We asked rising stars from the community one of our favorite questions: other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?

Jeremy Denson | President

The single most important decision I’ve made is surrounding myself with a talented team that offers complimentary skill sets. A team of people that think and act the same way I do would have hindered our success. I want people around me that challenge my decision making which in turn, helps the company proposer and helps me grow as an individual. My father and I are partners in Bison but our personalities couldn’t be different. Neither of us would be as successful without the other. Together, we make a great team and have been able to grow Bison to where it is today. Read more>>

Hollis Stair | Wedding Invitation Designer

Deciding to transition my business into wedding invitation design was the best move I’ve made for HoH. In my business’ early days, it seemed like way too much pressure to jump into the world of weddings. I started out with kid parties and handmade stationery to grow my skill level. Eventually the challenge of working with brides seemed exciting! I’d worked enough that I felt comfortable creating on such a high level. Soon after that, I rebranded and relaunched HoH as a fine art wedding invitation designer and the rest is history. Read more>>

Nabeel Keblawi | CEO of Provectus Digital, a done-for-you content production service

After I decided to work for myself, I freelanced for a few years. I took on any writing project that came my way – blog articles, landing pages, ebooks, email sequences, you name it. The problem with this was that every project and every client was unique. I had to change my processes for each and every project, which ate into the time when I could spend on networking and prospecting for new clients. I decided that 100% custom work wasn’t sustainable, so I picked the most profitable type of writing project and created a delivery system for it. For me, that is content production for blogs and social media. Every client I bring on now, we go through a standard onboarding process where we discuss their strategy. From there, I create a shared content calendar with brainstormed topic ideas. Read more>>

Bobbi Schwartz | personal stylist, author and CEO

This might be a two-fold answer. I got into personal styling because I had worked for everyone in the industry for whom i wanted to work. I absolutely love and, even then, loved what i do… helping people look and feel their best through style. I had a consulting contract that was ending with a fabulous retailer here in Dallas. I had a month before my time was up and i was really feeling at loose ends on what i wanted to do next. one afternoon I stopped to pick up my mail and ran into a good friend doing the same. this friend was the VP of Designer for one of the world’s best known and largest multi-designer retailers. after greeting each other and setting a time to do something social together, I put my plight to her. she responded with…. there is this woman who is doing people’s closets and doing so well. Read more>>