Starting a business or creative project is scary for many reasons, but one that is often overlooked is the anxiety related to whether this is really “the one.” To some, this isn’t a valid consideration while to others this is the only consideration. Some argue that what you work on, along with who you work with are the two most pivotal decisions you’ll make and so we’ve asked folks to tell us about how they came up with their ideas and how they knew this idea was the one.

Rachel Middleton

I always loved photography and did my own boudoir shoot with a local photographer and I loved how empowering it was. I knew instantly that’s what I wanted to do. I started doing research and building my portfolio, it was in the middle of Covid and I just finished my sample session the day of shut down. It was all very crazy but I haven’t looked back and I’ve made so many friends along the way! Read more>>

Oluwatosin Oluokun

The way I came up with the idea for my business after receiving a hypertension diagnosis, I embarked on a journey to improve my health and well-being after my friend who is a pharmacist told me to juice and change my lifestyle before considering medication. I tirelessly researched various diets and lifestyle changes that could potentially alleviate my condition. During my exploration, I stumbled upon the benefits of cold-pressed juices and their potential to lower blood pressure in addition to my friend’s recommendation. Read more>>

Sophia Mitchell

They say when one door closes, another door opens. However, it is rare to have all doors closed and sealed for a year and that was my experience during Covid, frankly it was a frequent story among my Black female friends, many who held advanced degrees and positions but were let go during Mergers & Acquisitions as well as just the routine restructuring that happens when firms want to cut costs during times of uncertainty. Read more>>

Andrea Anez

I came up with the idea for Astrological Design because I wanted my clients to feel a strong connection to the spaces I create for them. I combined my love for interior design with astrology, and that’s how Astrological Design was born. It’s a special way I work where I use a client’s birth chart to design a space that reflects who they are, helps them grow, and makes them feel better. Read more>>

Jocelyn Solomon

I have been sober over twenty-six years so I have seen the evolution of many different modalities and strategies for helping people through that process, but none of them felt exactly right to me. We have so much science now to prove that drinking alcohol in any amount for anyone is simply not aligned with health and presence. I wanted to create a space that was for everyone – not just a “problem drinker” necessarily, but for anyone who wants to evaluate their habits around drinking. Read more>>

Alexandria Rykse

Ever since I was in elementary & middle school I was fascinated with photography. I begged for my first point and shoot camera until I finally got one for Christmas in 7th grade. I knew going into high school that I wanted to explore what I could creatively. I was the editor of our high school paper sophomore through senior years, and learned about journalism and photojournalism before it was heavily social media influenced. Read more>>

Emmelyn Lao

The idea of our business first started with buying pampas grass for our new place. We were stunned with the price tag and saw an opportunity to start selling them. We were posting pampas for sale ads and soon after we started taking requests for custom pieces and arrangements. We were getting a lot of interest in our work, even event planners started looking at us. Read more>>

Moline Luscar

The way I came up with the idea for my business was devine. Covid rapidly took over the world in 2020 and my Sister was in contact with someone that had the virus and passed it on to her. She did want to alarm the family because in the beginning of the pandemic it was like if you had the virus it’s a death sentence and you were going to die. Read more>>

Lauren Terrell

This was my father’s hobby and favorite thing to do. It was his dream to have it become a business venture and when he passed away from Stage 4 Lung Cancer in 2018 he passed all his camera gear and equipment to me. I then took his ideas and dream and turned it into a reality. It was my way of helping and coping with his loss and it continues to help me every single day. Read more>>

Paxton Calvanese

Well, don’t tell the ex but I almost got myself and my kids killed flying out to the bad lands. As a pilot I was flying a small plane from Chicago to Rapid City to take the kids on a vacation in the Bad Lands. In a small aircraft you are more susceptible to bad weather so it is not only legally required to evaluate weather but it is life and death. So making sure I had the full weather picture was always the top priority. It was supposed to be clear the whole way, but it wasn’t. Read more>>

Yeva Poghosyan

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved jewelry and fashion. I always was drawn to the creative world with little to no chance to express myself. As someone with a strong finance and accounting education, I had all but given up hope that one day I would be able to pursue my passion for art and fashion. That is, until 2019. That’s when my husband, Arman, talented designer with years of proven records, and I decided to finally pull the trigger and launched our jewelry line ARY D’PO. Read more>>

Rocky Arroyo

I was just like anyone else. I had jobs after finishing college that were “OK.’ didn’t see myself doing it as a career. If a job was tolerable then that meant a lot. A friend of mine that I used to work with was in the same boat. She once told me “We really just have to stop doing jobs that that don’t excite is and instead just go for what we really want to do.” That line could’t sit with me better today. Read more>>

Jeanae Pennington

I came up with the idea to start Lucy J Accessories by seeing the “need” in terms of completing a look for your outfit. As a former wardrobe stylist, one of my favorite moments on sets or shopping for my clients would be picking out a variety of accessories for them. I was able to build a glamorous look or a simple look just by providing a particular accessory such as sunglasses, a hat, a necklace, or statement earrings. Read more>>

Abby Wilson

I came up with the idea for my business in 2019, at the time I had been involved in the local live music scene in Lake Geneva Wisconsin, and wanted to come up with a way to promote and work with local bands. I started off volunteering for a local live music page and got to know a lot of local cover bands. Towards the end of 2019, I realized that there was a serious lack of diversity in the types of bands that were booked in town, too many of the same faces playing everywhere. Read more>>

Shardae Carter

I always knew that I enjoyed helping people but I didn’t know what specific population really stood out to me. After counseling several different types of clients, I began to see the concept of grief and loss more frequently. I noticed that more often than not Baltimore nonprofits and other organizations often associated grief to the loss of a person due to death. There were very few places for those who needed to feel seen and heard after experiencing a major life altering event. Read more>>

Yessenia Morales

I had always enjoyed bonding with my son through art hands on play and sensory play was always our go-to. I would create different invitations to play for him using different bases such as colored pasta, colored rice, and other times home-made play-dough. Although I loved doing this, I realized how time consuming it could be and how hard it might be for other moms who might not have the time or creativity. Read more>>

Tamika J.

Taomi is a word that blends my name, Tamika, and my sister’s name, Naomi. Together, it is pronounced, “Tay-Omi.” The idea for Taomi Tea N Treats came from watching my mother make tea. She has always used tea for healing, self-enjoyment, and as a way to bond with friends and family. Read more>>

Jacqueline Williams

I am Jacqueline Williams.The author of the book Overcomer by Jacqueline Williams, available now on Amazon Read more>>

Marie Lewis

I have been working as a floral designer for nearly a decade and over the years I have designed countless clean white, soft blush and muted neutral toned weddings. The softer color palettes seemed to be the default for wedding florals and though they are beautiful, they just didn’t resonate with me the way a moodier or more complex color palette does. When I first started dreaming up my business I kept that feeling close at hand. Read more>>

Cody Meacham

My small business idea came from necessity, in 2020 when the pandemic hit, I needed to find some form of work that I could do from home since I was a freelance artist in an industry that shut down. I had been recently working on miniature work based on movies that I liked and creating dioramas based centered around those ideas and environments. Because I worked in the theme park industry, and the majority of my social media audience was also involved with theme parks I decided to start creating miniature, nostalgia based theme park pieces of art that people could hang on the wall or put on the shelf and remind them of their favorite theme park memories. Read more>>

Casey Harrison

Polished Strategic Communications was born years before it had a name. As a single mother at 17, I was driven by a desire to provide for my son, and hopefully show him through my example that hard work could be both personally fulfilling and make a positive impact in our community. Fast-forward through a 12-year corporate career leading marketing, communications, and public relations teams, I unexpectedly lost my job… two days after my honeymoon. It was then that Polished was truly born out of a circumstance where I had to dig myself out of the mud. Read more>>

Aberdeem

Food has always been my passion. I’ve always known that was my path, it just took me a little while to get there. I’ve always been cooking and baking as a hobby, I never knew I could do it professionally. I had always dabbled with the idea of running my own business, but was unsure of how to translate the idea into a reality. Read more>>

Megan Lyman

our story Read more>>

Patricia Logan

Well guess what?! We are a covid baby I was unhappy with my current job so I made a tough decision to just grab a part time job that I could love and find peace with minus the money. I was working in Santa Barabara for 3 months and then everything came to a hault as I left, there closing the doors behind me with uncertainty like all of the world navigating a pandemic. Read more>>

Kara Duncan

This whole business actually started as a COVID pivot! So cliche but my previous business was destination wedding planning, which as you can imagine came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. Once it happened, I didn’t have the luxury of time like I did before (when you start your first business and can take as long as you want to go from idea to execution haha). I made a list of everything I knew how to do and the skills I wanted to learn. Read more>>

Sihine Negede

The era of the COVID-19 pandemic was a period of reflection and transformation for many people. Having spent my previous years in Belgium, where composting was a common practice, I was shocked by the lack of waste-consciousness among the residents of Addis Ababa. It was during this time that I looked for the expertise of two of my co-founders – one with a background in business administration and entrepreneurship, and the other, an environmental activist and community leader deeply rooted in the heart of Addis Ababa. Read more>>

Jolene Kraus

Ben and I lived in San Fransisco and went to a friends house where we noticed her chandelier and asked where she got it. She said that she ordered the parts online and made it herself. A year later, we moved to Los Angeles where Ben is between TV shows (he’s working in production at the time), and he makes a light fixture to sell on Craigslist for extra income. It sold fast, so he made another one and another one. Read more>>

Tino Perez

I embarked on a new journey when a friend proposed a partnership in the computer business. This opportunity led me to make a bold decision: I left my job at the time. Together, we began the exciting process of finding a suitable location, securing permits, and handling all the necessary preparations. Naturally, I was filled with apprehension, as this venture was entirely new to me. However, I’ve always believed in my ability to achieve my goals. Read more>>

Brent Law

1. I had to identify my passion and expertise: Read more>>

Heather Hankins

My husband has always been in construction work( mainly painting). He always has out in 110% and been promised promotion and raises, He never was granted the things he was promised. We decided that it was time he was given his due and if others were not going to stay true to their word and reward him for his top notch work and dedication that we were going to get it for ourselves. Read more>>

Maria Isabel Segura

I am Maria Isabel or Isa, as people close to me usually call me, a passionate, well-being interior architect who discovered how to heal through design. My business and profession reflect my own life story and how creativity, persistence, healing, design, and wellness changed my life, taught me how to see the beauty in the small things, and how the built environment can help you to heal and to appreciate life even more. Read more>>

Tati Petkovic, MDM

I first started researching my birth chart and getting into astrology when I started to notice patterns in my dating life. I kept attracting Scorpios that were born in the same week, and I asked myself… why is this happening? I still didn’t fully understand astrology at the time, I just learnt the basics (like your sun, moon and rising signs). Read more>>

Luciana Barilari Bullentini

It was a casual twist of fate, a moment in time where everything aligned seamlessly, and life took an unexpected turn. The story of VIVACE, a brand with roots deep in the heart of Brazil, began like a long-lost dream that had found its way back into reality. To recap, VIVACE had been conceived as a Fashion Maison, but like many dreams, it had been temporarily shelved. Read more>>

Nico Spadafora

Fossil Team was, and still is, a giant undertaking. When I was younger, I always wanted to be a paleontologist. I knew early on I wanted to make it my career. I was given a small collection of bones and fossils by my dad. I loved them so much that I wanted to share them with others. As my collection grew slowly, I decided that making it more accessible would not only increase the amount I got to do it, but it would help achieve my goal of opening up a natural history museum of my own. Read more>>

Diana Sookram

I have always been a die hard candle lover. When I tell you the addiction was real, it was real. I have a different candle in every room. When I got home from work I would light candles everywhere. After cleaning I was lighting candles and freshening up beds, couches etc with room sprays. Read more>>

Megan Pelsor

Lauren, my sister, and I first realized we wanted to work together when we were making some DIY shirts to attend the Sasha Velour and Shea Coulee show in town. We are huge fans and wanted to coordinate with the group we were going with, but wanted to create our own design that combined both of the queens’ logos. We got so many compliments on them at the show! Read more>>

Ahkilah Armster

This vision is not my own. God is mastermind behind it all. When I was 12 years old God spoke to me and shared with me through my pastor, Bishop Smith, that I would be an entrepreneur. I kept that prophecy in mind but I began my undergraduate journey with the hopes of becoming a pediatrician. Early on in my academic career it was evident that being a medical student wasn’t the best for me. Read more>>

Rebekah Robeck

Let’s Be Kind is a non‐profit that focuses on Creating Student Led Cultures of Unity Through Kindness on School Campuses. In 2018 Rebekah Robeck an 8th grader at Costa Mesa Middle School started Let’s Be Kind Read more>>

Glend Martinez

Glend & Associates is a business consult firm. The name come from one of my favorite shows, Scandal. My firm ranges from helping people apply for unemployment to helping them get approved for loans. My goal has always been to help people so I decided to make a business out of it. It’s been extremely difficult but I’ve managed to progress. Read more>>

Liana Grigoryan

The origin of my creative photography is a story of personal passion and determination. From a young age, I was deeply interested in the world around me. Photography became a way to freeze time and beauty I saw everywhere. Years passed, and I found myself capturing the same beauty with my camera. Read more>>

Mo George-Payette

After enjoying several years in the Natural Products Industry as Director of Purchasing and eventually CEO of Mother’s Market & Kitchen, I wanted to combine my passion for Ethically sourced Cacao with Hemp extract (CBD). I became obsessed with learning all that I could about the Hemp Industry and visited many farms to gain a better understanding and also finding a fairly traded cacao that would directly help the farms where is came from, and have used Peruvian cacao in our Bean to BLISS Bars ever since launching in 2019… Read more>>

Vineet Kaur

My son Mihir Anand and I came up with Fruitfully Yours in 2017. Fruitfully Yours is an award-winning community organization and social enterprise preventing food waste, fighting food insecurity, and protecting the environment. We harvest fruit that would otherwise go waste in the San Gabriel Valley and donate it to the local food banks that in turn distribute it to the food insecure. Read more>>