Starting a business is hard because it’s a fight with yourself, an internal battle – gaining the courage to get started, etc. Scaling a business is different – the challenges you face are mostly external to yourself. Each challenge has a million mini-challenges. We wanted to create a space for conversations and stories around growth and scaling. Below, you’ll find stories and insights from successful entrepreneurs across a variety of industries and markets.
Lindsay Pinchuk
I’ve actually had two “scale up” opportunities, the first teaching me so many lessons which have made the second time that much easier. These are the same lessons I am going to teach you right here to instill in your own business. In 2010, with a $500 investment, a baby in my belly and while still working in corporate America, I founded my first company, Bump Club and Beyond, a community for parents and parents-to-be. Read more>>
Courtney Kelly
While we had huge dreams for The Delaware during the seed stage, we knew we needed to start small and expand as we grew both personally as leaders, and as the business expanded. Our hope was to have natural and sustainable growth that came from getting to know our clients and community’s wants and desires. We also wanted to create a foundation financially to be able to grow and expand the business overtime in a healthy way. Read more>>
Terrina James
Hello, Ill start by introducing myself. My name is Terrina James and I am the owner of Best Girl Essentials. Best Girl is a vegan skincare line that is herbal infused to promote skin healing on a cellular level. I started my skincare business in 2019 in my kitchen basically. I would hand make each product at home with vegan ingredients and post them online. Which is how most of my products were sold by either word of mouth or just by posting them to my social media accounts. Read more>>
Ryan Batey
When we initially started in 2018 we only had 7 girls in our Be The Best You sports program. Through tireless efforts and dedication our program grew from 7 girls to 50 within a year. In our 2nd year of operation we had over 100 young ladies and then Covid hit but what we realized was that our girls and our families needed us even more so we sustained our sports program throughout the pandemic to keep supporting our families. Read more>>
Karen Martinez
When I first started Fioribelle back in 2013 I sold handmade paper flowers for weddings and special events. Crepe Paper Flowers was how my “love affair” with paper started. Fast-forward almost 10 years later and my business looks completely different after a few changes I made along the way. Read more>>
Conor Markins
I first started my entrepreneurial journey in late 2017 after having a career ending ankle surgery that cut my college basketball career short. I was still in school when I got my insurance licenses and opened up my own firm in early 2018 based out of Huntington WV. I started off my career very strong in sales. I was able to make over 6 figures my first 7 months in business in 2018. Read more>>
Ari Krzyzek
I started the business with my husband in 2011 thinking that it would just be us two building a bespoke creative and web studio. Seeing the growth of our business and building it together for a few years, we realized we needed to outsource and hire help in order to create a sustainable business. Read more>>
Bethany Shipley
At the beginning of my business, I was a one (wo)man show! At the time, I was the primary caretaker for my 2 kids under 2 and my business was exploding. I remember one day in specific it all hit the fan! Read more>>
Keaa Bray
Wow! Where do i even start?. When it comes to bridal hair many hairstylist tend to stray away from it. Me personally, love every second of it. My first bride was a client of mine at the time so when she asked me to do her hair for her wedding i was like uhhhh ok lol I believe that may have been 2012/13. It was just a high bun so i knew i could do that no problem! Ive been doing hair since i was 16/17 so of course i could do a Bun! i wore them myself all the time. Read more>>