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.

Kelsey Williams

To be quite honest, I do believe I started my business at the right exact time. I was in a really bad salon when I first started doing nails, the owner definitely took advantage of all of us and pinned us against each other. Being there, I didn’t have the opportunity to grow. We ended things on a rather bad note and I ended up working at another salon. She ended up being just the same as the one I just left. At that point, I was really tired of working for other people and feeling unappreciated so I opened my own business. I had only been doing nails for one year when I opened my own business. I was afraid that I wasn’t going to succeed. That what my past bosses told me was true; “I am nothing without them”. If you would ask me this question quickly, I would say that I would have wished I would have waited a little bit longer before I started my own business, but I think everything happens for a reason and I do believe that my business started when I needed it at the most. I was actually five months pregnant when I opened my business. It was definitely hard and a learning process being a small business owner, a woman, and while also being pregnant; however, I did it and now my business is thriving. Read more>>

Aaliyah Cerveny

I do wish I had started it sooner. I’ve always loved photography. Always the one with the camera, always snapping pictures of sunset. When I joined the Marine Corps I never lost the love but I lost the time. After having my son and constantly snapping photos of him I relearned my love for photography. I was scared to put myself out there business wise though, and if it wasn’t for my son’s father, I probably wouldn’t have. Now while I do wish I had started sooner, I’m glad at the end of the day that I did start. That I did have that awful stage, that I did get over the initial imposter syndrome. My experience might’ve been harsher had I started sooner and didn’t have my son as a motivation to keep after my dream. And the desire to show him that you can achieve what you want with hard work. I hope that little tangent covered the question. Read more>>

Matthew Bates

I graduated from university in 2012 and spent the remainder of my twenties either working in kitchens or travelling. I knew I didn’t want to work a ‘regular’ job but the life of a chef was becoming increasingly more unpalatable for me, and I could feel myself becoming a person I didn’t like. So at twenty six years old, I applied for the masters course at the Northern Film School, and was accepted off the back of an experimental film I made about a man obsessed with road cycling. In a two year period at film school, we made something crazy like fifty two short films. It was a baptism of fire. A total immersion into all things film, and one of the biggest times in my life for personal and creative growth. Read more>>

Sametria Beckem

If I could go back in time, I think starting my business sooner might have made things a bit smoother, but at the same time, I believe everything happens for a reason. The idea for my first book was born around 2020, though I can’t remember the exact timing—it was a while ago. It took me over a year to write because I faced many challenges along the way. After pushing through those struggles, I felt a sense of purpose. That’s when the name *Purposely Here* came to me. It represented how, after everything I’d been through, I realized I was here for a reason. Read more>>

Reid Seeley

Since a young age, I was infatuated by music of all kinds. Most of all however, rap music. I fell in love with the raw emotion within the genre, and how through this intricate form of poetry, artists are able to capture and express their thoughts, opinions, and feelings through way of incredible word play and detailed rhyme schemes. I remember writing my very first rap at the young age of just 11 years old. Obviously, I had no idea what I was doing or what I was talking/writing about at the time, due to such a lack of life experience. Although, as I grew older, and life was happening around me, I began to use writing as an outlet; a form of therapy. Read more>>