How to think through whether you should start a business

Readers often email us asking us for advice about new businesses they are thinking about starting and we often find that many of them don’t have a framework for thinking about a more fundamental question: why should or shouldn’t you start a business?

Below, you’ll find how successful entrepreneurs from across the city thought about this very question when they were considering whether to start their businesses.

Nikki Robinson | Owner/Roaster

As a coal miners wife who saw things changing in the future and children growing rapidly I wanted a way to sustain our life in Craig if that type of work was no longer available to us. I did not wanted to uproot my family just to make a living. Read more>>

DJ Matt Cassidy | DJ/Producer/Entrepreneur

I wanted to curate an exceptional more dialed in experience than I was having as an entrepreneur in my field of work. Read more>>

Celeste Berke Knisely | Certified Sales Training Partner & Top Rated LinkedIn Coach

I had always dreamed about the freedom and rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship, having watched my father build a business from scratch. Never having the courage to leap nor did I know where to start, I keep on climbing the corporate ladder while saving money for my rainy day fund. After a career-ending RIF in March of 2020 (how many can relate), I was faced with a fork in the road. To continue down the path I had known and excelled in, or take a chance on myself and start my own business and tap into my raining day fund. I chose the latter. The first year, I focused on upskilling, networking, and figuring out just what my offer was going to be. The thought process at the time was twofold, that I loved helping people, and that I had a knack for networking! Read more>>

Paula Peacock | Artist and Art Instructor

I wouldn’t say it was an epiphany-like thought process but a 10-year process of being guided by the universe of chance meetings with people leading me from one step to the next. After gaining knowledge and confidence in my art, people began asking me to teach them how to oil paint which, in hindsight, I believe was the universe planting seeds. But, it took a while before I caught on. One day I received a call from someone who had a group of friends wanting to learn. Would I do it? I agreed. That call led from one thing to another. Today, 16 years later, I teach oil painting to groups and give private lessons to individuals. I still have the original phone caller as a devoted student, coming to painting classes twice a week. Read more>>

Whitney Frost | Mental Health Therapist

As an intern and a new therapist, I worked in a community mental health clinic and was fortunate to be exposed to many experiences that taught me what type of therapist I wanted to be. This experience along with my own experience with postpartum mental health difficulties helped me to form my dream of having a private practice that served women, mothers, and birthing folx in the midst of struggles with their mental health related to their pregnancy, postpartum, infertility, and pregnancy loss journey in addition to navigating Matrescence. The ultimate goal of my practice was to provide a safe space for mothers to find healing without finances being a barrier. Read more>>

Tyler and Meghann Volz | Owners of Mayfly woodworks Custom Builder of all things wood and metal

We Launched Mayfly Woodworks in 2016 with the intent to deep root the connection between nature and our customers. By bringing a piece of nature into your home we believe it will strengthen that connection. We chose to work with trees because to us they are the ultimate symbol of life and allows us to thrive here on Earth. We travel all over the world to find trees that need to be removed then give them a new purpose and home. By going to these remote places, and even our own backyard here in Colorado we find some of the most beautiful and exotic woods. Read more>>

Nicklaus Mertz | President & Founder of Pins & Aces

It was always difficult for me to work for someone else. I wanted to have the flexibility and freedom and a 9-5 job wouldn’t provide that for me. I also am passionate about creating high quality products and disrupting a market while creating american jobs. Read more>>

Jenelle Grosser | Artist and Educator

I started MakeJoy in 2019 when I was in grad school at Colorado State University. I was getting my masters in Arts Management and Cultural Programming so at the time I was focusing a lot on how the arts can be used to bring communities together. My background was in K-12 art education so my skillset was a good fit for adult community classes. I was inspired by another small business in Colorado Springs called Red Earth Knots which primarily hosts macrame classes around town at breweries and other businesses. The classes were a great success right from the start, it’s just been really fun to be able to provide an opportunity for people to come together, create things, and connect. Read more>>

Victoria Kander | KPA-CTP, CNWI, CTDI, CCUI, AKC Evaluator

I wanted to provide a fun and safe space for people to come with their dogs and learn a new activity that they can do together and not have to worry about being judged, limited or turned away. I want to provide more options in dog sports for everyone to enjoy with their dog if they are not able to do the standard sports of agility or competitive obedience. Read more>>

Dimity McDowell | Chief Training Director, Another Mother Runner

Another Mother Runner started super organically; we didn’t craft a business plan or anything.

Sarah Bowen Shea, a long-time friend and colleague of mine, wrote an article together for Runner’s World called Marathon Moms, which recounted how we trained for the 2007 Nike Women’s Marathon while working and taking care of small kids. (We called them ankle-biters, and Sarah had three under age 3, and I had two under age 4. Read more>>

Sadie Solstice | Brand Owner & Model

I started my own business because of a near death experience I had at the age of 18. Prior to this I had always been entrepreneurial even as a young child. I would “sell” cool rocks to other kids that I had found on the playground, I would do lemonade and ice tea stands outside my home, and in high school I started making lipsticks and chokers to sell too my friends and on Etsy. I was introduced to the industry of referral marketing at 17 and it opened my eyes to possibilities I hadn’t previously considered. At the time, I was about to graduate high school and was struggling to plan the next phase of my life. The idea of going to school so I could get a job and work 40 hours a week for 40 years of my life gave me anxiety, it sounded unfulfilling and exhausting. After attending business seminars and diving into personal development, thinking I had found my path, I had my near death experience. I became a victim of domestic violence and was three months pregnant with my son. I knew I didn’t want to waste any of my time on this Earth. Instead I wanted to live my life to the fullest and check off every bucket list item I had. I became inspired to help others do the same and so I started the brand Get Life. Get Life is a lifestyle and leisure brand with a strong emphasis on building community. We’re partnered with Seacret Direct to give our community members access to affordable, luxury travel; wellness & personal care products, and an ambassadorship program that gives everyone an opportunity to earn income from home. Read more>>

Scott & Monica Bonynge | Medium, Shaman & Alternative Healers

We both come from a past filled with trauma, abuse and neglect and did a deep dive into healing. As we moved through our own healing we became fully aware of the things that were so important to healing, but didn’t seem to be found with any one healing modality or professional. As we continued to heal and do Shadow work, we opened to the work that we do meaning we saw the gifts that had laid dormant within. Scott and I became aware that we were mediums and as we started to step into all that we are, we clearly saw the path we needed to journey down. It became our passion to be a business that would bring beautiful healing modalities to people that would allow them to heal in many ways, on a deeper level. Our next step was into our education to become certified in the work we do. We have been blessed to be able to bring new, unique twists to our work that evolved intuitively as we continued to grow on a personal spiritual level. All of our healing modalities work beautifully alone or in combination. Read more>>

Jodie Clarke | Sole Proprietress & Women Promoter

There wasn’t one! In February of 2020 I took a leap of faith during a time in my life when I needed to re-create myself financially as well as emotionally. My divorce was looming and I had been a stay at home mom for 18 years. I left a Software career to be with my kids and knew that no one was going to hire a women in her fifties. Trust me, I tried. I started with a small room with another group of women in the Little Yellow House on the corner of Curtis and Alamo. When that lease was up, I decided to take on the full lease for the house and create the store of my dreams and Lollygag Antiques & Boutique was born. I wanted to help other women who were coming in or coming out of something in this new space. So, I decided that Lollygag would only support women artists and vendors. After being in the Little Yellow House for 3 years, I realized that I couldn’t grow the business in that location and decided in August of this year that we needed a bigger boat. I took another leap of faith and went BIG. We not only have more space in the new location to showcase more artists and vendors, but we have a workshop where local artists can teach their craft. The workshop was always my dream. So here we are, almost 4 years later…no plan, just pure grit and determination. I also… really just love helping other women be seen for all their glory. That’s my true passion. Read more>>

Tamara Herl | Potential and Purpose Coach

I started my business because I was part of a system that felt outdated and dysfunctional to me. It felt outdated because many of the methods being used were the same ones that have been used for nearly 100 years. It felt dysfunctional because the status quo included productivity expectations that were unrealistic and unhealthy. Read more>>