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.

Sandi & Terrence Horan

It started with a Halloween card…and our joint obsession with all things spooky. For years, we’ve wanted to combine our artistic forces and work on something of our own. About ten years ago, Terrence created a Halloween card which soon became an annual tradition with our friends and family. That kind of seeded the idea of doing spooky stationery but we didn’t officially start working on Spooky Cat Press until 2019. We started with all the fun stuff – the same kind of creative work we’ve been doing professionally for 15 years. Only this time, we were in full control without any artistic limitation. Read more>>

Jaylen Christie

So, I’m someone who bores incredibly easily. To that end, I like to busy myself with projects that have meaning and initiatives that help me to operate in my purpose. I’ve been blessed to establish myself as a successful public relations practitioner in Central Florida. I’ve been in this profession for over a decade now and have won several industry awards for my efforts. Given the events of 2020 and the murder of George Floyd, there’s been an increase in efforts concerning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Read more>>

Breeze Cash

The single motivating factor in me starting a clothing brand was walking into the malls week after week and leaving empty-handed. I would walk into stores and nothing really stood out to me at all so it only made sense to fill the void and create my own brand to wear. Over the next week or so I spent most of my time scouting graphic artists and once I found one whose aesthetic fit my vision I reached out and got my design created. Read more>>

Aurelia Edwards

I started wearing press-on nails as a result of my profession. At the time, I had been a massage therapist in New Jersey for just about 20 years, and believe me I had tried every nail service you could imagine to keep my nails looking fresh when not seeing clients. Regular nail polish chipped as soon as I touched just about anything, I would worry about scratching clients when wearing acrylics, gel manicures shredded my natural nails and nail stickers caused my nails to peel. The only thing that worked for me was press-on nails. They were non-damaging, affordable, and time-saving, I could take them off for work and put them back on for events (reusable), and did I mention – super cute. Read more>>

Edgar Sermeno

Manifesting and speaking out loud will hold you accountable. I saw the warehouse 5 years ago and right of the back I knew there was potential here. I started the vision and it didn’t take long to know what I wanted. Fast forward we acquired the warehouse and the vision that I had was going to become a reality. Everything that I had in mind was not going hold back. There were plenty of long days and nights. We had a deadline to meet. We surprised a lot of people because when the date was given they thought it was impossible for it to get finished especially because of the size fog the building.. Read more>>

Elainne Feeney

Travel is an item that is on most people’s bucket-list. For me, it holds a permanent position at the top of my list. Exploring the world, experiencing new adventures and cultures, while marveling at both natural and manmade wonders is a lifelong and continuous pursuit. Knowing my passion for travel, I decided to research the steps to become a travel agent and turn my love of travel and inherit desire to serve others into a career. Read more>>

Michelle Ikediobi

Bare Chats was born from me trying to solve my own problem as a previously burnt-out college student (before I had the vocabulary to label it burnout!) All I knew was that I felt an overwhelming mix of stress and anxiety, as plenty of students do. Looking back, I realized it was a mix of journaling, therapy, and leaning on a supportive community that helped me pull through and that got my wheels turning. Read more>>

Maria Stroud

As a kid, I would always see my dad creating things we use to call it rigging things up. My dad & a friend of his created a really amazing system, but the friend went, got a deal, and did not cut my dad in on any of it. I always thought that was so wrong & unfair. Fast forward, I get a dog who had a dominance issue which I was told neutering was the only solution but I wanted him to have puppies so I decided to create a solution myself. Read more>>

 

James Rue Gian Carlos Birriel

Once Gian and I had the concept created, the time then came to make it a reality. Since we were creating something new and not going the route of buying into a franchise, there were many steps to get the ball rolling. We had to come up with a name, logo, website, etc. but honestly those were some of the most exciting moments in this journey. Neither of us had owned a restaurant before so we were just enjoying the process. Read more>>

Amanda Nelson

Unfortunately, there is no secret sauce to taking an idea from its infantile phase and going directly to execution other than just starting. Even if you have no idea where to start, any action is better than none. When I was working on my first product, ( the 60 Days Away guided journal) I took my own personal experience on what I would want to see in a product and started iterating on different guided prompts, activations, lists, and other journal necessities, until it was something I was happy with. Read more>>

Marjorie Reaves

I started by performing extensive research on similar business models. I researched the market to gauge the price points for specific services that I wanted to provide for my clients, researched to supply costs to make specific products, the cost of an LLC and more. By performing market research, I was able to ensure that I cut down on costs where I wanted, for example, the website platform. Read more>>

Solomon R.

My career literally happened by accident. I created a Twitter page where I talked about the real housewives I was obsessed with. and I grew the page to about 50,000 followers after I grew my page I decided to start a career in social media management from there I started learning about tools like CRM, bookkeeping, and I developed a killer networking formula. I wish I could say “OMG it was so easy and I was super successful at all of it”. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all. I struggled for 3 years barely getting clients, allowing my fears to take my dreams away from me until I discovered meditation and was able to utilize it to figure out why I was failing so horribly. Read more>>

Gregory Ruffin

Real Life Reality was started because of my love for reality tv shows like all the franchises of Real Housewives and one of my favorite shows at the time Honey Boo on TLC. In the year 2019, I started watching web series shows like G-Status, and Chasing Atlanta on youtube, and the most captivating to me was that these were young black gay males putting these shows together from start to finish with no major network funding, I then thought to myself I can produce my own reality show and with no hesitations, that’s what I did. Read more>>

Samantha Bromfield

The life of styling hair for me actually began at the tender age of 7. I started braiding my barbie dolls and American Girls Dolls because I wanted them to look pretty. Around age 9, I knew that I wanted to be a Registered Nurse or a Cosmetologist or both. By the time I was 11, I was an amazing braider and I knew that I wanted to work. So my step dad, called up a friend and within a week I was braiding at an African Braiding Salon. By the time I was 13, I had worked at two african braiding salons, which ultimately lead me to working at salon in South Philadelphia. I worked with an amazing hairdresser who had a steady clientele and helped me build my clientele as well. Read more>>

Jennifer Moncion

We can daydream all day long, but what good is that when it’s stuck in draft? Having an idea for a business is the easy part. Where to start and how to execute is the most difficult part, especially when you have no experience about the things you are daydreaming about. I knew I wanted to make dog treats because I had an issue finding good quality treats for my dog due to her allergy issues. I knew I wanted better for my dog. Better yet, I knew I can turn this idea into a business so other dogs can have better options. Read more>>

Shannon Jamail

I started my ‘working life’ in sales from an early age. And was good at it. But didn’t feel completely fulfilled by it. I was in retail sales, corporate sales and real estate – and just found myself successful but burned out. I then went back to school for my masters in Mental Health Clinical Counseling and found what made my heart sing. Combining that with my yoga background, I left the world of sales (with a short pit stop owning a chain of amazing art studios- deepening my love for art and creative expression) and went into mental health and overall wellness. Read more>>

GEOVONNIEx

I’ve always has a passion for creativity. I just like being a part of the process of bringing an idea to life. Whether that was music art, visual arts, or just being a facilitator, I do it with passion. This gratitude comes from me being a music artist. When I was developing as an artist (and I’m still developing), I had to learn every aspect of what it takes tasty afloat, especially as an independent artist with no budget. Like any other artist I started out recording at home with a sock over my mic Read more>>

Karen Riley

In high school, I had taken photography as my first art class, then I moved into painting, and finally into interior design in college. I eventually became an art teacher. During the pandemic, a friend of mine, Linda Nickell, started a weekly zoom meet-up called the Happiness Hour, with various people teaching a new concept in photography each week. I dusted off my camera and began taking pictures based on what I had learned that week. After a while I began to be interested in composition, how a subject is arranged in a piece of art, and started researching all of the different “rules.” Read more>>

Noah Swiderski

I first had the idea 2 years ago when I was in the parking lot of my 9-5 talking to my friend Jay about starting something big that would 1. Help people and 2. Make a positive impact on a community. Around the time of coming up with the idea I was starting to get hooked on Podcasts and would listen to tons of them (still do) about self-development, coaching, business, ect. so I decided to combine all three of my passions. Read more>>

Camille Jeremiah

Okay, Let’s start from the beginning! Starting my business was actually years in the making. I had a notebook that I would carry with me every day, I put all my ideas in from the business name to how I wanted to start it out. I had so many different names for my business before I decided on naming my clothing boutique Lady Blaze, For the most part it took long honestly due to fear. I think that is natural when wanting to start a business. Read more>>

Tori Cummings

My passion for my business started during my senior year of high school. 2019 was the year where I decided to sell t-shirts to my family, friends, and classmates. For some strange reason, I always knew that I wanted to be more than just a guy that sold t-shirts. I wanted my brand and myself to stand for something deeper than that. And that is where the idea of LuvlessLosers Club originated from. My brand “LuvlessLosers Club” is a streetwear designer brand that focuses on the concept of self-love. Read more>>

Zachary Shannon

Painting and art started out as a type of therapy for me. It was a way to kind of let go and let my mind drift instead of letting myself get too into my head and take me to some kind of dark place. The idea came from some late nights with a friend who would come over with art supplies and let me explore something new. Eventually once I moved to Las Vegas it started to become more. Not only was it my own personal type of therapy but I started building more confidence and sharing it with more and more people. Read more>>

Brittany Brown

The Slime Laboratory was created by my daughter, Ahja, who was completely obsessed with making slime on a daily basis thanks to YouTube. In response to her creativity and the thought that “I can’t be the only parent dealing with this messy situation”, we created The Slime Laboratory. The original purpose of creating this business was to teach my children entrepreneurship and marketing. I figured it would be a great way for them to earn their allowances while getting a chance to interact with different children. Read more>>

Deonta Pace

When You Are Going Through Life And You Really Don’t Know Where To Start As A New Ged Student At The Time. You Really Trying To Piece Together In Mind How Did We Get Here You Know, Battling Demons In The Mind And Facing Backstabbing So Called Friends Wanting To Tear You Down. And Being Laughed And Walked Over By Church People And Being Taken For Granted, Then You Sit At Home Weeping And Crying The Pain You Could Tell No One So God Gives You This Idea Turn Your Pain Into Purpose And Write The Story. The Year I Went Through The Process Was 2015 Till 2019 Read more>>

Quintessa Solomon-Hardy

I started my journey as a makeup artist ten years ago and changed the concept of my company to bring beauty to mental health in business. I changed my services to provide strategies and programs that would cover the professional and personal development of men and women. Today I am a successful business coach, empowerment speaker, author of three books with over ten years of experience. I had to really challenge myself to step into an unfamiliar lane and launch this brand that would be life changing for others. I had to invest in business coaching myself, hire executive level team for marketing and logistics, orchestrate the curriculum of my coaching platform, while working a full time job and pursing my education. Read more>>