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.

Stefania Fochi

I own an empanada manufacturing plant. We make the dough and over 25 different fillings from scratch, with whole ingredients, with great care. I started the business over a decade ago from a love of food and a deep desire to make delicious food that I was proud to share. For the first several years, I did everything largely on my own. I had some help with bits and pieces but I put it all together – manufacturing, purchasing, packaging, selling, etc. Read more>>

Breanna Panter Halverson

As a baccalaureate registered nurse, wellness enthusiast, and farm momma, scaling up my blogging business has been one of the most transformative journeys I’ve embarked on. It wasn’t an overnight success; it required a significant investment of time, energy, and resources. But was the return worth every ounce of effort? Absolutely! I am still on this journey and eagerly look forward to future successes and growth. Read more>>

JILL Doan

I decided to level up my business by investing in education and setting up a killer supporting system. I mean, who knew that learning new stuff could be so powerful? With all that knowledge under my belt, I was able to stay ahead of the game and make smarter decisions. And let’s not forget about the support system I put in place. It streamlined everything, made things more efficient, and even sparked some cool new ideas. The result? My business grew! From charging $1,200 per a wedding now my lowest package is priced at $3,200. I reached more customers, built a rock-solid reputation, and now we’re on this awesome upward trajectory. It just goes to show that education and a solid support system can totally change the game! Read more>>

Cindy Wahler

My DNA is wired to believe that winning is about believing that curiosity is fundamental to success. Curiosity about the world allows us to take risks and explore new ground. Read more>>

Anna Desuyo

When we first started our business we had 2 ponies, a horse, and one pig named Kevin Bacon. We had a piece of beautiful but very needy land that needed a lot of help. We didn’t have much starter funds and we were winging it on a dream and prayer. We began building things ourselves and expanding. We had many hardships, life lessons, and asking for help. It’s amazing how many people want to help you when you’re starting off if you just ask. When we began to ask for help we got more volunteers than we even needed. People would show up to help us feed, clean, and in turn became our best friends. We’re more than a petting zoo farm we’ve become a community. Read more>>

Jennie Thacker

Starting a small business is not for the faint of heart and running events is another level of craziness! Constant challenges along the way to keep us on our toes! From learning to wear all the different hats, to taking risks, to leaning the hard way, there is always something to grow from. Read more>>

Maria Farley Illia Tumanov

Illia and I are thrilled to announce the opening of our second event and photo space in Fort Worth. IMSpaces is growing, we’ve just open our second location on 707 W Vickery Blvd suite 102A, Fort Worth. We started a year and a half ago with our first location on 1200 W Magnolia Ave where we host intimate events up to 40 people along with any kind of photo shoots. We are hourly rented space and some days, especially Saturdays, are sold out. We thought of all the needs of our customers as an extra formal seating option, dancing area, wi-fi and more capacity that’s how we came up with an idea of building bigger space but still keep it hourly rentable and affordable with furniture and decor included in rent. We were lucky to find a new space in the same area of FW, we love it and hope our customers will enjoy it as much as we do. Read more>>

Elizabeth Eiss

Great first question! Well, the inspiration for my business evolved from consulting work I was doing about 15 years ago. I would hire skilled, contract freelancers to augment my consulting project team. I was good at finding excellent freelance talent and my clients noticed & began to ask me to find and vet freelancers for them. In the course of doing this work informally and working through the myriad of DIY job platforms, I found the proverbial gap: no human help for small business employers. I was sure I could design & build a talent platform that would do all the heavy lifting but would insert access to skilled human recruiters who would help the client hire contractors successfully. Read more>>

Greg Garrison

The Hop Ice Cream has been an Asheville institution for a long time. It started in 1978 in an old service station on Merrimon Ave. Ashley, my partner in all things, and I began working there in 2003 and then became the fifth owners of The Hop in August of 2008. At 25, having just enough experience in the ice cream world, we were full of energy and excitement about entrepreneurship and launched ourselves in head first. We each worked 12-15 hours 7 days a week, juggling serving customers, making delicious ice cream, brainstorming ways to improve the business we just took over, etc. We were also immersing ourselves into social media (at that time the Twitter scene in Asheville was abuzz). Through all of that our little ice cream world began to grow. Read more>>

Jameice Cockrell

On my journey I have discovered lack of love from family, loss of job, homelessness, a lost of friends and relationships I gave my all to. Consistently pouring into others because I have always loved/wanted the best for everyone and wanted to help tell their story. I wanted to quit life due to the detriment caused by loved ones knowing that wasn’t an option I persevered through the chaos. My life had been threatened by the same people in my community I broke bread with which brought on an extreme amount of anxiety but through all of that I stand tall in entrepreneurship with a resume with companies such as Roc Nation, BET, WPGC 95.5, WHUTTV, Howard University, Shoe City, Sam’s Club, AMC, Laces To Bows Inc & many more. I chose to forgive and continue to love no matter the obstacles and I think through God, resilience, forgiveness, belief, drive, passion and most of all love you can do anything! Read more>>

Malcolm Adams

Scaling up our organization was a challenging yet rewarding journey. Here are some key factors that contributed to our successful scaling:

1) Vision and Strategy: From the very beginning, we had a clear and ambitious vision for Avid Solutions International. We developed a well-defined strategy that outlined our goals, target markets, and the technologies we wanted to focus on. This vision and strategy served as a roadmap for our growth. Read more>>

Becca Bjork

My business provides wedding pet attendant services; this is a very niche business and few people know that a company like ours exists. I had seven weddings in my first year, and I have a little over forty this year! Read more>>

Liane Pensack-Rinehart

I, Liane PR am the Chocolatier and Owner of Colorado Cocoa Pod. I started Colorado Cocoa Pod in March of 2019 and had just been let go from a small chocolate shop I had interned and worked at, due to being unable to continue operating and paying staff. But it was a blessing in disguise because I wanted to make chocolate bonbons, and they had me doing customer service & social media after my internship had ended. Also my mom had just been diagnosed with cancer, so having the flexibility to travel to see her was priceless. Read more>>

 Indya “Icy” Wright

As a boutique service based business, in the beginning I offered a number of discounted & probono projects in order to build relationships but also fill my agency’s portfolio with case studies. There wasn’t enough profit to hire staff so I operated as a soloprenuer with was incredibly taxing. I then learned ways to automate certain tasks & create systems to lighten my work load. By streamlining those tasks I had more time for outreach which helped me scale and attract larger projects Read more>>

Chris Ungco

.I changed.

I found myself sprinting through the airport, two bags in tow, wondering about the ten things that had put me there.
It would have to be a Quick Ten… Read more>>