Lifestyle

Decision Makers Series: to start or to not to start

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Deciding to start a business is an unusual decision.  It’s often considered irrational and yet for many it’s the best decision they’ve ever made.  So we asked folks to think back to when they were starting their businesses and to tell us about their decision making process.

Cullen Haskins | Founder of Check Your Flies

I started Check Your Flies because I wanted to sell my flies and new others did as well. The artisanal side of fly fishing gear is one great thing about the sport. There is a connection between you, and the fish, especially if you can tie the fly, build the net or fly rod on your own. I thought, why not create a fly fishing website where anyone can buy and sell handmade fishing gear. Ultimately creating a growing fly fishing marketplace to support small businesses. Read more>>

Helina Zewdu | Flower preservation Artist

My name is Helina, I am a lover of flowers and a preservation artist. I know this is not a well-known profession and I would say Modern floral preservation is still in infancy stages of worldwide recognition. To understand my thought process behind the creation of For.Ever Blooming, you must understand I have been obsessed with the preservation of memories since I was a kid. In tandem, my love of plants and flowers has only flourished further and further as I got older. In fourth grade I started to save flowers from all occasions. Read more>>

Denise Day and Lauren Beno | Co-Founders of Town Hall Collaborative

As best friends and entrepreneurs, we always knew we wanted to do something on our own and together. While the conversation and desire started pre-pandemic, we became serious about venturing out on our own when COVID rocked our world. After spending some time ideating and dreaming, we landed on creating something that felt the most natural to who we both are and what we care deeply about – bringing people together while supporting and empowering women and other marginalized communities. Plus, we wanted to create a space where we could have some good old fashioned fun! Read more>>

Mia Finkle | Professional Organizer

Organizing spaces is something I have always loved and found so much joy doing. There are a whole lot of people out there that do not enjoy the process of organizing ,but they love the results and the outcome. I saw this gap and wanted to help people get to an organizational goal that they could not achieve on their own. Read more>>

Nita Brown | Founder, Designer & CEO

MansaWear originated out of her passion for fashion, creativity and of growing up surrounded by gorgeous Ghanaian fabrics, which were transformed into exquisite, timeless pieces for her mother. Named after my grandmother, Nana Mansa[1], MansaWear’s clean and simple silhouette is influenced by my grandmother’s philosophy of simplicity, tradition and forward-thinking perspective on life. The line’s tailored and minimalist style complements the bright, bold and sassy colors of the fabrics. MansaWear creatively and skillfully uses the classic Ghanaian outfit, a skirt and top known as Kaba ne Slit, as the base of its design platform. Read more>>

Shelby Milleson | Small Business Owner

I first of all wanted to start my own business I could do on my own time because I was not able to get a job at the time. In 2020 I was in a serious life threatening car accident with my newly wed husband of 41 days. He did not survive, sadly. I was left with a severe head injury, a compound femur fracture, and many other internal injuries. One of the biggest side affects I felt initially, it had gotten better, but won’t go away, is fatigue. Read more>>

Carolina Ortiz | El taller deco manager

1..We believe that the most obvious answer could be the pandemic, but in our case, that time was the stage to create the company and reinvent ourselves from scratch using technological tools in our favor. We believe that the most challenging part was the inexperience, Juan worked several years in the research sector and, Carolina lasted a few more years building the company on her own when we wanted to make furniture from recycled materials; Read more>>

Jake Sharpe | Rapper

Since I was a child,I’ve loved music and specifically rap music. My dad first introduced me to rap music when I was like 3. He used to play artist like Eminem, 50 cent, and Ludacris and I would try to rap along, not knowing the actual words. He always thought it was cool and he would push me to rap in front of people and I fell in love with the feeling of being able to give joy to people by just by doing something I love. Read more>>

Ethan Miller | M.U.A., Entrepreneur, and Beauty Influencer

I’ve always loved the art of makeup. However, it was really when I started studying makeup at the professional level that I began truly understanding the industry and its many flaws. Although I do not have the financial resources or the massive influence to create a great ripple in this broken industry, I knew one thing to be absolutely true: I have never found a beauty sponge that I believed to be good enough or cost-effective. In addition to this, I’ve also had a lifelong dislike for the lack of body positivity in the industries of beauty and fashion. Read more>>

Katey Wheelhouse | Yoga Instructor, Thai Masseuse, Body Product Creator

I began Wheelhouse Wellness after I was diagnosed with Psoriasis. I was going to doctors that were prescribing steroid creams and light therapy treatments. After doing some research on natural treatments, I developed a combination of Coconut Oil, Shea Butter and tea tree oil that really calmed my skin. This got me hooked on making my own body butters and then I started making a version with Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Vitamin E, Rosehip Seed Oil and Sea Buckthorn Oil. Read more>>

Jenelle Goodrich | Founder, Executive Director, Case Manager, and Community Advocate

I began the nonprofit, From Silenced To Saved (FSTS), because more needed to be done for minors who have been exploited and fallen victim to Human Trafficking. There are so many organizations for adults but not nearly enough for minors. I knew more had to be done on the case management side of things.There needed to be a trauma informed person who was not only educated in domestic Human Trafficking, but also could withstand the difficulty of serving this population. Read more>>

Devin Ershow | Co-Founder/CEO

We wanted to get involved in the whiskey industry. Whiskey as a category of spirits is incredibly nuanced and complex with a wonderful history. In the last two decades, the American Craft Whiskey movement has been evolving the concept of what American whiskey is or can be. We started American Mash & Grain to help elevate the profile of the American Craft Whiskey movement by shining a light on the people around the country who are inspiring this change. We noticed as we scoured the internet that the vast majority of sites only offer tasting notes. If they wrote anything about the people or the distilleries it was most often just a couple of sentences with basic information. Read more>>

Kris Farr | Owner Roadhouse Merch

When Roadhouse Merch was born I had been playing in bands for the better half of my life and spent many years working in E-Commerce and Marketing. The music industry had changed dramatically over that time from the physical sell of your music to almost exclusively streaming. Now, yes- streaming has made it easier to have fans across any conceivable corner of the planet but in reality your only making a fraction of a cent per stream now. Your music has literally just become a less viable source of funding your art in any meaningful way until you’ve hit a certain level of success. Read more>>

Kevin Thury | Entrepreneur

WashPros.US is a sister to company to another business I own, sidemovers.com. The moving company literally started from scratch. Overtime, we grew into bigger shoes with greater importance on trust and integrity. We developed wonderful relationships and implied trust over those years with customers (they became like family). Treating everyone’s belongings, property, as if it were our own. Over time, our college graduates moved into their new apartments. A year or two later, they found a better half in their boyfriend, girlfriend or partner and began moving into new homes. Read more>>

Chase Parker | CEO

When thinking about starting Whole Health Club, we thought about solving an issue with the health industry. Something was and still is missing. Since the 50’s gym memberships per capita have increase almost directly in line with the obesity rate. The United States is now one of the countries with the most gym memberships, obesity, and lifestyle disease. So whole health club, the Plant Based Gym with the Kitchen was built to solve that issue by teaching true health, not simply ways to lose weight quickly. Read more>>

Sadie Southard | Owner/Stylist at Shear Wisdom Salon and Refill Bar

Reuse. Reduce. Recycle have always been instilled in my life growing up. When I decided to open Shear Wisdom Salon I wanted to offer a sustainable environment. I was intrigued by the idea of refillable shampoos and conditioners as well as finding a way to reduce and recycle our beauty waste. We were able to partner with O’beehave Naturals that offer refillable options by, purchasing an aluminum bottle that can be reused over and over or bringing in your own bottles to reuse. This is what inspired me to take a giant leap into ownership while reducing our plastic waste and carbon footprint. Read more>>

Carol Olmstead | Realtor, MRP Specialist

I was just tired and exhausted with my previous career. The pandemic really showed their true colors that when you are a part of a large cooperation (like I was), you are simply a number to them and they do not care about your best interest or your work/life balance. I was being taken away from my family because they felt my needs didn’t matter to them. Read more>>

Ron Hammond | Author

For many years prior to writing Live Your Humanity, there was this pull in my soul to write a book, but I didn’t yet know what the content would be. I knew that I wanted to write, but I didn’t know where to start or even how. After experiencing a job layoff, I began to consider that maybe that was the time to revisit the idea. I attended a weekend writing workshop which provided the lift that I needed to follow through with getting my book into the world. It’s funny, once I made the decision and committed to doing it, the ideas came and the words flowed onto the paper. Read more>>

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