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.

Ryan Coyle Christian Nelson | Owners and Founders

Our first thought behind opening our studio came from identifying a need in our industry and in our market. When we first began talking about starting our own business, there were quite a few iterations of what it would look like. Ultimately, it became a fitness studio that combines strength training, HIIT, and mindfulness practices with the primary goal of creating an inclusive and welcoming community, all working to be the best version of themselves through movement! Read more>>

Mairead Buschtetz | Joint owner of Cuisine & Wine Bistro

We opened our first business together when we were 20 years old, so I suppose that you would say in our minds it’s the only way to do things! My husband Fabrice, is a third-generation restaurant owner, but the only one to have gone through culinary school. We met in 1988 while working at a hotel near the airport CDG. My hotel experience and his culinary experience made us a great match! Read more>>

Bevla Reeves | Founder of Savory Sky Foods, LLC | Creator of FLAMING OATS™

I’ve always been ambitious and fiercely independent. I grew up in a family of seven on a military salary. We didn’t have much so if I wanted anything, I had to figure out how to get it on my own. And for some reason, I was oddly fearless and seemingly unstoppable at a very young age. I always felt compelled to break the rules of conformity and to live boldly. As a teen I voluntarily went to summer school every year just so I could graduate from high school early at 16 to get my career as a hairstylist started. And then went on to travel the world with Prince, Sheila E. and others as a Celebrity Hairstylist. Read more>>

Rosie D’Apolito | Rosie D’Apolito and Kristina Spinosa: CEO of Valid Vibes

We launched Valid Vibes May 1st, 2022 in honor of mental health awareness month. We started designing the clothing and working on the brand in January of 2022. We have been going on photoshoots, filming content and everything to get us ready to launch our brand in May. Both of us know and unfortunately, knew people that struggled with mental health. Particularly men. We hate the stigma around men and mental health in general. We want to help people and make the world a better place. After 2020, we realized that mental health is not talked about enough. At most times, mental health is much more important than physical health. The mind is insanely powerful and we want people to look at life in a much more positive light. Read more>>

Gabriel Cordova | Co-Owner of Shark Sports Tucson

When my brother and I first decided to open our facility, our mindset was pretty fast paced. As a gym and training facility we knew there were many routes we could take. I guess in the beginning we were trying to take all of our thoughts and condense them into priorities. We decided to make some core values that we truly stood for. Once we established our core values, we used them when making big decisions. Any big decisions we made had to pass the core value test. When you first start a business, you have a certain integrity about you. A promise to give your customer the quality they deserve. A promise to not question your integrity for the all-mighty dollar. Read more>>

Liana Mollo | Licensed Aesthetician & Acne Specialist

I became licensed in aesthetics back in 2015. When I started in the industry I knew I had a passion for working directly with the skin and seeing results. Although, I noticed a huge gap in the industry between a relaxing facial and corrective med spa services. I did my case study in school focusing on acne and immediately fell in love with how life changing it was for the client to feel good in their skin again without the use of harsh medication and the impact it had on their mental health. I worked for other spas for several years and tried different avenues in the industry and could not find my home. I wanted to give relaxing and transformative treatments while being able to educate my clients as well. Read more>>

Jason Steele | Credit Card and Travel Rewards Expert, Freelance Writer and Conference Producer

In 2008, I was working as a technical support specialist at the US Geological Survey. However, I was very underutilized. In other words, I had to be at the office eight hours a day, but they didn’t give me much work to do. While others played video games and talked about sports, I dove into subjects that interested me, like travel and personal finance. What I found was that many articles in the mainstream media weren’t very well thought out. For example, their advice on saving money while dining out often boiled down to simply ordering less food. In contract, I knew of many little-known dining discounts and rewards programs. Read more>>

Lisa Stotska & William Skiles | William is the jeweler, Lisa does every thing else!

Neither my husband or myself were interested in working for someone else. We are both very creative. We started out attending juried art shows with Williams high end jewelry and found it was stressful waiting for sales. William switched his thinking and said, if we could get $1 from everyone, that would be a better strategy. He came up with our original interchangeable marble pendant, and we took a batch of 30 pieces to an art show in Beverly Hills and sold out! After that, we were advised to get a patent, which we did. We now have 3 patents and our lines of interchangeable marble jewelry have supported us for 25 years! Read more>>

William Ward | CEO, Flexie Inc.

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. From my teenage years, I remember organizing teams, whether nonprofit organizations, community organizations, or groups, to solve a specific problem. In my professional career, I was always put in a brand new department, built something that didn’t exist, or looked for new innovative ways to solve problems. I also always wanted to build a business that would have a positive impact on the lives of others, so when deciding what type of company to form, Flexie was a natural choice. Read more>>