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.
Shiron Diaz-durr
When I started my interior design and decor business five years ago, I was at a pivotal moment in my life. I had accumulated valuable experience styling the homes and spaces of friends and family, but I felt a strong pull to legitimize my experience as a professional by becoming certified. The timing felt right—I had the confidence and a clear vision for the kind of service I wanted to create for clients. Read More>>
Shania Love
In my personal opinion I do wish that I would have started my business sooner. I feel as though it had the potential to help more people early on. I do believe that it was created in its own timing to give me a unique purpose and reason to keep going.I started my business when I was 19. It was after I found out that my mother was diagnosed with cancer and she was loosing her hair. This business started out with one product initially which was the hair growth oil. Read More>>
Renata Urias
About 10 years ago, I was having a conversation with my husband about what I wanted to do professionally. At that time, I had a two-year-old and was working as a teacher at his preschool, which felt like the perfect job for me. During our talk, my husband suggested that I consider going to people’s homes to help them organize their spaces because he knew how much I enjoyed organizing. Read More>>
Alex Kessler
I think I started my business at the perfect time for both myself and for the toy industry. As far as my life, I had already started an entertainment business and learned a lot on that end, so I was ready to jump into KessCo with a lot more confidence than a first time business owner. The early years required a lot of travel, months of travel, which I wouldn’t want to do now that I have two small children. Read More>>
Jerome Barkley
I had the idea for the Columbus Podcast Awards in 2018, then we officially launched in 2019 and have the first awards ceremony the following year of 2020. Looking back i would’ve have waited about another year or 2 to official launch. The reason is because the year of the 1st award ceremony we were hit by Covid which put a great deal of restrictions on what we can do making it challenging to organize, but the event was still a success. Read More>>
Lorraine Frederick
I wish that Social Sabby became my full-time focus earlier than it did in 2019, now seeing how much a program like ours is needed, and the impact it has made on the families with whom we work. Read More>>
Stacy Nalapraya
When I was a very young woman starting out my career in psychology and starting a family- I had not ever once considered pursuing art as a career. Growing up in an Asian household, art was more considered to be a hobby than a full-time job. The irony of this is, my (two) sisters and I all have active careers as artists- and I have a boyfriend who is an artist too! Although supportive, Mom isn’t too thrilled about it and still makes a point to remind us that art is still indeed “just a hobby.” Read More>>
Derek Strong
I often think about the timing of my creative journey, and while there’s a part of me that wonders what might have been if I’d started earlier, I’ve come to appreciate the path I took to get here. Growing up in a poor family, I didn’t have access to the resources that might have supported an earlier start. In college, I pursued Musical Theater, but after a negative experience from my peers and from the program director, I switched to studying electronic media and broadcasting. Due to life events, I had to leave school and join the workforce to make ends meet. Read More>>
Jessica Grace
I’ve always had a creative drive and spirit, so it would be easy to get down on myself and regret not tapping into that more fully when I was younger, really trying to incorporate that into my career. But if I’m honest with myself, I had a lot to learn and I was someone who had to learn many things the hard way. I didn’t have the grit, clarity of purpose, sober sense of self or cultivated heart for truly serving others when I was younger that being a photographer really takes. Read More>>
Ashley Cecilia Meyer
I started my creative career in 2020, when I opened up my bookstore virtually and then decided to finally start writing my debut novel in 2020, “The Cottage Witch Of Venice.” I do wish I would have started sooner and realized how important books, words and passion projects are just as important to to this world as other job/ career choices as well. With that being said, that also comes with time, and feeling an inkling of belief in yourself, and also being a dreamer. Read More>>
Holly Meyers
This is a great question , I think alot of us ask when we feel there’s a time limit in finding out path . Especially as creatives.
I wonder if part of that feeling of did I start too soon or late happens when we feel a disconnect from the connection we want with our creative gifts. Read More>>
Ry Hermann
As I am still a college senior who has both a paid and unpaid internship I am not sure if I would really say my career as a creative has started yet. I have had multiple creative jobs and freelance clients but due to time constraints I really haven’t been able to put my all into my career. That is what my goal is this final semester. I want to work on projects that I think are worth continuing after school and start trying to build a consistent clientele. Read More>>