How did you decide to start a business?

April, Cassidy, Chloe, and Ava Guttormson and Mackenzie Harlan | Charcutiers

Our mom, April Guttormson, has always had a knack for making events special with delectable food and a welcoming atmosphere. Because of her entrepreneurial spirit, she had been brainstorming business ideas that we could all do together. Growing up in a big Italian family, wine and cheese boards were an essential part of every gathering. After years of honing in on our craft of meat and cheese boards, it started to become an art form. During the height of the pandemic, all of us girls and our mom were working in grocery stores. Read more>>

Rachel Hargrove | Massage Therapist & Owner of Height of Health Massage

I started my business as a solo massage practitioner with a passion for business and helping others. I knew first hand what it was like to work in my chosen field, and kept that in mind when I began to hire. I currently have 9 staff members, and my primary goals are to offer my staff a good living with benefits, and a positive work culture. Too often massage therapists burn out or are mistreated in our field, and I wanted to help change that. I also believe that when you treat staff with respect and put a strong emphasis on culture, it passes onto customers; a happy employee will make for a happier customer experience. Read more>>

Beth Anderson | Artist & Founder of The 9318 Collective

The idea of opening a co-op started brewing in my brain about 12 years and 1,800 miles ago. Working as an artist on the tri-state festival circuit at the time, I was surrounded by like-minded creative soul sisters. While also raising two beautiful boys who swam in the river all summer and chased snow in the winter in the Laurel Highlands of Southwest Pennsylvania. Read more>>

Michael Jensen | Author, editor, and one half of Brent and Michael Are Going Places, a couple of traveling gay digital nomads. Subscribe to their free travel newsletter here.

My husband and I have been writers for most of our professional lives. Between the two of us we’ve been traditionally published, self-published, had novels optioned, sold screenplays, founded a website, and done editing work. But it wasn’t until we started publishing our Substack newsletter Brent and Michael Are Going Places that we felt like we’d found the perfect way to run our own business. Read more>>

Sacha Knoll | Owner of Traveling Gowns Dress Rentals

I have always wanted to be my own boss, knowing that a 9-5 job just wasn’t for me and what I dream of for my life. When I started my business, I had been freelance modeling for almost 2 years. As much as I loved doing photoshoots with different aesthetics and ideas, I was always drawn to the photoshoots with amazing creativity and especially dresses. What girl doesn’t love putting on a big dress and running through a field?! After searching a long time for dresses that weren’t just your normal dresses you would wear everyday, but the over-the-top dresses that you would only wear once in a lifetime. Read more>>

Julie Singh | Co-Founder, TripOutside.com

My husband Reet and I spent 15 years in Corporate America and traveled in our free time. We love exploring the outdoors and are avid bikers, paddlers and snowboarders. We took vacations to spend time doing what we loved outside but yearned to be able to get outdoors more. While on an outdoor vacation, we saw an opportunity to make it easier for people to book outdoor adventures. Many people don’t know where to start to get outdoors, and it’s difficult to find information, compare adventures and book them online. Read more>>

Sarah Mays | Artist, Creative Educator & Writer

I decided to become a creative entrepreneur because of the pandemic. I had just graduated from Colorado State in 2020, and the job market was less than stellar, so I decided to take the leap and pursue art full time. I have always been an artist, I had just never taken my art seriously enough to consider it a career possibility, but to be honest, Covid scared me, and I didn’t want anything to happen to me and regret never giving my all to my art. Read more>>

Mario Presi | Professional Chef, professional Mtb Guide, business owner.

Being a chef and a cyclist, I always felt quite “picky” and demanding when it came down to buy a snack or an energy bar. I felt unhappy with what was available at local coffee shops, cycling coffee shops, bike shops etc. I wasn’t happy with the ingredients most energy bar companies made their bars. So..I started making my own bars. At first, I thought it was going to be an easy process: go online; find a recipe you like; try it; eat and be happy; problem solved, right? Read more>>

CASEY RISLOV | Children’s Author and owner of Mountain Stars Press

After having 5 award winning picture books, it was time to create my own publishing company. This is important as the big distribution companies will realize that you are being series about creating books. They are the ones responsible for working through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, who are the sales force that work closely with libraries and bookstores. Read more>>

Andrea Larko | Angling Artist

My thought process behind starting my own business weighed heavily on my need to create and have something solely mine. Having worked so hard to help others pursue their dreams meanwhile mine were starting to extinguish, I wanted to have the opportunity as well to follow my own passions. When it presented itself I was scared to take the leap but knew I may not have another chance so I jumped on it and over 10 years later I’m still going strong. Read more>>

Betsy Botsford | Landscape Photographer

When I was 15 years old my family went to Seattle. It was one of the first times I had left my small town in New Mexico. The “big city” was so exciting but came with all the big city problems including homelessness. We had been down to the Pike Place Market one day and had just finished a luxuriously delicious late lunch. I had a shrimp salad that I still remember today. It was so good. I left the restaurant well satiated and happy. As we stepped out of the restaurant there was a homeless person laying in the gutter outside. Read more>>

Joshua Villa | Outdoor Colorado President and Mentor

I grew up always living in the outdoors, whether it was hunting, fishing, hiking, exploring. I always loved the thought of fresh air running through my nose or my hair but most of all I loved the fact that I got the opportunity to do with my grandfather and my dad. At 8 years old, my brothers and sister and I started a Junior Bass Club, we were kids, so we named is Northern Colorado Fighting Fish Sticks. Overtime the name has evolved to a more professional name known as Northern Colorado Juniors Bass Club. Read more>>

Dan MacDonald | Retail store owner

I had left corporate america after 26 years and knew I wanted to be in business for myself but didn’t know what to do. I met with a business counselor who asked me what I liked to do on my own time. I told him I like to cook outdoors. He asked where I got my “supplies”, etc to do that. I answered on the internet and when he asked me why the light bulb went off that I did due to no barbecue supply stores existing in my area. The rest is history… Read more>>

Amber Haukedahl | Tare Market Founder

After graduating with a degree in Conservation Biology, Tare Market’s Founder, Amber Haukedahl traveled through South America operating research stations. She felt that the work she was doing to help protect habitat for endangered species was falling short, and that she wanted to do more to help make a positive impact on the environment. When she discovered zero waste after moving to Minnesota in 2017, Amber was empowered to live a waste-free lifestyle and to help others do the same. Read more>>

Paula Jo Jaconetta | Photographer/Artist

I didn’t think a whole lot about it when I first started producing fine art images and shooting weddings and portraits. I went to school for photography, so I knew it was where I wanted to be. Creating and making a living. I did see a lack of creative photography in our area 25 years ago and just a lack of photographers as a whole, so I started taking on jobs and creating art to sell and started participating in the art scene in Steamboat Springs. It was really an organic process. Read more>>

Mark Hrdlichka | Real Estate Professional and Team Leader of Hrdlichka Homes at The Prewitt Group

I started looking for my first home when I was 20 years old. I ended up working with 2 different realtors in that process and honestly, it was not a positive experience. With both realtors I felt like I was nothing more than a paycheck or extremely confused as to why I had to do all that I had to do to get this house. I mean, this is the biggest purchase of my life and I felt like all they wanted was their check. It really inspired me to change that process. Read more>>

Julia Corlett | Personal Chef

I didn’t necessarily mean to start my own business. It was born quite organically by living in a very small community in rural Colorado during the time of Covid. Prior to the onslaught of Covid, I had been working as the kitchen manager at a Buddhist retreat center. They kept me on as long as they could, but once it became apparent that no retreats were going to come through, they had to furlough me. Read more>>

Quianna Wilkins | Owner & Photographer of Quianna Quinn Photography

It started when I picked up photography as a hobby in high school. From there I began to want to learn more and more about it. Eventually I started learning from a family friend who was a full time wedding photography. I slowly began to realize that this could be something I did as my job in the future. Before all of this, I had always thought college wasn’t for me, and that I wanted to start a business. So seeing all the pieces come together was so neat. It took quite awhile for me to actually take a step towards starting a photography business… Read more>>

Nathan Fournier | Ecological Landscape Designer and Contractor

Coming from an engineering background, I’ve always been interested in the idea of optimization. To get the most return with the least amount of input. I stumbled across the idea of Permaculture… a design science focused on creating permanent, resilient systems that support society, rooted in nature. This notion struck a chord in my heart, and I realized how foolish the idea of the perfectly manicured grass lawn was. Sure, grass has its place, but I believe we are shifting into a new paradigm where homeowners replace their lawns with wildflower meadows, vegetable gardens, backyard orchards, and native plant habitats. Read more>>

Mario Hernandez | Executive Chef

After been working in restaurants for more than 12 years And loving what I do creating in the kitchen I realize that It was time for me to try to do my own restaurant and I wanted to bring a unique seafood restaurant in mid valley Read more>>

Ciele Beau | Visual Artist & Musician

As an artist, it always felt very important to me to be able to operate for myself and to be in control of my business overall. When I was fresh out of art school I tried to get jobs with design studios and positions in art-related fields but found it very difficult to get a foot in the door. So many of the jobs that were hiring Junior positions required you to have 2-5 years of experience and it felt like there was no way to actually get in. You needed experience to get experience but how could you get the experience if no one would hire you? Read more>>

Kristy McClellan | Graphic Designer

We saw a need in the knife industry and thought we were the perfect people to fulfill that need. With all of the hundreds of choices of knives for men, there are very few knives that are designed specifically with a woman in mind. Read more>>