Starting a business is a commitment and requires dedication, resources and sacrifice. We asked some of the rising stars in our community how they thought through the idea of starting their own businesses.

Iryna Kastsova | painter

I can’t help it. It’s a wave of ideas. They have completely taken over me. I wanted to bring my vision to life. Read more>>

Caitlyn Garcia | Director of Super School

I actually did not start Super School. However, I have been here since the inception. I was teaching at another private school here in south Florida, when one of my students was mastering everything at school but was not carrying it over to the home. So I told them I am coming over to see what’s going on. From there, we started talkin about an alternative approach to education. The Founders of Super School entrusted me to develop the curriculum and get the ball rolling. Read more>>

Oliver Solorzano | Content Creator | Digital Marketing Agency Owner

I decided to start my own business when my boss in my lat job told me when I could and could not take a vacation with my family. The limitations to my earnings. Freedom from a conventional boss was my motivation. Having someone tell me when I could and couldn’t take a break was difficult. To have someone tell me A good time for me to take a vacation was when I was to get into work early and leave late or else… Read more>>

Heather and Eric Elliott | Party Presidents of Bounce Bright

We like to think of Bounce Bright as a true story about bouncing back. For as long as we can remember, we have wanted to start our own business, but never had the courage to pull the trigger. After experiencing a great deal of loss this past year, we found ourselves realizing more than ever just how short life really is and chose to channel our grief into chasing our dreams. Bounce Bright has been a creative outlet for our family to heal and bounce back from a truly difficult time in our lives and, regardless of our success, we will always be so grateful for that. Read more>>

Gaby Alfaro | Owner, GVA Soccer Training

I wanted to create a safe space for female soccer athletes. An environment where they saw women everyday doing what they love in a sport were male figures are predominant. Wanted to create an environment were the sports wasn’t our only priority, the athlete was. Read more>>

Brice mazzetto | Entrepreneur

After moving to Miami with Jennifer my wife, from France. I wanted to realize a dream. I have been from a young age interested by the Horology world and the watch industry. I have own my first mechanic watch at 8years old and I became a watch addict. Together we have launch and run 3 coffees shop called “Fresh Baked café”. With the success of the coffee shops I thought, we could push forward and launch a watch company. That for success the answer is in you. Read more>>

Andy Johnson | Photographer

I started my own business as a means of sharing my passion with the world and also as a second stream of income to provide for my family. Read more>>

Nurdan Gur | Restaurant owner

owning your own business means being the captain of your own ship. right actions will take you to your destination successfully, and mistakes can even cause you to sink the ship. Also, a good captain’s crew will be good. Introducing your own country’s food in another country and trying to do it right by analyzing good and bad examples requires serious effort. But the pleasure when you do it right and carry it to a Michelin award like my brand El Turco is priceless. Read more>>

Slav G. | Sunny Boat Rentals Owner

Miami and Fort Lauderdale are beautiful places to live and vacation, but you haven’t truly experienced South Florida until you’ve seen it from the water. It’s truly a unique and a completely different way to view the city. Owning a personal boat can become very expensive and many people are not able to store or maintain a boat. That’s how the idea came to start a boat rental and boat club business, so locals and tourists can truly experience the Miami lifestyle without the stress of owning a boat. With a year round tropical climate, Read more>>

Jehriko Turner | Fashion Public Relations

A shifting fashion industry created room for a boutique PR firm to work with small market brands that are learning how to take advantage of a global market that is shrinking due to the widespread use of social media. Read more>>

Carolina Santos | Owner & Healer: Akhila Om Yoga

I have to start by saying it wasn’t planned. After my divorce in 2008, I began looking for different ways to heal the pain. Having practiced yoga and meditation in the past and feeling it’s powerful effects on the mind, body and spirit, I decided to travel to India to deepen my practice. After my training I continued with my journey onto Nepal. It was there, trekking up Everest Base Camp that I had to get rescued by a helicopter and brought down to Kathmandu because of severe altitude sickness. Read more>>

Gypsy | Entrepenur

I’ve been a free spirit since I can remember. I always had a hard time coping with looking a certain way to work for someone else. Working a 9-5 just never felt right to me. I would always feel drained, and unhappy. Now I work 24/7. I make my own rules, work when I want to, how I want. I can be my complete self, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Read more>>

Andrew McNamara | Artist, designer, and small business owner

I first knew that I wanted to create my own apparel business over a decade ago, when I was still a teenager. My thought process then was centered around self-expression and using fashion to help craft my identity. I saw having my own business as a way to share my creativity, but also I desired the freedom in my life I thought having something completely my own would bring. As I got older, I realized I needed to know more about the fashion industry, Read more>>

Giselle Loor Sugerman | Founder of B+G Design

We had been working for years for a large interior design firm- a very corporate setting where I initially met Brett. We found ourselves limited by their restrictions on how they wanted us to do business. We felt stifled in our creative process and wanted to give our clients a more personalized bespoke experience. I was excited to create our own brand that represents what we stand for. Read more>>

Daniela Porat | Graphic Designer

My partner Gabriela Yaroslavsky and I have a history of accomplishments in the graphic design industry. Me as a design professional at Marie Claire in Brazil, where I worked for a few years and she as an agency professional. When I moved here to the US, first to Hoboken, then to Aventura, Gabriela and I understood that we could contribute to the flourishing Florida market with our experience, quality of service and the Brazilian tradition in design, Read more>>

Christina Francois | Staple Jewels CEO

The first thought that came to mind was “Can I really do this?” My older siblings have their own businesses and have successfully managed to generate multiple streams of income despite the difficulties life has thrown their way. Growing up, my loved ones pointed out little niches that I could turn into a hobby. However, I personally didn’t believe I could turn any of them into an actual business. Read more>>

Danielle Williams | Fashion Designer

I have had a love for fashion since a teenager and have always wanted to be a fashion designer. Read more>>

Emanuel Pastrana | Owner/Operator: Premier Media Company

I wanted the freedom to chase my passion of storytelling through photos and videos. Read more>>

Juan Retallack | Fashion Photographer

To start building my own name and to not work for anyone else, and to do whatever I want with my time. Read more>>

Analicia Austin | Illustrator

I had the idea to start my business after getting some positive feedback from my friends and family regarding my artwork. I decided to launch my business on Etsy. Read more>>

Burcu Kan | Jill of All Trades

My thought process when starting my business was honestly to just have fun and roll with the punches. I really enjoy candles. They make the perfect gift, office/desk and/or house decor and when you hand pour them, it leaves so much room for creativity. Having fun with this business and project is important to me because once it’s no longer fun, my all won’t be put into it the way it is now. Aside from fun, I knew that I had to start somewhere. Read more>>

Jessica Marin | Lingerie Designer & real estate agent

It started in 2021 when I was looking to purchase lingerie online and I really couldn’t find anything that made me want to buy it without me thinking “it’s too much for me to wear’. I’ve always thought less is more so I wanted to create a brand that showed minimalist pieces with sexy finishes for the everyday women. Read more>>

Victoria Hegert | Entrepreneur & Law Student

My thought process in starting my business, Hat’achik, was to sell a product that was both sustainable and sexy. My dream is for anyone who puts on a Hat’achik Hat to feel a boost in confidence, and know that their purchase is supporting business practices that are both sustainable and ethical. Specifically, in a time where fast fashion is a threat to humans and our planet. I hope to see more sustainable fashion lines emerge to give consumers ethical choices and so I took action and started my own. Read more>>

Brian Dennis | Entrepreneur & Creator

Brims & Lows has been an idea of mine for the last decade. However, I never got around to making it a reality due to the everyday streasors in life. When the pandemic began in 2020, I was laid off from my job with the Boys & Girls Clubs after 10 years of serving the community. Needing the income at the time, my wife, Whitney, reminded me of all of my “genius ideas”. After buying our 1st heat press and designing the logo myself, Brims & Lows was born. Read more>>

Gustavo Brunser | Director of Strategic Development, Runner and Amateur Musician.

During my college years, I started to think about what I could do with some of the knowledge and language skills I had. Because I am fluently bilingual and love technology I started doing jobs as a freelance translator where I would translate product manuals from English to Spanish and vice versa. This also motivated me to start looking into how to do the design and layout. Remember, this is in the late 80s and so desktop publishing was just starting. Read more>>

Marci Guttenberg | Invitation Stationer

For me, it goes back to my wedding. Though I had been planning weddings for others in the catering sales arena for years, I didn’t know much about the invitation world. Based on the experience my fiance and I had during our search for invitations, I thought what could I do to improve it for clients.? I wanted to make the experience a little easier and provide more knowledge of what I have learned over the years to those who needed the advice. Those who come to me do not know much about the invitation process, nor what options and enhancements could introduce the client’s vision of their event. Read more>>

Victoria (Tori) Schoeler | Artist

My friends and family would ask me to fill their blank walls in their homes with my original paintings. They would insist on maying my for my artwork and so with a lot of encouragement from close friends and family members I took the plunge and put myself out there as a professional artist. Read more>>

Irina Popova | Real Estate Broker and Managing Partner at The Agency Ottawa

Craving financial and scheduling freedom is what inspired my to start my own business and be my own boss. Of course I quickly realized that these goals would take years to achieve but is has been well worth the initial hustle. When I first got my real estate license I started working under a large corporate brand. Shortly after, I met my now business partner Max Damour, who was running a successful real estate team at the time with a focus on urban condominium properties. Read more>>

Florian Kohler | Professional Pool Trick Shot Artist!

Hard to describe as it really is an organic process. I really just started by doing a few trick shots here but never thought this could become a business. From small exhibitions to tournament it then become apparent something was doable so opened a small company in France before moving to the USA and really taking it to the next level! Read more>>

Latoya Hopwood | CEO, Founder, & Global Chief Cultural Officer

Believing that creativity is life, Latoya Michelle Hopwood, MPA, CLC’s CEO, Founder and Global Chief Cultural Officer, dived into the A in STEAM at an early age. She always loved acting, singing, writing, literacy, teaching, learning, data collecting, and creating environments where learning is optimal. Desiring to increase the collaboration of purveyor organizations and intermediary organizations, Latoya founded Community Learning Coalition and serves as CLC’s Global Chief Cultural Officer. Read more>>

German Minelli | Owner of MINELLI SERVICES LLC

The process began approximately 7 years ago with my first vacation trip to Miami, in which I noticed on subsequent trips that the construction business was constantly growing. At that time I was developing in the Public Administration of my Country Argentina in which being dependent for approximately 14 years, I made the analysis of venturing independently and forming a Company to enter the construction market in Florida, for the which is born MINELLI SERVICES LLC. Read more>>

Zach | Real Estate Salesperson & Model

I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship from a young age and I knew that it would be a great challenge to start working for myself. I’ve always enjoyed work and put a lot of effort into anything that I do, so I felt that if I kept up my work ethic, I could succeed even working for myself. Read more>>

Jennifer Bennett | CEO/ Founder of Get Desky

I wanted to give stay at home mother the opportunity to earn a living for their families. While also giving them the freedom and flexibility to be present for their family. Read more>>

Jonathan Harris | Owner & Installation Instructor

My thought process in starting my own business came from me wanting more out of life. Not having much or anyone to pull you up while your down will drive anyone to elevating or giving up. In a world where it’s so easy to give up they say (it’s the fight in the dog not the dog that fights). I live by this knowing plenty of times I was ready to throw in the towel. Read more>>

Carla Smith | Life Coach & Owner of Hat Apparel Business

I am a Certified Life Coach so I wanted hats that inspire & give people confidence Read more>>

Michelle Williams | CEO

I was tried of what I was see in the industry and wanted to be apart of the change. Read more>>

Kasey Estefan | Professional Esthetician & GLOW GETTER

I always knew I was going to start a business. From the age of 7 years old I was always in my dads company working his business. In total he created and managed 4 if not more businesses. We were so alike I knew that was going to be me one day. The most important thing to me was being able to find something I was passionate about. I didn’t want to build a business just because – I wanted to build it because it resonated with me and when I share my knowledge it’s because I truly care about what my patients are going through and I can help them from what I’ve learned along the way. Read more>>