Many books on startups and business talk about how there are right and wrong reasons for starting a business. So, we asked a handful of successful founders about their reasons and the thought-process behind starting their business.

Cat McKenna | Graphic & Web Design

I started my own business to be able to treat clients the way I’d like to be treated. I wanted to provided a more intimate relationship. Because of this I have a thriving business and clients who are more like family than customers. Another driving force to starting my own business was to allow for more flexibility. I knew I wanted a family and making my own schedule along with being able to work from home made that much easier (although the hours are longer – often late at night & early morning). Read more>>

Jennifer Dokes | Freelance Editor and Writer

My goal when venturing into self-employment after 30 years in journalism was to do something that didn’t’ make me feel like I was starting over. I didn’t want to reinvent myself or abandon my passion. I developed a love for the written word in junior high school and it has served me well. Why should I stop doing what I do best? I decided to try to be me (editor, writer, thinker, doer) all by myself, not for another news organization or a PR/marketing agency. Words matter on any platform. Effective communication of deep thoughts and big ideas, the kind of writing and editing that I spent more than 20 years doing as an editorial board member at The Arizona Republic, holds value and power. The only question for me in 2014 was whether there was a market in Phoenix and beyond specifically for what I have to offer. The answer: Yes. Read more>>

Haley Hallock | PSYCH-K, CCH

A multitude of factors influenced my desire to start my own business. Initially I had desired to move forward towards a traditional route as I was finishing my psychology studies at ASU, however life or destiny intervened in a serendipitous way. I was introduced to a holistic modality that not only changed my life, but inspired my desire to create change for others. I decided to follow that path and eventually added additional modalities as well. I incorporate PSYCH-K, Hypnosis, and soon to finish up my training in Reiki. Read more>>

Ryan Giolitto | Our Why

To create something that simply did not exist. We started out with the intention of creating a CPA firm that did 2 things that no others did: 1) Provide the employees an amazing work experience 2) Provide the clients with an amazing professional experience For #1, we provided flexible hours, attempted to minimize overtime and weekend work hours, and pushed our people to complete projects in a way that allowed them to also have work life balance. For #2, we focused purely on saving people money and improving our client’s financial situations. Roughly 4 years later, we have succeeded in saving our customers over $1,000,000 in cumulative identifiable tax savings using this model. Our next goal will be saving our customers over $10,000,000 in the next 5 years. Read more>>

Evgenia Knyazheva | Owner of Joy and Vitality Centre

At age 6, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. For the next four years, my family followed medical advice, which meant many prescription drugs and surgeries for my health improvement (glands removal and adenoids removal). My whole family was involved in my healing process. I had to take medication every three hours (day or night), bathe with Dead Sea salts and have compresses with special ointment from medical doctors. We also used some natural herbs and medicinal mushrooms, such as Chaga (native to Siberia), for my immune support and inflammation. This wasn’t received well by conventional medical doctors. My grandmother left her job at age 46 and moved to our city to help my parents take care of me. Read more>>

Oleg Bolotov | Filmmaker/Photographer

My business was started by filmmakers and friends that wanted to keep making movies/work together and not rely on crowdfunding for our projects. We wanted to keep making unique and exciting work that was OURS and no one else’s. Read more>>

Jay Monday | Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Gas Piping

I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years and I wanted to bring my military and family beliefs of honor & integrity to the trades. I wanted to show people that a company can be built and flourish by reputation and standings in the community vs advertising. I love helping people and it is so rewarding to be able to fix, repair or replace air conditioning and plumbing better than how it was originally installed. To be able to bring people better quality air conditioning & plumbing helps me feel honorable and go to bed knowing I do people right. Read more>>