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.

Austin Fox

Starting an architecture firm can be exciting but also challenging as now you are facing the big fish in the market. In order to scale, we understood are target market and looked at ways to gain an advantage in the market. Being only 1.5 years old, how do you compete against firms that are 30 years old? Several ways 1. Understand strengths/weaknesses of yourself AND the competition. We surround ourselves with skill and expertise that compliments are strengths and picks up the slack in our weaknesses. Read more>>

Amberlyn Sewell

When we first opened Dream House Bounce, it was a risk for both me and my husband. It was my dream to start the company and my husband has supported me the entire way. In order to get our name out there and significantly grow our brand I was extremely consistent with marketing and I kept finding ways to set myself apart from the competition. Offering the full party, and establishing a one-stop party shop and event planning service has made us unique in the industry. Read more>>

Amber Owens

When I created BrandFelt Activation the only thing I was certain of was that I wanted people to really “feel” the brand and businesses I worked with. In the beginning, I did not have the “right” messaging and marketing but I had the drive to help brands get “felt” through their marketing to increase sales and awareness ( hence the name BrandFelt Activation). I started how any other person would start, I did random marketing services for friends or family that involved marketing. Read more>>

Kelvena Benson

I started my entrepreneurial journey almost 9 years ago now. I was currently in school for Business Management and had come to the conclusion I wanted to start my own, but that was as far as I had gotten on my own. My mentor at the time encouraged me to explore all options, and tap into an industry that allowed me to learn and grow through my experience and that path led me to branding. Read more>>

Jazzmin Yoshieko Yoshieko

As I sit here in one of my favorite coffee shops I’ve been coming to since I was 19, I reflect on the years of determination and focus that has led me to be a now college grad and entrepreneur. I have known since I was 18 that I wanted to serve communities with the tools for living a healthy and happy life. As I studied Exercise Science and Psychology in school, I worked many different jobs along the way that shaped my work ethic, discipline, and understanding of how businesses thrive. Before becoming an entrepreneur I worked more than 10 different jobs. It was through many humbling experiences, I sharpened my skill set and character. Read more>>

Valentina Mejia

We are a couple owned helicopter services business, located in Fort Lauderdale, FL; my husband is the CEO and main pilot and I am the COO and Marketing Director. We opened around May 2020, we all know the world situation around those times, but with our protocols, hard work and dedication, we were able to overcome it. It has been a process, with a mix of happiness, frustrations, joys, deceptions, wins, lost, but most of all we see our business as a school were we learn new things every day that help us build new EXPERIENCES for us and our customers. Read more>>

Sonya Hernandez

This is an excellent question. I often use the analogy of a plant. Often a plant has many obstacles during its maturity cycle. It is most delicate and vulnerable while trying to advance to more mature growth. My business has been the same. I knew to scale I had to push beyond the limits I had been playing it safe in. For example, expanding to a bigger e-commerce site such as Amazon. I thought how will I measure up and maintain the demand of growing beyond what I already have room for? Will I be able to keep up with the growing demands? Read more>>

Danielle Ayala

I am very grateful to say that my business looks a lot different than how it did when I first started behind the chair. I live in the metroplex that I was born and raised in so thankfully, I had a decent amount of “built-in” clientele including family and friends. However, I still had to work very hard to get to where I am today. Something that was taught to me from the very beginning was to say “yes” to everything. So that’s what I did. I stayed late, came in early, took every service, passed out business cards at other local businesses, and did everything I could to get someone in my chair. Read more>>

Sherri J White

I was able to finally scale up my business by finding out what the people who were patronizing my business really wanted , and then finding out exactly how to give it to them . For so long I was giving my clients what I thought they wanted, as opposed to really figure out what their true needs and desires were. I went through several rough patches where I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and it wasn’t until I began to survey and ask my clientele what their true needs were, that I started to see how far off I really was. Once I was able to identify what I wasn’t providing my customers, is when I had to self reflect and realize that just because it was MY business didn’t necessarily mean it was all about ME. Read more>>

HALEY MARGUERITE

I made several mistakes and sometimes even made those same mistakes over and over and over again. But, a one point you hit a brick wall and say to yourself, “I can no longer keep going down this path and expect to achieve nothing but the same results.” That’s when I decided to make a change. Covid-19 was a blessing in disguise. I took that time to really hone my craft, perfect my skills and become the bet at saying, “no!” Before Covid-19 I was that person that if you called to hangout I was your gal, Read more>>

Marie Mandeville

From part time side hustle to career. I had been a part time professional organizer for 8 years until the day I jumped. Organizing started off as something I merely enjoyed doing. My father was in the military so we were told and made to keep things a very particular way. I often wondered why my brother would get upset at the idea of tidying it but it just made me excited. Even as a teenager when my mom would go to the grocery store my job was to make sure the pantry looked perfect for the upcoming week, Read more>>

Laura Blanco

When you are decided and know what you need everything is easier. We are convinced that we would like to stay relatively small so that we can stay intimately involved in the process. The process is such an important phase to scale up. Sometimes more important than results. For me the starting point to grow is patience, the confidence in oneself and in the team that accompanies you. The only failure is to stop, to quit. If you go on you are definitely scaling up. Read more>>

John Li

Scaling is an important part of growing. Our business literally doubled each year for the first 6 – 7 years.
This meant that in order to keep up, we had to anticipate the growth and account for it in manpower and parts.
We always bought extra parts into the next price break. For example, if each switch was $100 until you bought 19
then $80 till you bought 99…. I would pick either 20 or 100 for a quantity. Read more>>

Willie Smith

I first started my trucking company in August of 2018. I was currently renting 1 truck at the time. I purchased my first truck in December of 2018. I quickly realized that purchasing a used truck was probably the worst idea at the time. Though I was excited the truck broke down less than 24 hours after the purchase. So even thought I just spent money on the down payment and had a current route that I had to drop the truck had to be placed in the shop. The early challenges I faced prepared me to scale quickly because I got to see the worst of the industry early. Read more>>