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.

Emily Moore | President

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. While working with my husband on his IT company, I saw that small businesses neglected their digital landscape. To fill this gap in their marketing, I founded Lingows Media. I have a passion for helping others succeed and pour that into every aspect of my enterprise. Read more>>

Petar Dopchev | Photographer & Director

I was over showing up to a job which didn’t bring any fulfilment or inner satisfaction in my life. I was ready to grow as a person and be responsible for the way I make my living. Read more>>

David & Karilyn Harper | Business Owners

We believe in being passionate about what you, and a huge passion of ours is food. We enjoy sharing great food with amazing friends and family. Another passion of ours is the dark and creepy. We enjoy learning about cryptids, murder, all things curious and macabre. The idea behind Occult Herbs & Tonics was born and died many times. We weren’t sure how to even get started, a lot of time and effort when into researching ingredients and unique label designs, by our incredibly talented artist, Stephanie Ann instagram.com/enchantedlyamused We also decided to take the leap and really invest in the idea in the midst of the pandemic, which provided a whole other set of problems. KickStarter was a invaluable resource for crowdfunding; we surpassed our 3.000 goal and now are fully operational with new blends in the works!. Read more>>

Robyn Swinford | Bakery Owner & Artist

Shortly after having our second son we decided that our kiddos would really benefit from having a parent home with them. So I left my job as a Registered Nurse and had the opportunity to pursue a home based business. My thought was. that I could build something, do something I love and make money doing it, all while having the chance to be near my kids every day!. Read more>>

Taylor Murphy | CPA & Tax Mentor

Growing up, I was always busy! I was a competitive dancer in high school while taking several advanced placement classes. In college, I worked part time while taking a full set of courses, and added on studying for the CPA exam during my Master’s program. When I graduated and began working full time at a public accounting firm, I knew I was going to need something else to create that busy lifestyle! In June of 2019, I decided to become a skincare consultant with Rodan + Fields. I had been using the products for 4 months and really loved the results I was seeing, so I decided I would take a leap of faith and start selling the products! My customer base started growing and I began building a team. I also started networking with other women on my team and within my company. When I would connect with these women, they were often times more interested in my full time, CPA tax accountant job, rather than how my Rodan + Fields business was going. A common theme that I kept hearing was, “you should talk more about taxes on your social media pages”. Read more>>

Amanda Collier | Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist

When I first went into physical therapy, I saw it as an area of medicine that really got to spend time with patients and teach them how to thrive. But during my first 5 years in practice working in an insurance based system, I learned that our insurance system isn’t set up to allow that for health consumers. Instead of getting to teach people true health and wellness and treating them all the way through, I felt my hands bound by the rules of their insurance company. I was being forced to discharge people before I felt they were ready and no one could come see me for help and guidance until there was already something that insurance classified as “wrong.” If someone was seeing me for low back pain, I could only treat their low back. But what if their diet and stress level was a huge factor in their pain? I wasn’t allowed to go there because insurance said so. It felt more like a “sick care” system to me than it did the healthcare system I had envisioned myself in. Read more>>

Linda Xin | Experience Strategist

As a designer who has worked across disciplines including architecture, product design, and user experience, the process of creating something and building it from the ground up has always been something that motivates me. It’s also ingrained in me the thought that I should find a way to do the work that I love. Throughout my career, I was always searching for that ‘dream job,’ until I finally realized that the dream job is the one you create for yourself. Read more>>

Rachel Fowler | Recovery Coach Professional, Trainer, Supervisor

My thought process for starting my own business was simple. I saw what I thought was a gap in care for people in recovery from addiction. There seemed to be a lack of support in terms of allowing people to be in charge of their own recovery, and what that looked like for them. Engaging in creative activities and fun in order to achieve long-term recovery from substance use disorder was the plan. Read more>>

Elise Newsom | Health & Fitness Coach

With over 10 years in the health and fitness industry, my coaching journey began about 7 years ago. The majority of my time coaching was for the fastest growing fitness company in the world. I became a face of this company and a regional leader for my hometown of Austin, TX. I developed a large following and took on a leadership role that should have given me a sense of fulfillment. I felt successful on the outside but having reached my peak with the company, I started to realize there was no way to continue moving up. My routine became mundane and the lack of challenge and opportunity for growth left me wanting more. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing because it was in this moment of feeling burnt out, overworked, underpaid, and uninspired that I got clear on what it would actually take to feel like I was living a lifestyle of freedom, abundance, alignment, and impact. I wanted to work hard and make a difference by being the best version of myself I can possibly be. Working day in and day out to evolve and grow someone else’s dream felt like I would be settling for “good enough”. Read more>>

Ida Dickson-Kingston | Founder of AfriCoast Patterns

The idea of starting my own business has always been a part of me, but I always pushed back on all the ideas that I had to start. I was more focused on achieving my career and educational goals. In 2018, after a thorough research, planning and preparation, I finally gave in to putting my ideas into action and took the necessary steps to start my own small business in Colorado to help promote and sell African Arts, Crafts and Accessories. Read more>>

Ethan Johnson & Will Odell | Graduate Gemologists

We have an absolute passion for gems and minerals and we wanted to pursue that passion while working for ourselves. We want to be able to work our own hours and make our own decisions for the betterment of our own company. We also take pride in our knowledge of this industry and love to educate people on gems and minerals. Getting the works of art the Earth creates into more hands of people who appreciate what this world provides us is also a big aspect of our company and we strive to accomplish this never ending task. Read more>>

Natalie Prescott | Baker

After attending culinary school, I continued working in a corporate environment for quite some time. I figured, I love baking, but I couldn’t make the same money doing that as I could sitting behind a computer all day. I would still bake in my free time, but not for money. It dawned on me one day that I was really craving a true Belgian pearl sugar waffle, and I set out to figure out a recipe that tasted exactly like I remembered it. I brought in batch after batch of waffles to the office and kept testing. After more than a year of working on it, I finally got to a recipe that was exactly what I wanted, and I felt compelled to share that with the world. There was just no where else in the state you could go to get waffles like that and it felt like a unique niche that I cared about, was true to my heritage, and it was a product that wasn’t already saturated with thousands of others making them, like in other corners of the baking industry. Read more>>

Luchal LUCAS | CHEF/OWNER LUCHALS CATERING

When I started Luchals the vision was to bring something different to Colorado, When I was stationed here back in 2015 the food scene was scarce. There was food but it wasn’t that diverse, my goal was to provide sustainable food that people could recognize but change the style of how we do it. I also wanted the stability and freedom to create more and break barriers for generations to come. Read more>>

Daniel Crosier | Visual Artist

I am a freelance artist. It is like breathing. Of course I had to go out do creative endeavors with whatever opportunities that presented themselves. So I guess it was instinctual in that sense. Whether it is in the realm of comic books, film/tv, murals, illustration… making a mess. On the administrative side, I knew I would fall on my face. I needed to be okay with hard lessons and learn to learn from them. Read more>>

Rowen Thomas | Public Speaker, Educational Cooperative Co-Owner, Educational Scholar-Practitioner-Researcher, Poet, Artist, Non-Binary Professional Dominatrix, & Erotic (Inter)Personal Development Mentor-Educator

My thought process behind starting my own business came from my entrepreneurial high school self who worked as a K-12 tutor and speech and debate coach. In addition to working for others full-time to pay to exist as an adult, I continuously worked for myself part-time or more while pursuing an undergraduate and graduate education. As I continued to advance in academia and the workforce, I became increasingly frustrated (and spitefully motivated) by how little professionals in both spaces knew or understood about people who were not cisgender, straight, white, English-speaking, “traditionally” educated, able-bodied, and other marginalized identities similar or different to my own (in other words, people who did not hold socially dominant identities). My frustration moved me to frequently speak truth to power as a student and educator, which subsequently created opportunities for me to manifest lasting change for myself, my communities, and fellow marginalized/historically minoritized communities. Read more>>

Cameron Johnson | Owner

My thought process behind starting my business was that I wanted to bring joy, happiness, and smiles to as many people as I can around the world. We all go through tough times, depression, and bad days I want my brand Always Smile to be a catalyst for people to see the positive in life, and have a friendly reminder to smile and help others do the same!. Read more>>

Rick Avery | Realtor & Founder – Giving Back Group

Having spent the first 35+ years of my adult life working in sales and management for numerous major media companies and a technology company, I decided it was time to transition out of the corporate world. As I thought about what I wanted to do, it was my wife who suggested real estate would be a good fit. I was always intrigued by the process of buying and selling homes whenever we moved (I also became pretty familiar with the real estate business when I was in the newspaper business) and with her blessing, I decided to make the move. Realizing I was getting a late start and didn’t have 10 years to build my Realtor brand, I thought about what I could do to differentiate myself…to give people a reason to want to work with me. I was also at the stage in my life where helping the less fortunate was important. I decided that donating a portion of my commission to charity in the name of my clients was a clear differentiator and it also helped to “Make our community stronger, one home at a time” (this has become a tagline we use in our promotion). Read more>>

Shelby Jo Long | Professor & Business Strategist

The intention of my business is to integrate my experience and expertise in a different platform and with a new audience. With the opportunities that we have to connect with people all over the world, I yearned to reach a different audience with my expertise. I am a professor of Business Communication and I had been teaching students to think critically about organizational challenges. I was ready to make the leap into helping businesses solve challenges they may have in their operations. The method I developed, the Expertise Project, walks you through the steps of transforming your expertise or published book into a program to serve as the foundation for you to serve more people in less time. Read more>>