Thinking through whether to start a business – whether to take the risk, whether to go out on your own – isn’t easy. So we asked some entrepreneurs we admire to tell us about how they thought through the process of starting a business.

Eleise Jacobs | Owner of House of Hibiscus Teas

It’s said that the best wait to determine which business to start is to find a problem, and solve it. With House of Hibiscus, the plan always involved tea, but the question became – what is the tea solving? Read more>>

Brooke Freeman | Farmer-Florist & Therapist

I was a full-time mental health and substance abuse therapist wanting to get out of the office some during the height of COVID. I grew up in the country and my parents had farm land and my granddaddy’s old tractor. We use to have a garden around my little yellow playhouse growing up and I always enjoyed growing flowers with my family, so naturally when COVID happened, I started getting antsy in the office, and decided to start my own little garden, with the help of my husband and parents. This quickly turned into a passion and I decided then to pursue this more seriously. Read more>>

Melisha Boyd | Mental Health Therapist

My thought process behind starting my own business was having those who need a safe place to discuss their mental health in mind. Read more>>

Tara Coley | Vegan pastry chef

I wanted to showcase how vegan desserts could be just as good if not better than traditional pastries! With that came a desire to source high-quality vegan ingredients, perfect my recipes, and start building my brand through social media and word of mouth. Read more>>

Wendy Holland | Hairstylist

I’ve always known that I wanted to be a business owner. I’m a cosmetologist and I work as a hairstylist. I always worked for other companies like JcPenny Salon, Smartstyle, and Ulta Beauty. Those are great places to work however after a while you eventually want to be able to work for yourself. Read more>>

Kaitlyn Batten | Creative Content Solutions & Social Media Management

I wanted to create a professional life that worked around my personal life. I am a wife and mom and was in the career field of education, and I was missing out on moments with my family. So, I started working part-time helping business owners with social media marketing for their business. Read more>>

Kianna Cornelia | Cancer Survivor & Founder of Cornelia Home

My thought process behind starting my own business was to inspire others to choose clean and nontoxic fragrance products for their home. Cornelia Home was started out of my need for these products. As a 2x breast cancer survivor, I would suffer from debilitating migraines after lighting a candle or spraying a freshener. I was determined to understand the root cause of these migraines and after extensive research, I discovered how toxic many of the products are that we used in our home on a daily basis. Truth be told, it was scary. Read more>>

Dennis Hering | Leadership Speaker and Business Mentor

The reason we started Hering Legacy Group was two fold: 1. We believe in making an impact for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and felt as thought the business space wasn’t a big focus for a lot of churches. 2. We wanted to use our passions and skillsets to impact as many people as possible which is why we offer mentorship to other aspiring entrepreneurs who need guidance on their journey, as well as golf instruction as so many people want to get instruction but don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars for lessons. Read more>>

Terrance Williams | Mental Health VR Developer

It was definitely finding a niche within the market doing virtual reality simulations is still very new to the world so finding organizations that could benefit was a challenge. Read more>>

Gia Venetia | Content Creator and Companion

The thought process behind starting my own business came out of both desire and necessity. I was a full time college student who wanted more free time to travel and adventure. I was originally working in sales for an optometrist but the pay was a barely livable wage and I envisioned myself utilizing my sales skills in a different avenue.  Read more>>

Bret Cooley-Jones | Mobile Bartender

Go for your dreams. Things are only impossible if you do not make an attempt. Owning a business can be so rewarding even thru all the failures along the way as the reward is so great. Read more>>

Chris Hodge | Contractor

My thought process on starting my own business was simply being able to provide for my family and not having to depend on someone else to make that happen. Read more>>

Drew Graphics | Graphic Designer

My thought process on starting DrewGraphics was how am I going to start and run a business when I’ve never ran a business before. Read more>>

Sandi D’Arezzo | Owner of a Professional Organizing Company

I used to be an elementary school music teacher full time. Although fulfilling in some ways, it was also tiring to see 400+ little ones a week. I couldn’t imagine teaching all day and then also having energy for my own future children. At the time I was also getting really into decluttering and organizing my own home. I loved it so much that once my home was completely decluttered, I wanted to keep going and help others declutter too! I discovered that professional organizing was a thing and started my business on the side while teaching. Read more>>

Omari Martin | Rug Artist and Instructor

Honestly, my process starting out was really just getting started and learning and gathering all the knowledge that was an available to me at the time. When I starting I was working a 9-5 job at Target so I already knew my time was limited, but I could still get a lot done if I focused and sacrificed more of my regular life for my business. Read more>>

Tawana Jackson | Infrared Sauna Boutique & Vaginal-Steam Facilitator

I saw a gap or an unmet need in the health and wellness market that my business idea could address. This opportunity presented the potential for growth and success. I had a strong passion for the sauna industry I wanted to work with and possessed the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in that field. Read more>>

Brendan Michaelsen | Co-founder & CTO of Our Wave

In the fall of 2018, I sat down with my friend and colleague Kyle Linton to chat. We had been working together for several years on an AI-powered smoking cessation startup, and so spent the first part of the meeting discussing the next steps in our launch plan. Soon, though, our conversation turned to a radically different topic altogether: sexual violence. A close mutual friend of ours had had a traumatic experience a few weeks before, and we were still desperate to find ways to support them. Read more>>

Brian Spann | Photographer and Entrepreneur

My thought process behind starting my own business was to first understand that nothing great will happen overnight, but I would have to stay focused, learn from my mistakes, have a circle of people that can help guide me, don’t let the word “No” discourage me, celebrate the successes and find fuel in the failures, be open to new ideas (even if they are out of the box), be prepared for the unusual, be prepared to invest and not make a dollar, don’t let others discourage my ideas, and network my butt off. Read more>>

Taesjah Tucker | Licensed Natural hair stylist who specializes in Loc

The thought process behind starting my own business was pretty much “ I don’t want to work for anyone so ima be my own boss”. Why work for some else and help their dreams progress when i can be building my own brand and helping my own dreams progress and succeed. Read more>>

Da’Neesha Mackerway | Hair braider

I’ve always enjoyed making women feel beautiful. As a young girl I would braid my family and friends hair. I found out that I was meant to be an entrepreneur early on due to me being interested in making my own rules and schedule. I took on the necessary steps to start my business from the ground up as soon as I learned the skills necessary to pursue my dreams. Read more>>