A dad can’t find a bakery to make a birthday cake that can accommodate his daughter’s allergy-related needs. Two freelancers realize they need a way to organize all of their client contracts and can’t find software that adequately handles their use case. Necessity is often hailed as the mother of innovation – but not all ideas come from necessity. Unfortunately, in our experience, often media coverage of the ideas that powered amazing businesses and projects often stops at a very superficial level. The founders noticed a need and boom – idea. Often the ideation process has a much longer, more complex story and so we’ve asked some entrepreneurs and creatives we admire to go into detail about their ideation stories.

Maya Mihajlovic

The idea for my business came from a problem I personally lived through. Before I ever launched Maya Creative Spaces, I was an out-of-state investor trying to furnish my own Florida property remotely. What should’ve been exciting quickly became overwhelming. I spent double the time and double the money because I didn’t have local support, strategic buying knowledge, or designer pricing. Read More>>

LaRissa Johnson

For me, creativity has always been the place I felt most at home. Even before I ever thought of it as a “business,” I was the girl who loved making people feel beautiful, inspired, and seen. Read More>>

Kyle Dallaire

Every idea I’ve brought to life has started the same way. I pay attention to supply and demand. Opportunity is everywhere if you slow down long enough to really look at how people move, what they buy, what’s missing, and what they wish existed. That mindset has shaped every business I’ve created in St. Augustine. Read More>>

Jewell Eastwind-Blessmann

I will love to say if am a multidimensional creative because I juggle videography, photography and poetry. It actually begun with poetry, spoken word to be precise and from the get go I was just trying to be on stage and perform my work and that was all, nothing more. Read More>>

Aseel El-Baba

The idea for my business didn’t arrive as a lightning-bolt moment. It grew slowly, quietly, during my years as a financial planner. I spent almost a decade working in Canada’s financial industry, growing into an office on Bay Street managing a portfolio of over $100 million. Read More>>

Karinna Barley

I am often asked how I got the idea for my salon’s name and its aesthetic. Through all of life’s phases that I have encountered thus far, my love for these three things have remained consistent: art, magic, and Halloween. I began practicing witchcraft in my early teens, around the same time that I began dabbling in hair artistry. Read More>>

Jules Nyquist

I always wanted to have my own business. I had previous jobs that were commission-based, such as a travel agent or realtor. I liked having control of my schedule and building relationships. I also had a lot of office jobs with a steady paycheck. Writing was a way to express myself and to figure things out. Read More>>

Kathleen Reynolds

If you’ve ever run a home bakery or tried to decorate a cake at 2AM before a pickup, then you know exactly where this story starts — in the middle of chaos, creativity, and “I give up!” For years, I was already the person everyone called when they needed something cute, something quick, or something nobody else could figure out. I was the crafty one. Read More>>

Craig Quat

The idea for my creative services business didn’t arrive as a single moment of inspiration — it emerged slowly, through years of work in communities around the world. For more than a decade I had been traveling, teaching, and researching how juggling and movement could become more accessible for people who were normally excluded from these experiences. Read More>>

Julie Cortés

When I first started my freelance business, there were no guides … no classes, books, coaches, clubs, trainings of any kind. I basically had to make it up as I went along. That meant, a lot of mistakes were made. Read More>>

Kevin Lewis

I came up with the idea for my creative services business long before I ever called it that. It really started in a small Clubhouse room during the pandemic. It was just a handful of like-minded basketball reporters and journalists talking women’s hoops every night. What felt like a casual conversation quickly grew into something bigger. Read More>>

Mayra Ayala

The vision and idea were always there I just needed the push to get started. With the support of my family, I took the leap and dedicated myself 100% to bringing this business to life. I started with a mix of excitement, fear, and confusion, but I followed my heart and poured every ounce of effort, passion, and dedication into something I truly believed in. Read More>>

Robin Bennett

I was a PA in Pathology for over 30 years. I became ill and lost my job. I went through a lot of medical challenges. I had never been in that kind of predicament in my entire life. I faced medical issues, hurricanes and tropical storms hit my home. I came up with the idea because there was a lacking of something in my community. Read More>>

Lindsey Kaszuba

I reached a point in my corporate career where, on paper, everything looked “right,” but inside I felt unfulfilled. I kept having this quiet, persistent feeling that there had to be more for me. So I followed it. Read More>>

Latrisha Barr

The idea for Social MPact came directly from my experiences as a mother and as someone who has spent over 20 years working with youth and families. At home, my oldest son loved having family discussions during dinner, so I started writing conversation topics, putting them in a bowl, and pulling one each night. Read More>>

gilbert marte

The idea for my business didn’t come to me in a single lightning-bolt moment I started my career off as a CPA. Once the spot became available I knew I wanted to do something there. Something to bring me closer to the neighborhood that raised me. Read More>>

Andrea Mancuso

It was the height of the global pandemic in NYC when my oldest brother was admitted to the ICU with COVID 19 induced meningitis. Every night the news reported rising death tolls. No visitors were allowed. The city felt hollow and terrified. After years of remission, my panic attacks came back with a vengeance. Read More>>

James Keith Smith

At Sand and Gravel Press we publish small, 4.75 x 5.5 inch chapbooks of short stories and essays. It’s definitely a niche market, and there are lot of other great literary journals out there. I think what makes us different is that the chapbooks are very small—you can fit them in your coat pocket or glovebox—and we focus on one author at a time. Read More>>

“Julzz” Jazmin Ortiz

As a nonbinary person in the LGBTQ+ community, finding service providers I felt truly safe and comfortable with was always a challenge. For years, I bounced between estheticians and hairstylists, never quite feeling seen—either as a client or an individual. Read More>>

Deu’Mauris Gray Sr

I’m a cosmetologist and a barber. It was a goal since I started school. I wanted to be a barber but cosmetology school was closer. I ended up getting my barber license later. Salons seemed more professional and family oriented, so I wanted a shop that was family oriented. I also wanted my shop to be combined as well as separate at the same. Read More>>

Waladi Ali

Yes, I’ve always loved creating artwork ever since I could remember. At one point in my youth, copying artwork on TV, from cartoons to anime, I loved storytelling and beautiful colors. When I came home from college in 2022 to officially starting my business I had to reflect. Read More>>

Samantha Clark

I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember. I was the kid who scribbled on every surface and turned school projects into mini masterpieces. But it was in high school—inside an art room that felt like a second home—that something clicked. That space taught me that art wasn’t just something I was good at; it was where I felt most like myself. Read More>>

Treva Slater

The idea for my business happen in a very natural unsuspecting way. It revealed itself slowly, through instinct, curiosity, and a love for the undiscovered gem. It was really a way to find things to decorate my house without spending a lot of money. Read More>>

Alena Dunn

Each year I’d grab a small, thoughtful gift for my fellow football moms — something fun like a Mama Bear keychain. When my oldest entered his freshman year, friendship-style bracelets were having their big moment (thank you, Taylor Swift), and I thought, why not make a set of spirit bracelets for all of us freshman football moms? Read More>>

Priya Kumari

Eternal Tree Books began as a deeply personal response to a painful gap in children’s publishing. The few books about Indian culture that existed from major publishers were often written through a Western lens that was filled with stereotypes, inaccuracies, or even harmful portrayals. Read More>>

Chelsea Sanabria

I lost my home in the Tubb’s Fire in 2017. It was a catastrophic fire that affected our entire community, and left thousands of people with nothing. But that fire also showed me how strong our community is when we all come together. Our fire seasons had been escalating each year, and continued to do so after the Tubb’s Fire. Read More>>

Wade Ogle

I came up in the local punk/DIY scene in the late 80’s. I played music, toured as well as booked and promoted shows for other artists. in ’93, I began working at a beloved local college bar. In the late 90’s, I started booking all the shows and, in 2000, became a part-owner. All in, I was in that business for twenty years. Read More>>

Brittany Martin Déjean

When I was 12, a car accident killed my younger brother and left my dad a quadriplegic. To me, he was still just my dad but I watched so many others stumble through awkward and uncomfortable interactions to try to connect or avoid him altogether. Years later, I caught myself acting the same way with someone with a different disability. Read More>>

Simeon Khazin

There was no typical aha moment that everyone is expecting. I have been in the banking equipment business for about 20 years. As cash is becoming obsolete, even though the business is by no means over yet, it is not a very vibrant sector. One of my business partners on the Chinese side of things got involved in restructuring a Smart Lock factory. Read More>>

Peter Miletich

Making food and drinks is something that I have been doing for a long time and which gives me a creative outlet. Creating products also allows me an opportunity to dive into marketing/branding and product development, which I am fascinated by. My background ranges from food trucks to fine dining and everything in between. Read More>>

Kris van Genderen

The Threshold Studio began long before I knew it had a name. As a kid, I filmed my family often – asking questions, and capturing the small details of their lives. I recently found an old tape of me interviewing my grandma with a karaoke-machine microphone with reverb on (haha). Read More>>