Growing and scaling a business is hard and we wanted to hear from business owners who have successfully scaled a business. Below, you’ll find our conversations on scaling with some very talented and insightful folks.

Quinn Conyers

Scaling up my business actually required me to focus down and in one aspect of my speaking business and maximize it to my greatest capacity. Read more>>

Fernando Villegas

Technically I’ve been taking photos my whole life. I’ve always been fascinated with capturing memories and composing images. I joined the Army and my platoon received orders to deploy to Afghanistan. Read more>>

Felicia Jeffries

In reality, entrepreneurship is quite difficult, but extremely rewarding. To be successful in business you are required to be a risk taker. I learned early in my tenure that “Scared Money Don’t Make Money”. Its an old African adage to help future entrepreneurs understand that you have to spend money to make money. What some experienced business owners don’t share is that your investment in the beginning is quite larger than one expects. Again, being a business owner has it challenges. Read more>>

Hannah Hollings

I have pretty amazing parents that do lots of things right. As the oldest daughter of Drs. Darius and Jennifer Hollings, I have survived all of their parenting strategies. Maya Angelou’s words,“Nothing will work unless you do” are constant at my house. As a result, if I work towards my dreams, my parents work to support them. H3 Lemonade & Treats only works because my parents support our dream. My parents driving, banking, sitting for hours in the sun and learning about entrepreneurship alongside us made H3 Lemonade work from the beginning. My parents got it right by believing in me enough to support my big dreams and being willing to learn and try new things along the way. Read more>>

Brydric Wright

In 2020 life as we know it came to a stop, but not for my clothing brand, Five Eleven Collection. Instead of giving into a dark situation, I made my own light by making masks for my family and friends. I made as many as possible to have on hand for anyone in need of one. That energy from supporting my community fueled my momentum and love for sewing and designing. I continued by creating a new collection called ‘Be Free’, which was showcased at Austin Fashion Week in October 2020. Read more>>

Robert Rauch

One day, my wife said to me, “you are making so much money for other people–wouldn’t it make sense for us to buy a hotel and take advantage of your knowledge?” She was right, I had assisted clients in development, acquisition, management, finance and marketing of their hotel projects. I got paid a nice consulting fee but I was going to have to work forever to make a living that would create a retirement nest egg. I went out and found this small hotel of 52 units. It had 3 of the 4 characteristics I was looking for: a need for branding, renovation, and management as well as a good location. It was called the Ocean Inn and was one block from the Pacific Ocean. Location solved. It needed a branding because there was no brochure, no online presence (though this was July 1, 1997 and not too many people had that) and it needed management. It was already in good condition so renovation was not needed. The strategy was to evict the guests on day 1 by raising the rates $50. The guests were all prostitutes and drug dealers. They all checked out after telling me I coudn’t raise the rates and then hearing me say, “I already did. You may check out early for no penalty.” That was a meaningful moment. Read more>>

Rachel Cooper

My business really scaled when I dove into courthouse weddings. I love a wedding as much as the next photographer, but when a friend hired me to photograph her Annapolis courthouse wedding prior to her Tulum wedding, I really fell in love with it. After sharing her photos online, my bookings for everything really shot through the roof. Read more>>

 Francesca Geonnotti

Getting Started: We embarked on our Instagram journey with a passion for helping couples discover unique and memorable date night experiences in Philadelphia. We created the PHLDateNight account, defined our vision, and set our initial goals: to build a community of engaged followers and establish ourselves as a go-to resource for date night inspiration. Read more>>

Juliana Fink

Working for a bridal makeup company was the foundation that I needed to learn the ways of the bridal world. From working behind the scenes packing the goodie bags for the attendees, to then working the booth talking to brides… I started when I was 18 years old so I was eager to learn and do it all. Read more>>

Philip Weiss

I started Apprise with zero clients. I worked for another financial advisor before launching Apprise, but I wasn’t primarily in a client-facing role. When I left that firm, I did some writing and editing for someone that I had worked for earlier in my career in a similar capacity while I figured things out. I formed Apprise, but it wasn’t the only thing I was doing. About 18 months later, I decided that the only way I could truly build my own business was to go all in. Read more>>

Farrah Haidar

We often say, “Behind every overnight success is a ten-year in the making story no wants to hear.” Where we are today is the results of several pivotal moments, each building on each other, each a choice to say yes and rise to a challenge. Read more>>

Amy Pazahanick

DeKalb Tennis Center became our very first model for how we want to run public tennis centers. We now have a process of everything for how we manage and operate that has allowed us to scale.Read more>>

Sheena Vaccaro

In order to set ourselves aside from local competition, we knew we had to offer next level ultrasounds and we had to make their visit with us about their “experience” rather than just an ultrasound. We decided to integrate a premier 3D4D ultrasound studio with a maternity and baby boutique to do just that. We wanted to ensure we had something for our customers (and their families) for every stage of their pregnancy journey. The excitement of shopping for yourself and your baby just after seeing them live in 3D4D is something special. We knew that adding the boutique to the studio would make coming to Sneak A Peek Boutique more of a pregnancy experience you would want to share with your family and friends. Adding the boutique does add to the work and stress load of being a studio owner, but it also sets us aside for the others. Read more>>