The uncertainty of entrepreneurship causes many entrepreneurs to put off starting their business. For others, losing a job or other economic hardships push them starting their businesses earlier than expected. In our conversations with thousands of entrepreneurs we’ve seen so much variety in when, how and why people started their business and so we wanted to share a wide variety of views and reflections on the question of whether these folks wished they had started sooner or waited longer before starting their businesses.

8fonk

When I was 12 years old, I got my first acoustic guitar. My music journey started at that moment. I made a band with my best friend Bob and we started playing pop music for kids around the block. Parents didn’t understood potential of music career, so it was more like a hobby. But it was so beautiful, childhood with music and many friends around, it was really perfect. We played mostly pop music and we composed many songs. Read more>>

Hannah R

I am so regretful that I didn’t start my business earlier. on in my life. As a result, it’s taken me very long to get things going and learn about all the tedious tasks involved in owning your own company! If only someone had given me a nudge – maybe even just one person telling me “you can do this!”. We’re never perfect no matter how much time passes; we should always be pushing ourselves forward because life is too short for regrets.” Read more>>

Ryan Littlefield

In 2011 I went to Shreveport, LA to become a Visual Effects Artist for motion feature films, but after a few years I decided to pick up a camera for myself, take everything I learned and start shooting on my own. I only wish I had taken this route years prior. As a kid I remember taking the standard school and sports photos every year, and I can picture a few times where as a family we brought along the old yellow disposable film cameras to get developed at our local Walgreens drug store. Read more>>

Dana Truitt .

I have two businesses, I own a sandblasting company which is a form of construction, and we do this in the warmer months of the year. I’m also a full time content creator with an audience of a 1/2 million. It’s not easy to balance the two but it’s the best decision I ever made. Yes it was scary to quit my job and go out on a limb, but I was determined to make it work. We started the sandblasting company 12 years ago, and to be honest I wish I would have done it much sooner. Read more>>

Logan Boyd

I think I started Richmond Flower Truck at the perfect time. I started the LLC in May 2022. Coming out of isolation from the pandemic, I think Richmond Flower Truck provided a safe, yet exciting activity to help customers come outside. At the time that I started Richmond Flower Truck I was incredibly bored in my career. I had been in the same position for six years and I just needed a creative outlet. So I took a leap of faith and started Richmond Flower Truck. Read more>>

Jessica Jackson

I absolutely wish I had started my business sooner. I never thought that entrepreneurship was for me, that I could do it. But almost two years later, here I am, doing it! I let fear cripple me for a long time. Fear of failing, not being able to do something, not having support, and so many other fears. There are so many things that I have learned about myself in this season and during this process that I missed out on discovering sooner. I am, however, grateful that no matter how long it took, I did it and am thinking about my next business venture(s). Read more>>

Stephanie Hobbs

No, I don’t wish that I started my business sooner or later. I believe I started my business when the good Lord gave me the vision and the right people to help me get my business started in June of 2018. I’m a firm believer that everything happens when it’s suppose to happen. TRUST THE PROCESS! Read more>>

Denytria Harley.

I started my cosmetics business, Flawless by Queen D LLC, on Juneteenth! That day is monumental for people of African descent so it felt right to launch my website on that day. I truly do wish I’d had been in the headspace to start this journey sooner. I’m a giving/nurturing person. I often times put others before myself. I sacrificed a lot in my 20’s and had to find myself again once I turned 30. I finally let go of things and people that no longer served me. Finally, I put myself first and found a support system that pushed me to a greater destiny and allowed me to be all that I am! Read more>>

Melissa Brewer

My of my biggest regrets is not starting my professional culinary career earlier. I was born with a whisk and spoon in my hand. I always cooked for myself, and found my passion for cooking as a release of sorts. I was scared to turn my joy of cooking into a serious job prospect. After years of working front of house positions I witnessed firsthand what cooking on a line could look like. It didn’t look nice. The hours and abuse cooks and chefs received turned me off. Read more>>

Vivian Sias.

It all started in 2005 when my brother was getting married. They were doing a lot of DIY to save on wedding expenses. I came up with the idea of making their wedding cake. You know, how hard could it be, right? Needless to say, I learned so much about what it meant to make a wedding cake. Biggest lesson learned that night was all the prep work and planning that should be done ahead of time for a successful outcome (because yes, I made the wedding cake all in one night, and barley made it to the wedding the next morning). Read more>>

Compass Rose

We all started playing music around our teenage years, i believe that for most of us, it was just the passion of making sound with our instruments. Skyler our lead guitarist began making tracks under the name Sky Dye around 7 Years ago. From that point his music started coming out and slowly Trenton, Seth and I (Marcos) joined along and flourished Compass Rose four years ago. some time’s we wonder if it would’ve been best if we started out younger when we where in high school. Read more>>

Tiffanie Quinn

If I could go back in time and start my creative career sooner, I definitely would. Even though I started my academic art journey in 2016, I did not start sharing my personal art or building a business until 2019. In 2019, I entered a deep depression and started painting self-portraits in my spare time to depict how I was feeling. It became a very therapeutic process for me. Even though I was proud of my art, I never shared it online out of fearing what others would think. Read more>>

Nikki McComb

I have always been creative but I do wish that I had started to activate my talents much earlier in life, had I started sooner I may have accomplished more to date and reached more young people and families affected by trauma Read more>>

Happy Friends.

Happy friends is a digital animation production company that started as an animated music group in 2020. It has a total of 6 artists: – Giovanna Arrosse “Art direction and video editor” -Pablo Cuenca “Illustrator” – Diego Marquina “Illustrator” – Jordi Aldave “Video editor” – Adela López “Illustrator” – José Enrique Domínguez “Writer” After the pandemic caused by COVID, we were forced to change our way of working and put aside our work as musicians to focus on new projects focused on illustration, graphic design and digital animation. Read more>>

Felicia Faith

Oh how I have always struggled with this question. My path to where I am now definitely feels like an off beat one for a creative. As a fairly traditional and somewhat old soul, I have often struggled with how to balance some of those values alongside my life as an artist. There have been many times I have wondered if I missed a window or lost years that could have built me a stronger footing in this creative world while I married my high school sweetheart and raised my kids. Read more>>

Nomad Mr. Murk City

If anything I would have started taking music more seriously early on. I started rapping when I was probably about 12 or 13. Back then it was just a hobby for me, something to kill time. Then I started battle rapping in cafeteria and corner cyphers. I never really thought about taking rapping professionally back then. Overall I feel that everything happens for a reason. I’m ready to drop some new music real soon. So stay tuned. Read more>>

Jewel Morrison

I started in 2010, as a makeup enthusiast. Posting makeup looks on Facebook, and getting comments/messages saying how I should consider doing other people’s makeup. I think that if I really believed in myself the way I do now, and stayed consistent, my creative career would have been farther than it is now. Read more>>

Cassandra Alberdeston.

Heres the backstory: I grew up in Orlando, Florida, we lived in Kissimmee for a few years and then on the east side of Orlando. My mother is from Pennsylvania and my father from Puerto Rico. They met in Orlando in their early 20s, ended up getting pregnant with me, and shortly after my grandmothers encouraged them to get married in 1996. Their marriage was filled with infidelity and many struggles and ended in divorce. Read more>>

JENNY B.

I actually started my professional career a few months after I had my first child. I’ve been singing all my life and have had a passion for it but didn’t become serious until then! Some call it odd but I needed that life changing motivation that has kept be going to this day! Read more>>

Mericle Hall

Growing up, people would ask me all the time “Do you model?” or suggest that I model as a hobby and I would always ignore it or get annoyed because that was not my interest at the time. I played sports and thats all I knew. Sometimes I wish I would’ve started earlier when those people suggested because there’s no telling where’d I be right now. However, life is all about lessons and experiences. I truly believe I am where I’m suppose to be and I do not regret starting when I started. I’ve accomplished more than a lot! Read more>>

Tim Angsten.

I don’t think I could have started my creative career any sooner than I did. I began piano lessons in the second grade and by the time I was in grade school I was playing with my father, brother and gym teacher in bars all around Wisconsin. However, I was very lucky to have found a calling of my own which led me to pursue music with all my heart. Taking piano lessons was great, but I do think I began a bit too early as far as formal lessons go. That’s why when people ask if I’m giving my children music lessons (my oldest is 6) I tell them that I just let the children bang on instruments and have fun. When they’re ready they’ll ask to seriously learn. Read more>>

Rebekah Hall.

In school I was a “plodder” I got good grades only by working hard, I was hopeless at sports as I was too self-conscious, even at a young age, but anything creative I loved whether that be sewing, woodwork, baking or drawing. When choosing my subjects later as a teenager I was denied access to the Art Course as this clashed with French…I made that French teachers life hell, refusing to partake in anything & drawing my answers, finally after a year he refused to teach me & I was allowed to take Art. My grade was lower than I would have liked as I didn’t have enough work in my Portfolio! Read more>>

Nomi Lifowè.

To be honest I am glad I embarked on my creative career later rather than sooner. I can’t bring myself to ever regret the time I spent helping out as much as I did with my niece in the first few years of her life, I am so appreciative of the space her mom allows me to have in her life! Plus maturity, if I started earlier I feel like I would have not been as confident as I am now. Read more>>

Emerald Arguelles.

I think everything aligned exactly when it needed for me. I started about 5 years ago after getting out of the military. The discipline was needed in order to be successful now, it gave me so many tools. I believe if I started sooner I wouldn’t know how to navigate things and problem solve. Read more>>

Scorpio Uzuh

Ahhh man, do I wish I could turn back the hands of time. My brand name, Sins Of Many, as “dark” as it may initially sound, is an actual interpretation of me wishing I would’ve tapped into my creative side much sooner. It’s translated as an apology to my younger creative self, when i didn’t have the mental fortitude to stop everything I was doing and just pursue what I loved. Read more>>

Kaprice Jurnett

I would’ve started sooner forsure, I doubted myself and its helped me grow but also held me back from alot. I was told no at the first college modeling auditions and to this day I’m still not sure why but that made me want it more. I tried out again that next semester and made it. I was determined and if Id kept this momentum going I know Id be further in my career as a creative. Read more>>