How to think through whether you should start a business

Readers often email us asking us for advice about new businesses they are thinking about starting and we often find that many of them don’t have a framework for thinking about a more fundamental question: why should or shouldn’t you start a business?

Mosi Tea

Brewing the perfect cup of tea is hard. It takes time and precision and an entire kitchen cabinet worth of stuff. We wanted to simplify the process and make it easy to brew the perfect cup of tea. No product on the market did that before Mosi launched, so our founder Paul set out to design such a product. Read more>>

Yves Spinelli & Dwyer Kilcollin | Co-founders of Spinelli Kilcollin

When we met and fell in love, we wanted to spend more time together. But our work schedules left us very few days with each other. At that time, Yves and his dad had already created the first set of linked rings. We saw it as an opportunity to build something special and ran with it! We love working together and working for ourselves. Read more>>

Autumn Thomas | Gentle Hearts Dog Education, Owner, Veteran

I was not planning to start Gentle Hearts Dog Education. My husband and I have done a lot of volunteer work for Veterans over the years. He has had his own service dog for 8 years. @scottbulletdog We have seen the need and would occasionally help people with their dogs and train service dogs. It has become a huge problem in the community with undertrained dogs causing a problem for working service dogs disrupting their work. Read more>>

Courtney Nicole | Artist & Licensed Veterinary Technician

I was going through the back half of cancer treatment at the time and thought that I should take advantage of the time off to get things going because becoming a rising artist takes awhile. Read more>>

Morgan & Taylor Brandemuehl & Silverstein | Co-Founders & Designers

Canyon & Coast was established in 2019 at a local wine bar by friends and interior designers, Taylor Silverstein (Taystefully Made) and Morgan Brandemuehl (Brandy Haus Interiors). Inspired by our Arizona roots and the love we have forged for the Carolinas, our boutique home décor brand resonates with elements of the desert and the sea. Read more>>

Elinor Fish | CEO of boutique travel company for women runners, Run Wild Retreats + Wellness

When I started Run Wild Retreats + Wellness, I was the managing editor of a running magazine, and really wanted to get more women into the sport of trail running specifically. So I started organization small running retreats in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but quickly recognized that what made the experiences so special was the connection and conversations between the women. Read more>>

Carter Holland | Event producer, talent buyer, and gatherer of humans

I have always had a knack for bringing people together, and connecting different groups of friends with one another. Music has also always played a large role in my life, and before too long these two elements collided and music became the central focus of the events and gatherings I was organizing. Read more>>

Ana Tere Canales | Artist & Designer

I LOVE expressing myself through art. I am passionate about the way I feel when creating something from my soul, and being able to share it with the world in the form of products that they can use daily and express themselves with makes me very happy. I love it when someone sees one of my pieces and says “it represents me” because that means they recognized something within themselves that made them connect to it. Read more>>

Austin Rich | Audio Engineer and Producer

I knew from a very early age I was driven to do something in music. After years of professional and personal development of my skillset, starting a business officially for my own brand was a step I saw as a requirement. I sought advice from established business owners regarding what it takes to get everything done legally as well as general helpful tips for running a business. Read more>>

Tammy Carter | Entrepreneur & Creator

My thought process was to share more of my culture and to create a one of kind product using the same ingredients that my ancestors used. Read more>>

Federica Sbordone | Instagram Micro Influencer & Content Creator

In 2018 I started working full-time for a company for the first time in my life. I had a pretty good earning opportunity and worked there for a year. Shortly before the end of my annual contract covid started and given the lockdown I had a lot of time to reflect on my life, on myself, on what I liked doing and what I didn’t like doing. Read more>>

Ally Dinbokowitz | Interior Designer, Uncommon Rose Designs

The start of my business follows a cliche as old as time, but rings true; Follow your passion. I was sitting in rush hour traffic one Tuesday on my way to my corporate marketing job. I remember it was a Tuesday, because Tuesdays were always booked with back to back dull and yawn-worthy meetings. My commute was an hour both ways and on that day I thought to myself, “I am spending 10+ hours a day doing something I dread. Read more>>

Jodi Thomas, M.A., CCC-SLP/L | Speech-Language Pathologist & Owner of Growing Voices Speech & Language Therapy

I wanted to maximize my ability to truly help children with speech and language disorders. I have a background in public schools and private clinics. Early in my career, I was amazed by the progress my private clinic clients often made compared to my students in the schools. Additionally, after the pandemic, I experienced a disparity between an increasing need for speech and language services and my ability to meet those needs within my employment. Read more>>

Gerty Tsinnie | Technology Problem Solver & Hi-Desert Gardener

With over a decade of experience in IT, I recognized a need for professional IT services in my community locally and through the greater southwest. I enjoy solving problems and helping to make people’s lives easier with the help of technology. Read more>>

Shelby Manton | Co-Founder, Producer

Ten years ago, Boldly started as an experiment amongst friends. We knew we wanted to make films, but we didn’t quite know what shape our company would take or what our business model would be. Between the three of us co-founders, we collectively had a film degree, a computer science degree, and a business degree – coupled with a few years of work experience in those respective fields and a passion for the filmmaking medium. Read more>>

Laura Pahules | Founder of Control Alt Delete

Control Alt Delete was founded 9/2/2019 to bridge the gap in services for people that need to escape. Having worked a number of years in the nonprofit sector, I noticed that domestic violence was prominent in every single area of human services from the unhoused to foster care to food insecurity. While there are wonderful shelters in Arizona I started looking into who helps Survivors actually leave. Read more>>

Rahul Iyer | Certified Personal Trainer

Starting a successful personal training business involves identifying a need or gap in the market, defining your value proposition, creating a business plan, building a brand, developing a marketing and sales strategy, and continuously learning and adapting. By focusing on the needs of your target audience, offering a unique value proposition, and building a strong brand and marketing strategy, you can establish credibility and attract clients who are seeking to achieve their fitness goals. Read more>>

Mark Schoenmakers Judith Dollevoet | Creative Directors Travelmonster

Before we started our own company I(Mark Schoenmakers) have been working in various managerial positions. I went from setting up a Marketing Intelligence Business Unit to Marketing Director to my last post as COO for an energy company. I was always fond of building and growing businesses but somehow I always ended up building someone else’s. Read more>>

Erin Mehagan | Wife, Mom x3, founder of Livi Lu Lane

When I first embarked on this journey, I wasn’t necessarily thinking, “oh! I can turn this idea into a business!” It was more a mixture of frustration and deep-rooted conviction that women deserve more. Read more>>

Cameron Conaway | Former Division 1 Soccer Player at Grand Canyon University. Outdoor Enthusiast

It was the desire to make a difference. A difference in a world so greatly distorted by what society thinks is right. Using our own backgrounds and molding them together, we wanted to use the challenges we have faced to create emphasis the importance of the battles we fight with ourselves every day. Read more>>

Chanell Sanders | Author Chanell Everine Sanders

As an Author, Influencer and Co-Founder of the Dynamic Book Club. When I began this journey my thoughts were always positive knowing that this was my calling, to serve God’s people. I did have the fear of what others would say about my life story and the things I’ve gone through but it was when I realized, I no longer lived in the past. Read more>>

Dari and Olah Nichols | Owners/Event Coordinators

The thought process behind starting our business was more like an awakening of sorts. I planned my first event in second grade. Ever since then I had been planning, executing and managing events through out my childhood and into adulthood. In all of the industries I’ve ever worked in over my lifetime, I’ve always been the life of the party and have brought that energy to the rooms and spaces I’ve occupied. Read more>>