Going from idea to execution isn’t easy. Part of the difficulty is that often there is no playbook to follow and while we can’t offer a playbook either, we wanted to create a space where aspiring entrepreneurs could read the stories of how some very smart, very thoughtful entrepreneurs form the community got started.

Greg Goodman

I literally started this product in my kitchen as a homebrewer. After brewing kombucha using common methods that I learned from internet resources like “Kombucha Kamp” and “Cultures for Health”, my wife and I started to become very health conscious, in particular with sugar consumption. I noticed that most bottled kombucha selling in retail stores in my local area had way too high of a sugar count per serving. Kombucha is supposed to be a healthy, functional beverage and yet companies were dumbing down the product (and masking improper fermentation) through the addition of fructose. Read more>>

India-Sage Williams

When I decided to go full-time as a business owner I was still very committed to my career as a broadcast journalist, expecting my first child, and preparing to relocate to a new state. It was at this time that I finally realized that I had reached a glass ceiling in my previous role. I knew that I had the experience and skillsets to serve the world in a better way, to develop deeper connections and impact the lives of others. So my natural instinct was to pivot into the branding industry. Read more>>

Lelo Jones

Well it all started when I was a child, even though I was an inner city youth from Southwest Atlanta I was very interested in nature, farming, and the country lifestyle. After graduating college with a degree in TV/Radio Broadcasting I began working in the film industry and was starting to make some good money but I wasn’t fulfilled and felt like I was missing my calling. Then one day I was talking to my employer/mentor at the time and I asked him a very simple question, “How did you make your dreams come true?” He gave me an even simpler answer. He said, “Just do it!!!!” Read more>>

Travis Mitchel

I started baking many years ago just because I wanted to learn how to bake and it was a creative outlet during a difficult time in my life. I would also bake chasing the taste of something I had. The chocolate chunk cookie, which is my best seller came about from the concept of recreating a cookie I had from a vendors wife. but I wanted to put my own spin on it. Over the years I perfected it making adjustments as I learned more baking techniques and adjusting the ingredients. I soon had really good feed back from people who ate them. This had been a time in life where I was trying to figure out what to do with my passions and how should I move forward. I decided to take a business course for women who wanted to start a side hustle and from there I set up my business and LLC in 2020. Read more>>

Chasity Pritchett

I started believing that my idea to start an olive oil company could possibly work. I trusted myself to get the necessary people and take my creative ideas to launch Emblem. It was a risk, but I was willing to take the risk! I knew that quality olive oil and local produce was important, so I sampled olive oil around the US and I teamed up with local farmers to purchase herbs, fruits and vegetabls to infused the olive oil. I also teamed up with mentors in the US and Australia to help start my brand. I never saved for this business, so I had to start with the basics; Read more>>

Thanh Pham

After dropping out of college, I was in a period of transition. I knew school wasn’t for me but I also didn’t know what I wanted to do next. Luckily, I had some money saved up for at least 18 months of living expenses so I decided to travel the world. One question I often got from my friends and family was I was so productive. They always saw me getting stuff done faster than others, being quick responding to emails, and always being on top of everything that needed to be done while still living a life full of adventure. Read more>>

Adrian Carey

I have been doing my own skincare routine for some time now, even as a teenager. I just didn’t put action into the plan, until I became an adult. I am a researcher at heart. I love to figure things out. As a young child, I never saw my grandmothers use anything on their skin that had a label, basically, that wasn’t homemade. For example, pure coconut oil is used for skin when dry, or pure cocoa butter has the same benefit. To me, their faces were always so pretty and healthy looking. I then realized by taking it back to the basics can naturally bring out our real true beauty. Read more>>

Veronica Jennings

My love for herbal medicine began when I live in California at the tender age of seven years old. This is where my mother and grandmother introduced herbs to me and began to teach me about them. As I got older, I believed herbs were the best remedy for any health-related illness. If I became sick, my mom would give me some concoction of a variety of herbs mixed together. Most of which did not taste all that good. As a matter of fact, my worst memory of herbal medicine was turpentine. The taste was horrible! Read more>>

Violeta Davis-Reyes

As an artist I’d always had several services I offered my clients, quite a few related to clothing customization. When the Black Lives Matter movement began to pick up momentum, I found a large percentage of my orders were centered around those messages and my brand became intertwined with my personal activism. I became inspired by the snowball effect “saying yes” was having on my art and everything was pushing me towards establishing my own designs and elevating my awareness of how my work was building my brand. Read more>>

Jennifer Gilbert

My daughter Julianna and I love to bake together in the kitchen. When she was in first grade my budding baker and I (my “babycakes”), started a website to showcase our creations. Each week we informed readers “what’s baking” in our metro Detroit kitchen. Although we formally named the blog “What’s Baking, Babycakes?” My husband nick named me “the midnight baker,” as I stayed up late creating classic chocolate and vanilla recipes. Once I had the classics down, I wanted to stand out from other baking blogs. Read more>>

Fantasia Meadows

Writing has always been a passion of mine, and I knew one day that I wanted to tell my story through writing. However, I didn’t know if the vision that I had would actually come to fruition! And 2017 I started submitting my poetry to publishing companies all over the United States. At this point, it was still just a dream but I knew that I needed to put in the work to see this actually come to fruition! In April of 2018 I received the phone call from a Publishing Company that stated they wanted to publish my work. I spoke with the agent I received the documentation for publishment and I was beyond excited. Read more>>

Mya Westray

Taking an idea to execution requires drive, dedication and commitment in yourself that you can succeed. In my world, “can’t” is a bad word. I spend everyday trying to further my business via networking, identifying ways to expand my products and services. Collaborating with various artist, photographers and other entrepreneurs has benefited me in unimaginable ways. I remain positive and don’t allow my failures to dictate my story line. I use these a challenges to better myself and help uplift others by sharing my experiences. I’m grateful and blessed everyday to be doing what i love while executing my goals and dreams of furthering my business, and brand. Read more>>

Said The People Band

We are all from Denton and spent time hanging out and playing guitar for Reagan & Allison and eventually decided to build a band. We have been writing music ever since and have the most fun doing so. Read more>>

Megan Miller

We live in a great little neighborhood that has a small commercial area and there was a vacant space that sat and sat for a very long time. Every time I drove by it I thought, “What would be a great fit there?” One day, my husband and I drove by it as we were discussing some future plans and I said, “I really should open a store there.” He encouraged me to look into it and so I did! Honestly from there, everything just started falling into place. Read more>>

Tori Kim

Hi! My name is Tori and I am the owner of Thoughtfully Curated Boards, specializing in cheese + charcuterie boards. It all started off as just a hobby of hosting family/friends until one of my close friends (who is also a small business owner) gave me a little push to start my own. So in September of 2020, I began the process of creating my very own business and shortly after- I started receiving actual orders, which was the best thing ever!! Fast forward a little bit and we were growing much more quickly than I could have ever anticipated. Read more>>

Jahmilah Tyson

I have always had a knack for capturing great photos. My sister would ask me to do headshots for her business and her family photos all the time. Eventually, she asked me if I had thought about starting a business. I let it sizzle in my spirit and I had this dream. I could see it happening. I had this idea of taking a skill that I was really good at and making it profitable to me. Going from idea to execution is difficult when you don’t believe in yourself. Read more>>

Lauren Barker

When I decided to launch Cheese Garden, I knew pretty much nothing about starting a business. I was simply an artist looking to monetize my art. I had been arranging charcuterie as a hobby since 2017 and honestly never dreamed of it being anything more than a skillset I tapped into when I wanted to entertain but didn’t feel like cooking. So when I decided to turn my passion into a business in the summer of 2020, I had absolutely no clue what the right way was to get my idea off the ground. My path to launching Cheese Garden ended up being a combination of online research and hopeful guesswork. Read more>>

Deborah Bird

Once we decided we wanted to open a pregnancy resource center, things just started to fall into place. We got our first mama within the first month and were able to pour into her and help get her connected into a community of like-minded women. Shortly after we had our first donation of $5k which helped us tremendously with getting the non-profit set up legally. Read more>>

Sathya Callender

Where do I start?! Launching a publication was never something I even gave a little thought too. We can say it had to be God ordained and it surely was a vision from him. The only thing I knew about a magazine was getting jet in the mail. I was in the comfort of my home one afternoon and instantly began thinking as to why there was no publication catered to the domestic violence community. We needed a safe place to share our stories. I began doing research and learned there was no publication as such. Read more>>

Penny Coussens

My business first began as Penny’s Cookie Company focusing on making soft hand-decorated royal iced cookies for any occasion. I’ve always loved making cakes, cupcakes, and many other confections so I changed my name to The Blue Door Bakery to incorporate all the desserts I enjoy baking. My main priority was making a logo to not only fit my business but my personality. With the help of one of my daughter’s she came up with the perfect representation of baking and floral to fit my new name. Read more>>

Chandler Christopher

So, doing something entrepreneurial in the music/art industry has been something I’ve been thinking about for years. While I had no idea how I’d get there or what that would actually look like, I kind of always held onto the thought of this. The way Happen Twice actually started was nearly completely on impulse, however. I was inspired by a company based out of Philadelphia called Downtown 500 that I stumbled upon on Instagram. They’re an art culture brand/magazine that focuses more on fine art, galleries, etc. But I loved their brand’s colorful aesthetic and the interview aspect of the media they were producing. Read more>>

Silvana Pete

When we decided to launch Cowamel, we did not know exactly how we were going to bring this idea to potential customers. We had the vision, but what was next was a bit uncertain. We knew we wanted to showcase something new, and unique and we knew there will be a lot of teaching to our customers, and still is. Everyone grew up with the famous caramel, the chewy textured sweet treat that some love but some definitely don’t, they always tell us ” I do not like caramel, it gets stuck on my teeth!” Read more>>

Tiffany Trotter Morris

My husband and I had been thinking about starting a business for a while. We have a five-year-old daughter named Leah and noticed how much she loves getting dressed up, doing her hair, and playing with makeup! This inspired us and made us want to do something that would help kids and parents celebrate their special memories and have an impact on the community. We decided we would create a spa bus for kids, where kids could celebrate birthdays and other special occasions on the spa bus! Read more>>

Sharah’ Nicole

GreatHER Purpose came from a vision in 2014. I was scared and had a lot going on around that time, so I did not make a move on it. The name, GreatHER Purpose continued to pop up throughout the years. One day while going through a dark phase in my life, a friend of mine encouraged me to start a podcast. During the beginning of the pandemic, it only made sense to jump out on faith and just do it. At first, I just took my tablet and recorded my thoughts and feelings. After some time, it hit me that it was time to take it up a notch and provide a platform for others to discuss how they found their purpose. I just began asking people in my community who I admired or looked up to and they were more than willing to be interviewed and share their stories. Read more>>

Valerie Urrutia

I’ve always loved coffee, but I became super obsessed with it after I spent some time in Florence, Italy. I couldn’t stop thinking about owning a coffee shop after that trip, but it always felt like some far-away dream. In looking back now, I think I was too scared to do anything about it. The idea came up again when I started dating my life partner, Chris, who also wanted to own a coffee shop. Neither of us thought much more of it until a random night in late 2019. We were sitting in our living room (in San Diego) when we asked each other “Hey! Do you want to open a coffee shop?” Read more>>

Cherolyn Davis

In 2011 I was hosting networking events through my event planning company “Network Creations” where I invite my GIRLfriends out once a month to join me for cocktails and conversations at local restaurants throughout Broward, County. During these mixers I would engage the ladies in conversations about business, relationships, sisterhood, finance etc. After hosting the mixers for about 2 years the numbers of attendees and interest grew dramatically. The platform was created I just needed to add a meaningful mission that would allow women to clearly see the vision. Read more>>

Darryl Chamberlain

A-Flat Music Studio Inc. started as an idea which was based on my idea to reality principle. I say that everything starts with an idea. You add imagination to an idea, and an idea becomes a dream. You add focus to a dream, and a dream becomes a vision. You add hard work to a vision, and a vision becomes a reality. So, this whole thing started with the idea that I could create a music school by which to form a youth orchestra. The motivation for the idea came from my disappointment to see that none of the Kansas City public schools were participating in the American Royal parade when I returned after a 22-year absence. Read more>>

Mike and Daneen San Pedro

We The Essentials was born out of an idea in June of 2020, with the chaos of the pandemic and the division that was happening during that time. My husband (Mike San Pedro) brought up the concept over dinner one night, and I was like, sure, we can do that, and we jumped right in. We went from concept to conception in less than six weeks. As you could say, we built the plane on the way down. Read more>>

Mike Sehzue

The process of going from idea to execution was an intense exercise in creativity. After recognizing the opportunity to bring a unique product to market in 2010, I had to determine if I could actually make it happen. I didn’t know much about small business development when I began, and I knew even less about the production of rum. Fortunately for me, I do have an engineering background and I knew that if I could create an operational framework to map out everything that I knew with a vision of where I wanted to go, Read more>>

Che Houston

I was raised in a house with entrepreneurs watching the building of business ideas and execution. I dreamed of being in business for myself since I was a little girl. Through the years I have always been a creative being, creating art, writing poetry and baking desserts followed by a ton of great ideas, but as time went on, I feel in love with baking and discovered the macaron. Read more>>

Scotty Lindsey

I was very creative and used my ingenuity during this entire process. The first question every entrepreneurial must ask themselves is, what problem exist and do I have a solution for the problem. America is inundated with corpulent and/or unhealthy people. Everyone’s looking for a simple solutions to a prevalent problem. Once i honed in on the problem, I made a commitment to myself to be resourceful by using my resources. My good friend is an MD, so I decided to run the information I had garnered, by him. Read more>>

Monique Turner

This famous quote truly encouraged the execution of my business venture: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney, founder Disney While doing make-up, clients would repeatedly ask to keep the lipstick or lipgloss to touch up later. Instead of buying retail products, I was inspired to start my own cosmetic line. Therefore, I immediately researched different vendors to get quotes and MOQ (minimum of quantity) information. Read more>>

Anita Russell

never intended to get into the travel industry the way I did. I wanted to focus on blogging (Travel Is D’New Black) and my self-published book “Adulting To Travel.” However, friends and family often told me they trusted me with their money; they trusted my travel opinions and reviews of destinations I visited. In 2018, I attended brunch with a seven-figure earner after her conference. In telling her about my travel blog, she picked up on my passion for travel and respected it. About a month later, she offered me business to plan a dope trip for her and her now-husband. I was soooo flattered. Read more>>

Shelby Beier

I have always been creative in some fashion my entire life. While going through school, I had a strong passion for art and willingness to learn which led me to graphic design. After nine years of working in the industry and my freelance side hustle growing, I decided to go all in on my design business. I had no idea what being a business owner meant. Days turned into weeks of me sitting on my computer, watching webinars, joining courses, reading, absorbing, taking notes and so much more, to make sure I started this right! My nights were long, but I was learning so much and getting truly excited for this next adventure. Read more>>

Paula Sima Mulamula

Oh my God this is one hell of a story. How did the idea of podcasting start, gosh! Believe it or not, Yes it was covid-19 but it was really an email to an ex that i sent and then i went on Twitter to talk about the email i just sent… I was literally just shit talking & bitching my feelings away about the email i just sent lol. So a friend of mine who is now my manager, Angela apparently follows me on twitter and i had no idea, I didn’t even know she was on Twitter or even knew what my Twitter page was Came up to me at one of the drinking session we were having & this was during lock-down and was like “I think you should start a podcast!” and I was like “why do you think that?” Read more>>

Christina Currey

began at a fabric show in Manhattan, combing through literally every fabric still offered in the space. I watched in awe as 3-D machines printed sweaters. The possibilities, with this room of opportunity, seemed endless. Once the most functional, beautiful, unique swimsuit had been created, we set off to find another fabric, a partner, if you will, that went with this beloved swimsuit. Enter, our Terry cloth: a venture to find the perfect one. This began by connecting with mills from North Carolina to Los Angeles, in a search to find a luxurious, functional, life-proof Terry cloth. Read more>>

Tiffanie Smith

I started my business by doing research on the products I wanted to make. I wanted to ensure that all natural products were used in creating my products. After several months of researching and trying out several different recipes I found one that worked. I decided to send out samples to several family members and friends who I knew would give constructive criticism and not “tell me what I want to hear.” After all the samples had been sent out and mostly everyone had used at least one of the products, the unofficial “official” reviews started coming in. Read more>>

 

Nate Gilles

San Diego Tequila Tour began as an Airbnb Experience is March 2019. Having spent many years back and forth into Mexico with different tequila tastings on my own, I wanted to share the closest experience to that while being in America. Shortly after the tour began, Covid hit and the Airbnb platform was suspended. Most of San Diego has a lot of outdoor dining patios so, as limited as it was, Read more>>