Thinking through whether to start a business – whether to take the risk, whether to go out on your own – isn’t easy. So we asked some entrepreneurs we admire to tell us about how they thought through the process of starting a business.

Ernie and Fiona Padaon | Everyday Forever Weddings (Wedding photography and videography)

We really wanted to build our own legacy and create something to hopefully leave for our children one day. We fell in love with photography and knew that we could create a unique space for creatives to express their artistic ability while providing for themselves and their families. Read more>>

Alison Kuo | Pastry Chef & Business Owner

I started doing a lot of research when I decided to start my own business. From business strategies to marketing, and to accounting. Topics that weren’t so familiar to me. But I knew I had to learn more in order to start and run a successful business. I also took references from some of my favorite brands, such as IN-N OUT and Apple. I love how IN-N-OUT only provides a small menu despite how other fast food restaurants have expanded their menu. Read more>>

Michael Liaw | Executive Director

During the few years that I did youth ministry at a local church, I noticed how many of the kids lacked support, especially that of fathers. They lacked male role models who would take interest in them, take them out for pizza, teach them how to tie ties, how to shave. I think of a parentless, 16 year old youth whose voicemail I returned. The first thing he said when he answered the phone was, “I didn’t think you’d call back.” The thirst for connection and belonging in that comment broke my heart. Read more>>

Jessica Anvar | CEO and Co-Founder

As a longtime consumer advocate and attorney, I understand the difficulties that individuals face when trying to navigate the legal system and find the right legal representation. It can be overwhelming, confusing, and frustrating to figure out where to turn for help. That’s why I believe that starting an LA based lawyer referral service can be an excellent way to help people find the right lawyer for their case. Read more>>

Katie Restrepo | Travel Blogger

The thought process behind starting my blogging business was to figure out a way to help parents travel with their kids. Too many times I heard “It’s too hard to travel with young kids, wait until they’re older,” and It made me sad at all the memories they were missing out on. I thought through how to best use my experiences to encourage and inspire others to go on adventures with their babies and toddlers. Read more>>

Aleyna Jones | Freelance Writer + Business Consultant

When I graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2012, I thought to myself: how on earth am I going to find a solid career in the middle of another recession? That’s when I overheard a fellow student say, “The only way to get a job these days is to create one yourself.” Instantly, I got the crazy idea to start my own freelance writing business fresh out of college. Since then, I’ve written hundreds of blogs, a few creative scripts, and a full-fledged novel for my creative and technical clients. With over 10 years of experience and Fortune 500 clients like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and HP under my belt, I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. Read more>>

Lizeth Ma | CEO/ Clinical therapist and researcher senior faculty instructor

While in college, my mom faced some severe struggles that had her seeking mental health care. As a pre-med college student, I quickly realized navigating the system and seeking help was not only stigmatizing, it was demoralizing. All the clinics we went to were rundown, outdated, and not inviting at all. I knew I had to find the best help for my mom as me and my sister were helping take care of our youngest sibling. Read more>>

Campluxe Cabovers | Truck camper supplier

We had previously founded a company within the industry and through that business we started to understand the full spectrum of affordability and needs. We learned what the staple amenities are that a customer needs when they’re off roading/over landing. We felt the need to bring a camper to the market that has all of these amenities at an affordable cost. Typically a van build can cost upward of $100k+ and bringing Campluxe cabovers to life allowed us to offer a unit with all the same amenities at a $40k price range. It just made sense. Read more>>

Lindsey Unger | Speech-Language Pathologist

When entering the field of Speech-Language Pathology 12+ years ago, my frame of mind was to help as many people as humanly possible to the greatest degree possible. While working for large institutions, I was faced with many barriers that made it difficult for me to reach this goal. I believe many medical providers have encountered similar barriers including micromanaging, patient’s insurance constraints, meeting performance standards while fulfilling unrealistic patient quotas, little to no time for adequate documentation, lack of support and clinical resources, and extremely long wait lists for patients. Read more>>

Shane and Sierra | Environmental Influencers

“YourEcoCouple” was conceived in order to help protect our planet and inspire couples to live a happier, healthier lifestyle. We are most proud of the lifestyle we’ve built together and excited about inspiring more change to help our planet and people! Getting to where we are today was arduous, but totally worth it. Sierra and Shane both majored in environmental fields in college, worked “9-5” jobs, and have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours educating themselves about various environmental topics and healthy lifestyle habits. This is just the beginning! Read more>>

MELISSA Lee | Event Design & Coordination

I started my event planning business, The Paige Agency, after spending years as a corporate event planner. What I loved most about the job was the process of building an event from an initial idea and watching it blossom into a successful reality. I knew that I wanted to focus on leveraging my creativity and building strong personal relationships with my clients and owning my own business would give me the flexibility to do that. Read more>>

Landon Tholen | BuildaBiz Founder

I’ve always had a business oriented mindset and I’ve found that it takes a lot of research to find the right guidance and advice specific to what you actually want to do. So with my latest business, BuildaBiz, I decided to leverage AI to help others bring their business ideas to life and personalize every bit of it along the way. Read more>>

Hannah Cooper, MS, RD | Registered Dietitian & Content Creator

I always knew I wanted to start my own private practice as a dietitian. During my dietetic internship and masters program I realized that I thrived in the 1:1 nutrition counseling sector, working with individuals who were motivated about their health and wanted to improve their overall wellness. Growing up I was always in the kitchen crafting recipes that were healthy and the opposite of boring. Read more>>

Luis Chacon | Content Creator

Let me take you back to middle school. I was that kid selling candy and Tostitos. Around that time my dad and I would always talk about owning a business one day. Years later when the Covid lockdown happened I knew I wanted to do something to occupy my time. Like many of you I was working from home and sleeping in the same room, so it became mentally draining. By week two of the lockdown, I had already binge watched everything I could on Netflix. Read more>>