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.

Daizha Petersma | Social Media Marketing Manager and Content Creator

Freedom! I have always had an entrepreneurial heart and a creative mind so I’m coming up with new business ideas and venture all the time. The hard part is to act on them. It takes courage to go after those ideas and try to make them a reality. Read more>>

Whitney Virden | Independent Florist

Growing up I always wanted to be an entrepreneur but I didn’t have a specific business in mind. I just knew that I wanted to build something that would serve others. I spent my time building my professional skills starting out as a waitress, working in the banking industry, leading a real estate brokerage, and eventually working in the non-profit world. Read more>>

Maria Sancic | Photographer, Musician and Creative Marketing Specialist

Starting a business always begins with a need for something more. I found myself in 2016 as a single mother with a need for a second income. So, I picked up a camera. This quickly evolved into something bigger and after I met my husband and we were expecting – We needed a source of income that gave me the flexibility to be home more often than not. Growing this business became my main professional focus and through this process my love for marketing was born. Read more>>

Patrick Mikyles | Creative Director & Business Owner

I’ve been in the Entertainment Industry for over 18 years and I have been part of a plethora of drag shows and variety shows a like. What I never saw was a show that was inclusive and reached every table, no matter front or back row. I tried multiple times to create my style of “interactive Drag shows” under other companies and bars but was never taken seriously. Read more>>

Jessie Bartz | Fort Worth Artist

I’ve always been a creative person, but career-wise, I’ve picked very analytical roles. In September 2020, I decided to try out the epoxy resin medium because I’d seen some posts on IG where artists were using it. A friend, Emily Williams, was using it in different ways, and I was inspired. Read more>>

Ruth Calvert | Owner

Thinking about starting a business I knew what my work ethic was and the work ethic of my family and with that I wanted to feel like I had control of my own destiny. I wanted to know that if I put in my sweat equity I could make things happen not just for myself, but for my family and now other families that we are so privileged to have working for us. There is something about being able to invest in yourself and your vision that is unparalleled. Read more>>

Mercedes Ramirez Johnson | Speaker & Advocate

I had worked in public relations in higher education and then in sales in the healthcare sector for nearly a decade. I had worked with incredible people, found caring mentors and learned so much during those years. Once I became a mother to twin boys, I knew I didn’t want to put them in daycare 8-12 hours a day. I knewI still needed two things: a creative outlet to fulfill my ambitions and a consistent way of create income. Read more>>

Lance Powell | Baker

I actually never had plans to start my own business as a career. My new years resolution one year was to try something new every month, which led me to take a cooking class. I had always wanted to learn to make macarons and walked away from the cooking class with enough knowledge to start making macarons at home. Read more>>

Tiffany Green | Fashion Designer

I have been passionately in love with fashion since I was an impressionable child. Since adulthood, every company I have worked for has been in the retail business. Working with them, I quickly learned the ins and outs of what it takes to run a successful fashion business and decided to get my degree in Fashion Design. Read more>>

Jaughn Meshack | Entrepreneur

I always knew I wanted and was going to be part of something bigger than myself. After reaching out to so many outlets, getting dismissed, misunderstood, not taken seriously and overall not the results or opportunities I needed, I decided to make one for myself. You know the old saying “If you want something done right, do it yourself”? I had the vision, plan, and schematics and presented it with an open hand, all I needed was the resources. Read more>>

Dr. Shaneka Baylor | Functional Nutrition Pharmacist and Franchise Owner

Entrepreneurship has always been something that I’ve thought about and have tried several different things over the years. I always wanted something that I could call my own and the opportunity to be around for my family if something happened. As an only child, it has always been important to me that I can be available for my parents if they need me, especially as they age. Read more>>

Katie Rizzo | Chef & Owner of Rizzo Hospitality NV

My husband and I knew we wanted more for our careers than working for someone else. We have years of quality experience and talent and know the product and services we provide are unlike anyone else’s. Read more>>

Janie Griffith | Video Producer, Editor and Director

I consciously worked toward Global Shout Media becoming a reality from the very beginning of my career in video production. Every gig working for someone else was an opportunity to practice my craft. Every failure was an opportunity to learn and do better next time. When various job interviewers would ask, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” the answer that came to mind was never, “Here at this company running so-and-so division” but always “running my own business.” Read more>>

Briana Ross | Modified Model & Entrepreneur

My thought process behind starting my own business, Modified Models, was that I wanted to create safe place for alternative models, in the DFW area, to learn and grow in their craft and be able to do so with other like minded individuals. When I began, as a new model, I faced many obstacles and dangers that I hope to help prevent others from having to experience. Read more>>

Baeja Morris | Licensed Massage Therapist

My thought process behind starting your own business was, “Why not?” “Why not me?” I pride myself in being a diligent and hard worker for any company I work for. One day, on a very tiresome day, at my desk job, I thought to myself, “All this work, all these long hours that I’m putting in for this company. Read more>>

Payal Sharma | Graphic Artist & Product Designer. Founder of FYBUR designs

I have always been a very visual person. it takes a lot of effort for me to read books, but at the same time, I am great at deciphering visuals. These attributes were a tell-tale signs that I was destined to have a career in the field of visual arts and design. To add fuel to the fire, my father was an architect. Read more>>

Valerie Méndez | Owner & CEO of The Wander and Travel

Coming from a background full of travel, both of my parents working with the airlines for over 30 years, I have always known that I absolutely love traveling. After college, I knew that a job that would keep me from traveling whenever I wanted was not for me. Therefore, I decided to create a travel blog. Read more>>

Daniel Berkley | General Contractor & Home Remodeler

I’ve always loved taking a space and breathing new life into it by tearing it apart and building something new in its place… and over the years, I noticed a pretty big lack of dependable and trustworthy contractors and remodelers. Ultimately, I wanted to give customers the quality and the workmanship they deserved with the integrity and honesty that this industry needed. Plus – I want to give my family a good life and this business allows me to do that. Read more>>

Noreen Kane | Founder, The Green Mahjong Dragons

You know the saying- “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work another day in your life”? Read more>>

Scot Cockroft | Mergers & Acquisition’s, Business broker

When I started I wanted to be in control of my future. Many similarities back then to now. Economy was up and down so much uncertainty. The last thing in the world I wanted was the uncertainty of working for someone else. That seemed like a type of prison Read more>>

Sassy Medchill | CEO, Stylist & National Educator

I never intended to do hair. When the market crashed in 2007, I was fresh out of college and working as an interior designer. Like many others, I quickly found myself laid off and needing other options—-hair school was the answer. I could still be expressive, creative and surround myself with amazing people. I instantly fell in love. I could not believe people would pay to let me help them feel beautiful. Read more>>

Dara Collins Donna Kassman | co-owner of ModernMahjong.com, Facebook.com/groups/MahjongCommunity

We are two friends, Dara Collins and Donna Miller Kassman, that started playing mahjong together over ten years ago. Soon, we were interested in finding vintage mahjong sets. We noticed that the mahjong tiles, racks, and cases were works of art but the dice were very small and not as beautiful as the tiles. Read more>>