We reached out to some of our favorite entrepreneurs and asked them to think back and tell us about how they decided to start a business. Check out their responses below.

Sara Rosinsky | Autonomous Copywriter

When I left my last job (senior copywriter at Publix Super Markets in Lakeland, Florida), I was hoping to find another full-time job with benefits that I could perform remotely. I wanted a life without a commute. While I looked, I freelanced. As time passed, I invested a lot of energy in promoting myself and building my freelance business, Shiny Red Copy. And at a certain point, I wasn’t willing to give it up. I had clients, I had traction, and I was having a great time. So I decided that this is what I want to do for the rest of my career. Read more>>

JJ Constantine | Editorial and Commercial Fashion Photographer

I didn’t give it much thought, just did it. I always loved photography and it just “evolved” Read more>>

Stacey Slupik | Flower Farmer

Starting my own business stemmed from a need to create something, to be creative, to challenge myself. After 14 years of staying at home, raising our family and caring for our home, there was a part of me that needed to do something different, something for myself, to challenge myself. There was this creative side of me that was begging to be connected with. There was also a part of me wanting to connect with people, to bring people joy, to make people feel something. We live in world where people spend so much time in front of screens and have “conversations” on their phones without ever actually talking to the other person. It’s completely emotionless. Flowers have an amazing power of evoking emotions and really moving people, of making them feel something deep down, of healing them. As a gift, my husband bought me a book about flower farming and I felt an instant connection. Read more>>

Tamerica Shelly | Graphic Designer & Boy Mom Influencer

Growing up art played a big part in my family. I remember having coloring contests with my brothers and my mother coming home from work to draw with us. After high school, my mom told me to go to school for something I would definitely get a job in and make money. So I went to school for early childhood education and care and got my degree. I became an English teacher in Japan but my heart was not in it. Six years later I went back to school to become a graphic/web designer. I finally got to follow my passion again. Along this journey I became a wife and mother of three boys, so my focus was mainly on my family. Until one night in 2017 I created Tam avenue. Why? because I needed something to call my own and I knew that would be Tam Avenue. It was a must I carry the title of being a CEO along with mother, wife, daughter, and sister. Read more>>

Laura Conley | Life and Weight Loss Coach

It felt more like a strong calling that a thought process. There was just no way I couldn’t do it. Read more>>

Lindsay Jones | Artist, Illustrator & Animator

I became a freelance illustrator and graphic designer after moving to Carbondale, CO, where I had limited options of working within a design firm creating the work that I wanted to create. I studied fine art in school, but was never participated in a design program so I ended up teaching myself all of the programs and skills that I needed to be a successful designer. With a bit of motivation I was able to educate myself on skills that expanded on my fine art background which has allowed me to be a surface pattern designer, an illustrator, a graphic designer, as well as an animator. Read more>>

Leslie Kim | Owner & Founder

When I started Dynamite Starfish, I had no idea that I was starting a business. At the time, I was working full time at a graphic design studio and was craving creative work. After my normal work day at the studio, I would come home and create illustrations with black ink and a tiny brush about things around town that had caught my eye, little epiphanies, and overheard phrases. Around that time, I also started rock climbing. As someone who created artwork using combinations of simple images and words, climbing was huge source of inspiration. The terminology and the humor was endlessly inspiring, and the style I created in wasn’t really around in climbing. At first, I just had a handful of drawings that I posted online for my friends would enjoy. A number of friends asked me put the designs on t-shirts, which at first I was very reluctant to do, but finally obliged. Read more>>

Dana Knowles Licko | Small Business Owner

My thought process was simply passion. This business is so personal because it literally comes from me trying to find non conventional ways to heal from opiate pain killer addiction. After getting out of treatment I still felt horrible and started researching non pharmaceutical ways to heal my brain and body and that’s how I found adaptogenic herbs and medicinal mushrooms. Read more>>

Roni Burgener | Podcast Co-Host

Three years ago I had just graduated from CU with a Chemical & Biological Engineering degree and no idea what to do with it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life so I was living at home and working as a server in a restaurant in downtown Boulder. I thought that you had to be so sure of your career path to be worthy of the coveted first Big Girl Job out of school so I wasn’t even trying. Until I met Wendy Bohling through a mutual friend at a coffee shop. Wendy mentored me and got me to start looking at what I liked about my degree instead of all the things I hated (and there were plenty). She eventually coaxed out of me an admission that I don’t think I had even made to myself which is that I LOVED excel spreadsheets… She looked at me and said in her thick Virginia accent “Bless your heart. Read more>>

Sue Frederick | Author, Lifelong Intuitive, Spiritual Coach & Master Numerologist

I reached a point in my successful journalism career (as executive editor of magazines) that my work was no longer deeply meaningful to me; I knew I needed to reinvent. Yet I stayed in the career because I was a single mom and wanted a steady income. I was laid off in the 1999 crash of the dot.com world; I’d been promoted to VP of Content for health websites and when that world crashed so did my career. In that dark night of the soul, I realized that all I knew to be true about myself is that I’d been helping people with spiritual wisdom, intuition and numerology for 20 years – but giving it away for free to friends. Yet, it was my gift and I wanted to make my living from it. Against all odds and in spite of everyone telling me I’d never succeed, I built a website and started giving free talks everywhere about using intuition and soul’s mission to find our true work. Read more>>

Brittany Sarconi | Chief Fire Starter

Fireside was built with small businesses in mind. After too many years of seeing the traditional agency misuse budgets for small businesses, we had our hearts and our heads set on creating a model that made actual impact for entrepreneurs. Read more>>

Hannah Grayce Stone | Love & Relationship Coach

So many people are in their own way, wrapped up in their story, untrained and disempowered when it comes to creating love in their life, what I have to offer can change so many people’s lives… Read more>>

Jessi Puga | Blogger & RN

My blog turned into my own business, but it took years for it to do so. I actually started blogging six years ago when my son was a newborn. I was spending so many hours on the sofa feeding him, so i started looking at blogs and reading what other mom’s were going though. I was inspired to start my own blog and six years later, I’m still going and loving it! It became my own biz about a year later but I consider it more a hobby and passion that became a business. It was never the intention. From my blog I’ve started other hobbies that turned into businesses like my furniture rehab business, that I blog about. Read more>>

Melanie Boyd | Pinterest Marketer & Educator

At the beginning of this year, I received some disappointing news that I would need IVF to have kids. My husband and I have had a long six-year journey with unexplained infertility and was finally given information after many tests that IVF was the only solution. Being familiar with fertility treatments, I knew I needed to add another source of income to take on this financial responsibility. Within three months, I started my business as a Pinterest manager and now work with creatives and small business owners helping them connect and covert their perfect person to drives sales to their business. I genuinely love that I can help small businesses grow by working with a creative platform but also being able to serve myself and my family’s goals. It’s a perfect combination. Read more>>

Claire Richardson | Founder

I love a good story. From the time I was a child I was the one asking the adults at our family gatherings to share just one more story, never wanting the day to end. Family time has always meant so much to me; conversation, connection and meaningful moments that create the best memories. The love for hearing others stories continued throughout my life, however in 2015 I would realize there was an importance to documenting them. My last living grandmother had a stroke and was unable to speak. I would never be able to hear her stories or listen to her sweet southern accent again. It was a regret I didn’t want others to live with. Preserving with Purpose was born. We work with busy families experiencing life changing events with their parents or grandparents to record on video precious moments, words of wisdom and personal stories; bringing joy, peace and heartfelt connection to those who view it. Read more>>

Alex Crawfurd | General Contractor

I wasn’t able to serve my clients to the expectations that were needed or being set/met. I wanted to set clear expectations while providing the best combination of craftsmanship and customer service. Read more>>

Brandan Styles | Dr. B. Zurk- artist and madman

My business know as “Mad Tatters” is the merging of two minds. That of my wife Ellie Rusinova and myself, to form a greater and more cohesive whole that allows for bigger projects to come to life. When we met in 2008, we both shared a dream and vision of not only creating art, but finding a way to make a living from it. We are both very entrepreneurial, driven and independent, as a point to make our dreams a reality. After each having worked many various jobs, we always felt that our time would be much better served (and more enjoyable) by making our own way through our own business. From there, we put into motion plans to make that a reality. Read more>>

Mackenzie Kubistek | Hair Artist

I wanted create a sanctuary for clients to come escape daily life. I’ve come to find it is my souls purpose to help people feel like the best version of themselves. I wanted to hand pick everything, from inventory, plants and aesthetics that elevate my guests experience. Read more>>

Amanda Whitt | Baker

When my son was a toddler, we attended a friend’s birthday party, and I was impressed with how cute and delicious the birthday cake was. I contacted the baker for my son’s birthday, but she wasn’t available, so I decided that I could make my son’s cake. I found a cute idea in a magazine, but quickly discovered that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be to make a candy train cake. I realized that I needed to practice…so I started offering to make the cake for all of our family celebrations. Through trial and error (AND reading as much information as I could about baking and decorating techniques and tips), I improved with each cake that I created. Soon, I had a couple of friends request that I make cakes for their children. My family and friends encouraged me to start my own business…it took me about a year to work up the courage to start selling my cakes to people beyond my circle of friends. Read more>>

Chris Carlson | Professional 3D Chalk Artist & Mural Painter

When I started doing 3D chalk art I never actually intended for it to become a business. I was just learning and having fun. One day a photographer friend and I shot a time lapse video of me creating a 3D chalk drawing in my garage and posted in on YouTube. Pretty quickly the video started getting lots of views. At this point I didn’t have a website or anything to link to. So I rushed to set up a website and create an email address for my artwork. As the video was viewed and shared by more and more people I started to receive emails about paid opportunities to create artwork. It was another year before I was confident that I could make a fulltime living from art. At that point I took the leap and left my job in order to pursue art fulltime. Read more>>

Cassandra Allen – Brown | Shop Owner & Fiber Artisan and Designer

To share my love of fiber arts with as many yarn lovers around the world as possible, and educate young people (our youth) on the history of knit and crochet by teaching them to knit and crochet and create their own pattern designs. To change the world one stitch at a time. Read more>>

Rhea Horvath | Owner, Holistic Esthetician & Reiki Master

My thought process behind starting my own business was to hold space for a self-care experience that I would like to have. My intention has been to create a collective of womxn, facilitating self-care for all people. Read more>>