Ideas aren’t everything, execution matters greatly, but starting often requires an idea and so we asked folks to think back and tell us the story of how they came up with the idea for their businesses. We’ve highlighted some of our favorite stories below.

Jenniree Beze & Marinés Rosales Jenniree Beze & Marinés Rosales | Co-Founders

Our venture began in Venezuela in 2012, where our pastry hobby became a part-time business. The idea was born out of our fascination for combining exotic flavors and our love for pastry. While studying at the university, we took our time off to sell our desserts on campus. People waited every day for us to arrive with desserts to sell. We kept our business for several years in Venezuela until we moved to Miami. Read more>>

Melina Santandreu | Reiki Healer for Athletes

Since I can even remember I have loved sports, from running and martial arts, to crossfit, scuba diving and ultimate frisbee, I enjoy paying and watching all kinds of sports, but I also have a big passion for helping other and energy work. As a person that is really active in sports, I have many injuries that kept me out of training from time to time, is at that time that I started studying the benefits of alternative and complimentary healing practices like massage therapy Yoga and Reiki, Read more>>

Kate Pauley | Founder of Create Dinners and Photographer

I wanted to create something with my friends that we could all feel proud of and have a hand in. I sent the following email out to a handful of them in April 2016 just about a month before Dinner No. 1, our first ever Create Dinners event. This email is verbatim lol. “I’m emailing you because you’re talented, beautiful, and if you haven’t met everyone else on this email, it’s about time. Several of us have been chatting about (really for the past year or so) doing a creative collaboration. We all have different talents, and together they have the ability to create something amazing. Read more>>

Lia Biscardi | Visual Storyteller

So, I started my business in June 2021, but the idea of my business started in January 2020. I wanted another pathway in my life besides the career of education. I started thinking about out of the box ways to serve others with my talent of photography so I tested all the different types: portraits, landscape and event photography. I stumbled upon product photography in March 2020 and fell in love. I hired a business coach in 2021 and based on her recommendation; I took the avenue of product photography all the way and quit teaching in June. Read more>>

Britney Dunbar | Nutritional Therapy Practitioner

The whole idea of creating my own nutritional therapy business was started because of where my own health journey began. I had struggled with health problems off and on for a very long time, misdiagnosed autoimmune disorders, postpartum anxiety and depression, Hashimotos, and SIBO. Then in 2020 I started seeing my own Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and it changed the trajectory of my life. I wanted to go to school and help women (and men) advocate for their own health, I wanted them to feel like they could live a full life without their health holding them back. So in January 2022, Magnolia Wellness and Nutrition was born. You can read why I chose the name, Magnolia here (https://www.magnoliawell.co/about) Read more>>