The first step to starting a business is deciding to start a business.  They say the first step is the hardest and in our experience this is especially true when it comes to starting a business. Getting over the mental roadblocks can be tough, often harder to overcome than the challenges you’ll face once you actually start the business.  Fellow entrepreneurs share their thoughts below.

Kimhak Em | Coffee roaster & barista

I have always been in the food and beverage, so I knew I wanted to stay in the industry. When we were living the bayarea I used to visit our local coffee shop all the time and kind of fell in love with the culture. After moving to Arizona I started to work for a local shop here, they were new at the time so I had the chance learn and grow a long side them. After a few years at that shop I knew I wanted to start something on my own. Read more>>

Tasha Mistry | Analytics Professional | Creative | CharcuterieBitch

I’ve always wanted to own and operate my own business- I just never thought I had the time or knowledge to start. Charcuterie has been an interest of mine for years. I’m notorious for bringing an intricate board to every occasion – even if it’s a party of one! I officially moved from California to Arizona in the beginning of 2020 – right before the pandemic hit. Read more>>

 

Casey Landreth | Owner & Developer

For me I have always wanted to have my own business, make my own hours, run things the way that I think they should be run. It was a plan that I had to be down the road but did not expect that it would happen so soon. The company that I was working for was going under and I started to work remotely for them, after a while the signs that the company was not going to make it pushed me to go fully on my own. I do not regret it at all, hard at first be well worth the work. Read more>>

Jesse Holland | Health Guardian ~ Movement & Wellness Specialist

When I was starting my own business 5 years ago my thought process was that I was working for others for the previous 7 years. I was working 40 hours a week at 4 other facilities over 7 years. I was always helping other owners create success at the same time working towards my personal goal of impacting more lives than McDonalds has served. 5 years ago I had a plan of that didn’t go the way I had planned. I took it as a sign that the future didn’t need look exactly the way I envisioned it, as long as I was not standing still. Read more>>

Renee Dee | Publisher of ICONIC LIFE

The thought process behind starting my own business started at a very early age. At the age of 11, I started a neighborhood newspaper to bind our community together. There were 12 houses on our street, and so I appropriately named my newspaper, the Wide World of News. And so in our newspaper, we used a typewriter. And in order to produce the number of copies I needed, I had to buy carbon paper. So I would type the newspaper six times to get 12 copies. And it was that carbon paper investment that ended up putting me out of business. Read more>>