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.

Tim Champion | CEO & Co-Founder

Our thought process behind starting Boppr started with three of us, cofounders owning our own businesses handing out business cards to prospective clients and realizing that more often than not they would lose them thus resulting in a loss of a long life time value customer. Read more>>

Margie Kline | LM: Licensed Midwife & CPM: Certified Professional Midwife

I bought an established practice from a midwife who was retiring. The business already had several patients, a rented office space, equipment, and a good reputation in Flagstaff. I worked with her for a few months before buying her out so I could get familiar with the practice and become established as a provider. Read more>>

Anna Kyrychenko | Former Air Traffic Controller & Florist, co-owner. The second co-owner is Diana Kulakova, designer, web-designer & florist

The business was found by two families who fled from to Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. Our families lived in the different parts of Ukraine and fled for the USA at different times (2014 and 2022) due to the same reason: unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine. We met each other at the anti-war demonstration in Phoenix. Read more>>

Caleb Alexander | Game Master and Event Coordinator

Around 2013 I had been learning and teaching friends all these interesting modern board games. I sent out a wide net to friends and suddenly my home was too small to have more than one game played at once. We moved it to a local bar. The bartender, Leah, suggested I talk to the manager about getting a tab and bringing in games regularly. When attendance grew and stabilized, I negotiated a payout instead of just a tab. Read more>>

LaToya Bray | Owner, Creative Director of Not Your Size

The main goal for starting our business was to provide opportunities for plus-size bodies to feel confident in clothing, especially knowing that the clothes were made by someone that has faced similar struggles. Knowing style is personal and evolves over time, we wanted to create a safe space to connect with the multiple ways you want to be seen. Read more>>

Alyssa McIntyre + Caitlin Thorson | Adventure Elopement + Family Photographers

We both began our professional work lives in different fields. Alyssa was a forensic chemist turned family and wedding photographer and Caitlin was a kindergarten teacher searching for the perfect side hustle, which turned out to be photography. After owning separate photography businesses for a few years, we shot a couple of weddings together and realized how much more fun we had working together than alone. Read more>>

Christi SChuman | Photographer

I’ve always loved the idea of having my own business where I can make my own schedule and so I dove into multiple entrepreneur adventures to which I realized I wasn’t a sales person. I always loved taking photos throughout my life and felt it really rewarding to take some macro landscape and portraits of people. Then as I kept shooting and being involved with some wedding shoots I had a thought ‘Hey, I could do this!’ and why not do something you love! Read more>>

Shannon Troyan | Aesthetician Specializing in Oncology Aesthetics and Areola Restoration Tattoo Artist

After over seven years in sales, I wasn’t getting the fulfillment anymore that I once was and didn’t feel like my purpose here on earth was being met. I always felt like there was something more I needed to be doing, but was just too scared to make the jump. After the universe (such a beautiful thing) throwing one thing after another at me and lining things up so perfectly, Read more>>

Kathy Blaze Jefferson | Founder of Blazing Curves, Actress, Talkshow Host

Prior to starting my business Blazing Curves I was a plus-size model and actress here in the Arizona Market. I signed with an agency and wasn’t getting much work as a plus-size model or actress. I started to get gigs outside of Arizona and traveled for work, but being a mother of a young child that was becoming tiring and frustrating because I couldn’t find work in my own market. Read more>>

Dian Nevarez-Sandy | Professional Blinger

Crafting is something I enjoyed doing it since I was kid. My products started to gain notoriety and I got many referrals by word of mouth. It started as a side gig and around March/April 2021, I had enough customers to make it my full time. All my customers are organic since I have yet paid for any advertisement, my own customers send their friends and family my way. Read more>>

Stefanie Walls | Candle Maker & Owner

After spending decades supporting industry leaders, I decided to take what I had learned and venture into the small business world. I brainstormed various ideas, but wasn’t loving what I was coming up with. It wasn’t until Christmas 2012 that I discovered that I really enjoyed giving handmade gifts. That year, I researched handmade gifts and landed on a “cookies in a jar” recipe.  Read more>>

Angelique Clark | Founder & Artist of Life Dress

Life Dress was really born out of a desire to spread the pro-life message in a unique and accessible way – through apparel and art. Combining my passion for human rights activism and my tendency for creativity, I found a niche in turning thrifted apparel into pro-life statement pieces. Every Life Dress is completely hand-painted and one-of-a-kind (just like every human life!) Read more>>

Jenn Linck | Body Positive Personal Trainer & Wellness Studio Owner

My intention from the very beginning has always been to empower people, but it’s very important to have the freedom to create something on my own terms. I come from a very structured background as a military officer, so being able to break out of following someone else’s vision to realizing my own is something I’m drawn to. Read more>>

Tanna Cole | CEO and Owner

Do what you love. At a very young age, 10 to be exact I started selling snow ones and hosting movie nights in the trailer park I grew up in. While going to school to become a Physical education teacher I also coached middle school and high school sports and would always take home made snacks to the kids I coached. Read more>>

David Ortwein | President of Vision Sales Group

Being in the business for 30+ years, I had the benefit of accumulating knowledge from several resources and mentors throughout my career. I thought with this accumulated knowledge I could create a team that elevated the traditional model and could be more aligned with the needs of product manufactures Read more>>

Janice Munemitsu | Author, The Kindness of Color

I never thought to write a book, but my family’s story intersects with the Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez family in the 1940s. The Mendez’ were lead plaintiffs and initiated the Mendez, et al. v. Westminster, et al. Read more>>

Chimnedum “OMEGA” Nga | Fashion Designer

The foundation of EKPEN was done out of necessity. In a way, you can say EKPEN is a natural and inevitable occurrence given the environment it emerged from. To be clear, the environment Im taking about is the worldwide African diaspora – a merging of societies and cultures on a global scale. EKPEN capture the stories, cultures, and experiences of those living in diaspora, then we weave it into our garments. Read more>>