Are you thinking about starting a business? If so, we think you’ll enjoy reading about how these seasoned entrepreneurs thought about the question when they were in your shoes.

Yessenia Rangel Diana Lopez | Notary & Tax Consultant

The idea of starting our own business began with the inspiration of other small businesses that began taking the leap of faith. We saw the emergence of crafters and bakers on instagram and that is when we decided to take our own leap of faith. We realized we had a passion for administrative workflow and helping others. With my background in accounting and in business administration, we knew we could offer income tax, notary, and accounting services. As our name mentions Alpha Omega, meaning beginning and end, we want to help our clients from the moment they have questions about starting a business and registering it to the moment it’s time to file their taxes. Read more>>

LaWana London | Owner/ Head baker

Actually it was an accidental accident, Previously I’d worked in social services for 15 years before getting injured on my job. In my down time I started to bake some old family recipes and give them to people I knew. In that process I fell in love with how happy it made people, and those people actually pushed me to do it as a business. Read more>>

Maribel Motenehua | Realtor

“What if I fail”, Was my first thought on starting my own business. I didn’t know where to start, I didn’t had a plan, wasn’t prepared nor didn’t know what failure was. However, one thing for sure I had a vision of who I wanted to become and where I wanted to be in the next 5yrs. With many thoughts/doubts on my mind I decided to jump into a field not knowing the intricacies of this field but I knew I didn’t want to look back and ask myself “what if”. Read more>>

Dietric “DNA” Alexander | Business Owner, Recording Engineer & Artist

First and foremost to follow my dreams but most importantly follow my heart. Read more>>

Linda Williams | Balloon Artist & Owner of Linda’s Balloon Twisting & Decor

I saw the writing on the wall. The economy was taking a huge downward spiral and I knew my current position wasn’t going to be around much longer. I had to find another stream of income. I did some balloon twisting for the adoption agency. (I had to have the instructions to make the balloon animals in front of me) I saw an ad on Craig’s List for restaurant balloon twisting and decided to apply. Read more>>

gracy fowler | botanical artist

The magic behind my brand is simple; I started out with a passion & just had fun with it. I started experimenting with botanical art on my eighteenth birthday in March of 2019, finding potential customers every blue moon. Now here I am three years later with an art studio & a registered small business. There was never a time where I sat myself down & said “Okay grace, this is the plan, these are the goals..” it just kinda snowballed into what it is today. Read more>>

Adrienne Aguirre | Baker

I have always had a passion for baking, and have always wanted to share that with the world. When my son turned 1 I decided to make all the treats and goodies for his birthday and from there my love grew into a business. I never imagined it woukd take off the way it has, it is amazing to me that I have been apart of so many birthdays and special events. Read more>>

Kenadee Thompson | Wedding Planner and Coordinator

Since I graduated high school nearly 10 years ago I’ve been on this mission to find what I’m passionate about, what make me happy. I changed my major three different times and all majorly different things. Finally I settled on teaching, teaching makes me happy, working with kids makes me happy but I still didn’t feel fulfilled. This past October I got to marry the love of my life, I completely planned my own wedding from A to Z and let me tell you, I LOVED IT! I loved talking to vendors, organizing contracts and contact information, and I loved creating the schedule and making the important decisions. Read more>>

Esmeralda Fiscal | Wood Sign Designer And Crafter

My Husband started his own business 6 years ago. I’ve watched him grow tremendously since then .Neither of us come from financial stability but we always knew we wanted more for our family. It always gave me hope that if he could do it then so could I. It honestly started out as a hobby. But shortly after I hired a business coach and she saw in me what I hadn’t at that moment. It couldn’t have came at a better time because we have kids in school and I needed to be home full time. That’s when I decided to turn my “crafty hobby” into my fulltime business. And by the grace of God it has been almost 2 years and it is still the best decision I could’ve made for myself and my family. Read more>>

Quincy Bradley | Master Gardener

I wish more schools taught the art of self sustainability and business. The fact that it took this long for the common person to understand what it means to be a business owner is a clear indicator that the powers that be don’t want that information shared freely. Creating our own allows us to start creating generational wealth inside of families that would more than likely pass nothing on to the next phase of there family Read more>>

Karter Rashad Matthews | Fitness Instructor

Freedom. I started the business because I worked for others and realized I didn’t want to work for someone for the rest of my life. After I graduated from college I worked as a personal trainer and as manager for a supplement company. This is where a gained my experience with both fitness and sports supplements. Also it was my first real experience working alongside a small business owner which exposed me to a whole new world. Read more>>

Fredricka Fonta | Business Owner & Multi- medium Artist

I recognized that when you work for someone else you are putting your freedom and livelihood in their hands. I had endured many ups and downs working for others and I was never fully appreciated for what I brought to the table. I saw the jealously that plagued the women I worked with and it led them to try and harm me instead of us working together to build something, so I wanted to start a brand that celebrated other strong women. Read more>>

Blaire Jackson | Owner & Operator

When I was getting my degree from TWU, I had to walk across campus a lot from my dorm to get to my classes in the science buildings. Most of them ended late in the evening. We were, and still pretty much are, a predominantly female campus. Although we had campus police and were taught to use the buddy system, there were a good number of reported assault attempts. Even when I didn’t know them personally, I empathized with them because it could’ve been me at any time. Between the dispersedly lit pathways, perimeters of wide bushes and large buildings with plenty of ducked off corners, there were too many opportunities to be blind sighted. Read more>>

Laura Butler | Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

I wish I was able to say that I always wanted to own and operate my own business, but I can’t. Starting my own business required me to take a leap of faith that I did not know that I had. However, I am grateful that I did. When I taking that leap of faith to start my private practice, I did so because I wanted to have the freedom to provide therapy to people that look like me. Being a Black licensed psychotherapist, that meant, and still does mean, a lot to me. When I started my profession, I was very well aware of the stigma around mental health in my community and wanted to help destigmatize it. Read more>>

Karla Menendez | Face Painter

I am a preschool teacher and KaLiam Party Faces was born in the classroom. I started face painting at the school’s festivities, with no intent of turning it into a business. The school had a very simple face painting kit with some craft brushes, and I just volunteered to do face painting because I was the “artsy teacher”. However, my coworkers believed I had the talent to turn this volunteer activity into a business. They believed so much in me, I started to believe in myself too. I started researching and bought my first professional-ish paint kit. I did not have a business structure in mind, I had no business strategy or a five year plan. I just had paint and brushes and the desire to make it work. Read more>>

Miya Neal | Social Media Manager

Starting my own business definitely wasn’t my original plan. My thought process started after I graduated from college in the middle of Lockdown. After my job offer fell through because of the hiring freeze and applying for 100+ jobs I had to come up with a plan. I knew I never liked the idea of a typical 9 to 5. I wanted to still be able to do what I love, and I started to think about the type of job I would want. I noticed one of the main things I wanted out of my career was freedom, especially the freedom to work from home. I did some research and realized there were so many people who were building their own social media agencies, so they can have the exact freedom I wanted. Read more>>

Kerry Gipson | Professional Standup Comedian & Entertainer

Like every business there will be adversity to overcome. In order to be sustainable in the community, corporate America and in life, one must think long term. Meaning how can you create longevity in your company. How can this business have a positive impact on our world. You must see your business for more than just a profits gain but how will the business help and benefit those around you. With comedy, I believe that laughter will never fade but will rather soon be apart of life’s everyday healing process. Read more>>