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.

Lilia Mata-Weimer

Absolutely. I wish I had started earlier. When I was getting married I knew I wanted a Photo moment Backdrop. Eight years ago I could not find someone local in TX to do that. My wedding planner said he got it and not worry. He created something beautiful but not at all what my vision was. When I got married I moved back to AZ that was the moment to risk it all. Read more>>

Neka Leslie

NEKA LESLIE Biography — Meet Neka Leslie — the rising Jamaican fusion artist set for global domination. Based in Atlanta, Neka’s vibrant musical style blends pop, R&B, reggae, dancehall and afrobeats together to form a fresh, honest, and rhythmically addictive sound that reflects her Jamaican-American roots. Read more>>

Katie Lyons

I’ve spent the past couple years of my life lamenting that I chose not to begin my career sooner. As a child, my mother put me into modeling and I started my career doing lifestyle work for catalogues and clothing brands, and I was not opposed to child labor. I loved it! Soon I was regularly at castings . When I was about six or seven, I abruptly stopped doing any kind of modeling work to focus on my education. Read more>>

Fedlyne Aristile

If I can go back in time, I honestly wouldn’t change the specific time period of when I started my business. My business has and is still modeling me into the person I am currently. I was still in school (sophomore year of college) but felt as though having a career wasn’t enough for me. I also didn’t want to depend on a career, because the pandemic opened my eyes to how some careers weren’t reliable. Read more>>

Bridget Dorr

I wouldn’t have done anything different with my creative career. 4 years ago I took the leap (nievely) to take my craft full time. I wasn’t ready but was feeling very optimistic. It wasn’t my time, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Being a self employeed artist helped me learn some hard lessons, gain valuable experience, and really appreciate my art for what it is, and not as a means to an income. Read more>>

Ross Williams

Neither. Opportunities manifest when we position ourselves to move to the next level. Before starting my business, I made a commitment to myself that I would follow the signs life gives me and not position myself in places where I’m unfulfilled and unhappy. I was unfulfilled and unhappy in my previous career, which consisted of being an operations manager at a hospital and a manager at several other Fortune 500 companies. Read more>>

Kristina Johnson

If I could go back in time, I don’t think I would have started my business any earlier than I did. I do wish maybe I would have started it a little later with a bit more funding behind me. I am happy with myself that I had the courage to do it when I did in August of 2019, but looking ahead and had I known that a global pandemic was around the corner, maybe I would have waited, but of course we cannot see into the future! Read more>>

Andrea Coughlin

I started my pet care business about 4 years ago in 2018. At the time, I was in a job that my heart wasn’t in and I was looking for something that I enjoyed. I had been fostering dogs for a few years, so my friends and coworkers always asked me to take care of their pets while they were away. I don’t really know what finally made me realize that I should be caring for others animals all the time, but I do remember feeling like I knew what I wanted to do with myself. Read more>>

Jean Branan

I’m very happy about my timing for launching Pack for Paris. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t want to start any earlier than I did. For over twenty five years, I worked in higher education–specially in career services and professional development. All the career advice, negotiation techniques, networking skills and business etiquette that I taught students have been engrained into the way I operate. Read more>>

Mel Andre

The first time I tried to shoot a documentary, I was in high school. I had an ambitious plan of recording my peers and speaking to them about sensitive topics. I was going to come a few years later to see how life had shaped or changed their opinion on the topics. Read more>>

Laurel Uko

When I was 17, I was certain that I wanted to embark on a business in the beauty industry, hence how Afro Luxé was born. However, I did not have my first client until my 18th birthday, just a few months after coming up with my business name. Looking back, I do wish I had started my business a little later and the reason why is because I feel that I wasn’t in a place of maturity that I needed to be in order to successfully run a business. Read more>>

Dr. Kimberly Sellars-Bates

Time seems to be moving at an accelerated pace. I started my company on paper in 2007. I had never taken a business class so 95% of what I learned was “baptism by fire.” Now that I am considered a “seasoned entrepreneur” I realize that I wish I had started sooner. When I officially launched KSTB, I was working fulltime at a college. It was a stable job and I really enjoyed it. Read more>>

Josh Lee

I started playing guitar in 2001. I wrote lyrics to my 1st song after a Goo Goo Dolls concert in June of 2002. Now, it has been 20 years and I can only fathom how much farther along I would be if I had started at 10, 11, or even 12 years old, let alone younger than that! I was still in high-school and wanting to be acknowleged for being a unique individual and set myself apart. Read more>>

Cristi Frye

If given the chance to begin my art career sooner, I would probably choose to do it exactly the same. I did not begin my career as a professional artist until I was in my forties. I had been a stay-at-home-mom for about 17 years when I decided to find a way to make a little extra income for our family. I had always been crafty, so I thought I could make some Christmas ornaments out of polymer clay to sell. Read more>>

Tiffany Goode.

I oftentimes say that I wish I had truly started performing in front of audiences as a solo performer earlier. I then realize that everything happens at its perfect time. I started playing the trumpet in third grade. I say that the trumpet chose me. My dad bought the trumpet home from the neighborhood liquor house after bartering for it. After asking who wanted to play the trumpet, my brother or I, I promptly claimed the musical instrument as mine to have and to hold from this day forward. It was a marriage from day one. Read more>>

Elvira Carrasco

I would have started my artistic career earlier. As a child I was surrounded by art and culture, my father is an artist too and taught me to draw and paint. However, it was not until I was 24 years old that I decided to dedicate myself professionally to art. Today, art is my passion, my life. I would have started doing exhibitions or doing research earlier, although I studied History of Art at university and that helped me a lot when it came to completing my training. Read more>>

Kris LaMarr

I wouldn’t necessarily say I wish i started it sooner, but I do wish I hadn’t taken those years away from music. Although I used that time to work on myself mentally & emotionally, I really regret not continuing my music career in that time frame as well and finding some balance. I feel as if I lost a good amount of momentum in that timeframe from my lack of consistency. I’ve even spoken with my contemporaries who are further than me and have told me I should be where they’re at. Read more>>

C.R.U.S.H YourPoet

I am currently 36 years old. I didn’t get into poetry until I was 33; what felt like a very late start considering most poets I came across had been writing for 15-20 years. However poetry was not ever something I saw myself doing in this way. I began going to poetry events as self date night during a healing process. So, in that sense it came along when it was supposed to. Read more>>

Olivier Francois

I do wish I had started a little earlier. Still, at the end of the day, it was meant for me to start when I did because the opportunities I’ve had might not have happened, I started taking photos in 2018-2019, and I started taking it seriously around 2020 after the pandemic. During that time I was going through a lot, so to get away from everything I decided to start doing what I love. Also, my friends kept telling me that I should start posting my work, so I did. Read more>>