in-home beauty business, but because it was a side-gig I never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur. At the time I was working in the performance industry, I majored in Musical Theater from college and was performing full-time while running my beauty business part-time – going to clients homes to do facials, manicures, pedicures, waxing and massages. In 2008 I decided I wanted to retire from the performance industry so I started my own fitness business. Read more>>

Tre Neal

Working in a male dominated industry, I wanted to create a space and event for women to be celebrated when it comes to entertainment and media. This led to the birth of my annual Women In Media Brunch. For the last 3 years, women from all over South Florida gather for a day to network, connect and have a good time. In the industry, you rarely have time to take a seat and just enjoy yourself. It’s been a pleasure seeing the ladies work together and most importantly support each other in their endeavors. Read more>>

Cecilia Panichelli

The story behind Cocina 54 truly goes back to where we came from. It’s an undisputed fact that empanadas are the most widespread snack in Latin America, they are basically the taste of our culture! We grew up eating it, and we wanted our children to experience the same flavors of childhood that we did. Immigrating from Argentina, we began to crave empanadas but couldn’t find them anywhere in stores. So, our whole family would gather in the kitchen and we would make batches on batches of empanadas to save in the freezer for the week. Convenience was a key player here. We found that we could munch on them at any time of the day… which was so great with a house full of hungry kids. Read more>>

Kevin Solomon

SlaughtaHouze is the dream of two ambitious music creators turned reality 21 years ago. Charles Andre Brooks, music producer and Kevin Solomon, aspiring rapper, started the independent record company in Houston TX circa 2001. SlaughtaHouze Entertainment released multiple chopped and screwed mixtapes and EPs in it’s seven year stretch. While Charles served as SlaughtaHouze in house music producer supplying artists with original beats, I took on more the executive role such as managing talent, booking shows, setting up consignments to have our cds placed in various record stores in Houston and surrounding areas. Read more>>

Courtney Hicks

For me going through the actual idea to launch phase was a real life dream. For the first time I actually felt like I was living my dream out loud. I had a list of ideas that I wanted to do and decided to write each and every one of them down and figure out which idea I would I actually like to tackle and make it come true. I looked at where I was at in life, what would make the most sense, how would I do it and what would be easiest for me to do at home with a baby. Once I decided on what idea I liked the most, I then started coming up with names. I started researching names to make sure there wasn’t already someone out there with the same name. Read more>>

Danyell Santos

I have a deep interest in magic and the tools that we use to manifest our desires. Candles have been used for thousands of years for casting spells, performing rituals and giving protection. Before launching my business, I educated myself and studied in depth to enhance my knowledge in spiritual living in order to create a product that would reach the highest potential for each customer’s personal intentions. I have spent the last two years creating handmade products while investing time into brining new ideas to light as my skills improve. Read more>>

Vincent Tran

We have been in the industry for years in different aspects of the business. From my past experiences, I have learned what I envisioned the ideal embroidery experience should be. Dr. Stitches’ mission is to deliver the best embroidery services in the DFW area. We pride ourselves in providing a space where creatives can make their artwork come to life in our studio. Every detail matters! Our clients, whether first-timers or esteemed regulars, are guaranteed an A+ experience. We wanted to create a space for clients to have their ideas come to life. Our team consist of the best designers and creatives! After we built our team, we all worked together on creating what we saw was missing in the industry. Read more>>

Anita Ta

Frustrated with the service, quality, and sanitation of local nail salons, I set out on a mission to re-invent the nail salon experience. Our mission is to innovate the nail care industry. We promise to build a brand out of Ciél Nail Lounge. By paving the way nail care is conducted, we want to set a standard for all others to follow. The owners of the Ciél Nail Lounge have spent almost 2 years of planning, research, and months of construction in order to bring what we have today to fruition. We pride ourselves on providing our clients with fabulously indulgent nail care while maintaining the highest level of sanitation and sterilization available in the nail care industry. Read more>>

Ashton Howard

In 2001 I spent the summer in Cardiff Reef Encinitas CA as a surf camp instructor. I was teaching young kids anywhere from 10 to 16 years old daily on how to surf, cooking meals, and just spending time outdoors doing fun stuff. We all lived in several 8 man tents in a dusty state park right off PCH Hwy 1. As the weeks went on and turned into months I discovered a way to pass some of my artistic time and found a really enjoyable way of creating art on the smooth rocks that lined the southern California Shores. I would spend hours detailing little seascapes and landscapes on these rocks that were no bigger than the palm of your hand. Read more>>

Hattie Noworatzky

It all began as a fun hobby for myself. As a mother of two small kids I was looking for a creative outlet and discovered jewelry design. I took classes and was instantly in love. As I wore my pieces around my friends took notice and immediately insisted I create pieces for them as well. With the encouragement of this supportive group, they quickly convinced me to turn it into a business. They all came from different backgrounds and had something unique to contribute as I started this new adventure. My husband shared his knowledge of entrepreneurship with me and gave his full support and guidance as my business grew. To make this dream really grow, I realized I had to get my name out there. Read more>>

Jason Feucht

We have been tossing around the idea that we needed a longer lasting scent because our deodorant lasts for 24-48 hours, but natural scents are limited to about 4 hours due to evaporation. I was thinking about essential oil vapor pressure, and started to look for ways to decrease how quickly essential oils evaporate. I bought and setup a petri dish incubator, and tested my way through a large combination of ingredients. Eventually I settled on an amazing natural plant solution that would allow the scent to stay strong for over 3 days, beating even many synthetic colognes and perfumes. Read more>>

Amanda Lizarazo

When Covid started in 2020, it was a challenge that either crippled you in the work place, or catapulted you into making your dreams a reality. For me, Covid made my dream come true. At the time I was doing brows for Anastasia Beverly Hills, and when Covid happened, all the stores shut down. One month after the shutdown, a bunch of my clients started to reach out to me, asking me if I’d be willing to work with them from home. So I started doing services from home, and over the next three months of the shutdown, I built a very steady clientele. Read more>>

Becca Switzer

When I started my online sales training company at 26 years old, the long story short is that I had entered the storm restoration roof sales industry at 21 years of age with absolutely ZERO knowledge of roofing, storm damage, or insurance. I had just 1.5 years of direct sales training from my prior position selling Cutco Knives through Vector Marketing as a 19 year old college dropout prior to this, and while Cutco excelled tremendously at providing incredibly comprehensive and effective sales and recruiting training that made it easy to follow the program and succeed, the roofing industry had nothing of the sort. Read more>>

Madelyn & Becca Love

My mother and I were talking about starting a small business, we weren’t even sure what that would entail. We started brainstorming ideas, things that could make mom life easier. One day my mom came to me, after babysitting my daughter, she explained that she could never find the burp cloth and how frustrating it was. We drew up a few ideas of how to solve this problem. My mom made a few prototypes that we used for several months. We were confident after a few months, that this would benefit parents all over the world. Read more>>

Eden Skory

Going from an idea to the execution… That’s hands down the hardest part of starting your business. I remember when I was getting into our business there was that little voice in the back of my head running through all the things that could go wrong. The “what ifs” as I call them. “What if people judge me, what if people don’t like my content, what if people don’t like me and our products” but as I’ve done this for almost 10 years I’ve shifted my mindset when working on something to “What ifs’ but in a positive way! Read more>>

Laurel Logsdon

When I was a child, I grew up with my father who was a photographer himself. He graduated with his degree in photography from Brooks Institute of Photography. He photographed a variety of subjects including myself. This experience peaked my interest in the subject as I was fascinated with the beautiful photographs that he produced. Fast forward to my high school years when I decided to take a photography course, dating myself, this was in the film days and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole process of choosing the film to the execution in the dark room was exciting, you never knew exactly what you would see until the process was over. Read more>>

Olivia Hollaus

My product really stemmed from wanting to improve the way we care for our shoes. When I had that ‘aha!’ moment, I honestly didn’t analyze much after that – which is good and not so good. Looking back, it was good because I dove straight into figuring out how to turn the idea into a reality without thinking much about the risks that every entrepreneur is faced with. However, now as a more seasoned business owner, I definitely encourage some analysis before taking that plunge. It took 4 months to create the prototype in-house. Read more>>

Isa Zapata

When I got the idea for Soulmatescollection I felt it in my heart; it was like an explosion of ideas; “Shoes where you can wear your soulmate”. For the first pair, I made a DIY espadrille I purchase in Hobby lobby. In my DIY espadrilles, I put my husband’s artwork on the right shoe and mine on the left. When I put them on, I clearly saw a Soulmates Collection. One of the first things I’ve created was the brand visuals and story. Then came the most challenging part: making a scalable prototype. I searched for manufacturers in the US, and the prices were astronomical for just a prototype. Then I started looking for manufacturers in my native Colombia. I thought this would be easy but sadly, no. It took me months to find viable manufacturers. Read more>>

Nathan/Natalie Noiman

Natalie – It was all a dream. I am from England with Greek & English heritage. After finishing college I came to America and married my college sweetheart who I met in Fez, Morocco! We were both studying Arabic. I have always loved baking since I was a child and to have a bakery was always a dream in the background. After moving from California to Arizona in the Winter of 2016 Sugarloaf Lane Bakery was founded in 2017. Nathan – Research is always important to understand what you’re planning to get yourself into. Arizona is a business-friendly state and the hurdles aren’t too high to get your business off the ground. We started baking from home at first under the Cottage Food Law. Read more>>

Chrystal Haynes Singleton

My business started with my former coworker showing me Etsy. Her and I had offices next to each other and we would often talk about various things and she showed me an item that she wanted to purchase on that platform. I got curious and decided to look at the platform myself and realized that it was a wonderful place for people who made things to showcase their art, sell it, and create their own revenue. From that moment I had an idea of creating my own product and selling it on Etsy as well. I began to think of all the things I had done in art school from glass blowing to bookmaking and photography and started to write down things I could possibly create. Read more>>

Ashworth Barnes

Fantasizing about cars with rims in highschool, thumbing thru low rider magazine never knowing a pastime hobby of ideas would eventually turn into an Icon for automotive customization. We finally convinced a few friends to give us a shot after selling a set of wheels for a gwagon and performing a wood grain stick on install kit with a blow dryer in a residential garage. We were full speed ahead. The next days and months were gradual progression figuring out how to turn a hobby into a real business, we had to figure out company structures, copyright protection and business tax laws. Read more>>

Suzanne Tulien

After leaving corporate America, my first entrepreneurial venture was a graphic design boutique called ‘I.D. By Design,’ it was in doing that work that gave me the idea to pivot into what I do now as a consultant and speaker with Brand Ascension, my own company. Here’s how that happened. As I was entering my 3rd year designing logos and marketing materials for my clients I had a major B.F.O. (Blinding Flash of the Obvious!) After working with my clients and designing hundreds of pretty visuals for their brand, I realized that they, the owners, didn’t really have a good grasp of their own brand. They, like many, believed their brand was simply a logo, a website, business cards, and brochures. Read more>>

Cris Garcia

After being a freelance makeup artist, and working for a few different bridal hair & makeup teams I decided to start my own Bridal hair and makeup team. This idea was huge, and scary. As a hair & makeup artist, my joy is in the work; glamming my clients and hearing about their life’s, passions and goals. Not so much invoices, contracts, timelines, follow ups. But after working with a specific bridal company I began to get an itch. An ‘I’m not appreciated’ itch, a ‘my time is more valuable than what I’m getting paid’ itch. And it’s those moments (I’ve felt them in past jobs) I’ve learned it’s time to move on. Read more>>

Kurt Belding

I started this two years ago when I turned 40. When I turned 40 I realized that I wanted to live my life the way “I” wanted to live it. I had just sold a couple other businesses and decided I wanted to go on amazing hunting adventures, film them for others to watch and be entertained, this was the birth of Western Obsessions TV. I have always been somewhat obsessed with hunting and the adventure it brings. One of my main goals here is to be able to live my life doing this and to be able to do this until I am 80 or dead. Read more>>

Demond Alverez

So everything started when I was a kid, and I had this over active imagination. In church I did plays and sang in the choir, that lead me to writing music and poetry. From there years later I put my first book out in 2015. At that point I knew that I had something special, to share with the world. Take into consideration I was a very quiet sheltered kid, along the way I had to find my voice. In the beginning I was just someone who wanted to share his talents with the world. After that thought process it became more of wait this is turning into it’s own brand /business. Read more>>

Fern Brady

The idea for Inklings Publishing arose from a weekend writing retreat. A dear friend of mine took a group of us up to his parents lake house and hosted a retreat. It was such a productive time that when I returned home I started looking for more of such events. What I discovered is that they are incredibly expensive to attend. I’d gotten an opportunity to read a book about how to Indie publish and, with the short stories the group had written during the retreat in mind, I began to consider opening a publishing company that could make money and use it to fund opportunities like retreats for writers. Read more>>

 

Veronica Cochran

The road to entrepreneurship is rarely an easy path. As a c-suite executive leading a team of courageous professionals I cherished the opportunities to help our associates grow in their careers. At the same time, I felt a burning desire to help nurture world-class leaders who may not have access to the corporate training of a formal organization. I felt called to the mission of developing the leader in each of us; from the CEO to the soccer mom; we all have a call to lead. I transformed my desire to make an impact into an organization committed to increasing our individual and collective leadership consciousness while establishing leadership as a universal competence, not simply a job-related skill. Read more>>