Starting a business can be terrifying. Weighing the pros and cons, the risks, and other considerations can be so overwhelming that often promising entrepreneurs stop before they even start. We asked some phenomenal entrepreneurs about their thought process behind starting their own businesses. Our hope is that by making the thought-process less intimidating we can help more folks think through whether they should take an entrepreneurial leap.

Brittany Fuisz | Founder

Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, having my own business was always a priority. I saw how hard my parents worked and loved that they were in charge of their own schedules. My father always told me that I should strive to have a career where I’d be making money while I was laying in bed at night or on vacation. My mother showed me that working and being a mom was possible. I worked for a large company for a long time while I thought about what type of business I wanted to start. When I came up with the idea for malibu mylk, I could feel it, I knew this was going to be my business. Read more>>

Nick Hamilton | Media Personality & Founder

The vision to start Nitefall Media is to develop a conglomerate that covers the world of sports, pop culture, and lifestyle across the nation. As we continue to excel and partner with some very prolific regional outlets, we wanted to make sure our voice is not only heard but respected. A voice that represents many communities of color and allows other journalists /reporters to have an opportunity to use their voice to not only tell stories but represent change. Read more>>

Davy Khy | Fashion Planning Consultant & Recipe Developer

I got to the point in my life where I didn’t feel satisfied with sitting in an office, at a desk all day. I wasn’t fullfilled by climbing the corporate latter anymore. Not that there is anything wrong with any of that but I wanted something different. I wanted to cook. I wanted to finally work on a cookbook of my mother’s Cambodian recipes. It got to the point where I was so unhappy and maybe even depressed. I knew something had to change. Read more>>

Alex West | Award Winning Filmmaker & Creative Executive

Wanting to create freedom for myself and show others how to take the same path. I also wanted to change the narrative by shifting the power back into the hands of the culture. Read more>>

Maria Barajas | Actor, Dreamer & Pilates Instructor

One thing always takes you to another and so on. But I believe that what has taken me to start my own business comes with my will to find my passion, to do what I love doing and always looking forward to be good at it. I went to college and I studied business and when I did my internship, I just new my heart was somewhere else… I could feel my body asking me to move and wishing it was doing what I love. It came like an energy from the inside telling me basically: “What are you doing?, you know what you want, why wait any longer?”, thats when I went to study acting and went after my dreams. Read more>>

Aleena Azhar | Marketing Professional

From the beginning, my main goals have always been wanting to own my own company and help people. My thought process behind starting my own business stemmed from the fact that I had been doing corporate marketing for enterprise level companies for a couple of years and I gained a variety of marketing experience during that time. I would say because of that, I became an expert in the field. I wanted to bring that level of marketing potential to smaller and medium size business owners. Read more>>

Natalie Vo Bombet | Jewelry Maker

I never thought I would be in the jewelry business. My previous career path was in marketing, live events and PR. I had moved to Los Angeles in 1999 to open up STAPLES Center as their Marketing Manager and I moved up and around within the company over 10 years until I was laid off. My younger son was born soon after so I dove into motherhood, taking care of my two baby boys, and consulted on the side. One of the companies that I worked on was a jewelry company. Read more>>

Sabine Dodane | Skin Care Artisan

I was born and raised in France. Growing up, I was taught to appreciate life’s simple pleasures, and to be connected with all of my senses. I learned to select the best that nature has to offer: Produce grown right, not rushed, picked at the peak of ripeness and flavor, from trusted sources. My approach to self care and skincare has always been based on the same principles. I created Rêves de Sabine (“Sabine’s Dreams”) to share with others the pleasure of fresh skincare, made with ingredients selected for their quality, and as close to their original form as possible. Read more>>

Ester Holt | Owner

It started when I bought a plastic cake comb and I thought to myself ‘I can save money and make the same plastic comb myself’. Consequently, I bought my own material and cut out the combs myself. When fellow cake decorators started buying them and my husband saw that, he asked me if I wanted him to make combs out of metal instead. He is in the construction business and as metal is more sturdy, I agreed. With the metal material, I can get better results on my cakes and it is more durable for longer lifespan. Read more>>

Dom Battle | Designer, Illustrator & Creative

The thought process that went In to creating my business was that I needed something that was mine and that could make me money. Something that I could put my name on and say I did this on my own. Honestly at the time it didn’t matter what the business was as long as it came from me. I shortly realized that wasn’t gonna work. I tried many things but there was no passion behind, Therefore it didn’t go far. so i just stopped trying to create a business and just continued to create. Read more>>

Greta Kovacs Schmid | Founder & CEO

I always knew I wanted to start my own company, it was just a matter of how I was going to do it and when I could realistically make it happen. I wanted to make sure that I was experienced enough in the fashion/beauty PR industry to start my own agency and be confident that it was going to be successful. I interned at several PR agencies while I was getting my undergraduate and then masters degrees, then worked in-house for a fashion designer as PR Manager and proceeded to work my way up at several different PR agencies until finally I knew I was ready. Read more>>

Tawanna Wells | Chef & Caterer

I knew I wanted to have my own business, but part of me wasn’t ready, so I started do things to prepare myself for my business such as menu selections, business cards, food testing. All of these things come into play when you are ready to start a business. Read more>>