Thinking through the first steps of starting a business

Starting and growing a business is hard, but often deciding to start the business in the first place is even harder. We asked some successful entrepreneurs from around the community to open up to us about how they thought about starting a business.

Trina Platt | Marketing Specialist

As I was younger, I didn’t like the situation I was in. It wasn’t life or death but growing up with 9 other sibling, absent father, and no education or guidance from an adult standpoint. I remember when I was about 14 I decided I had to make a change because I didn’t want to end up in the same situation as my mother. Read more>>

Bianca Labrador | Writer, Communications Specialist, and Travel Advisor

Starting my own business was really born out of necessity. I had started freelance writing on the side to get some extra money, and then I got pregnant with our second daughter. Unfortunately, the company I was working for didn’t fall under FMLA since they were below the employee threshold. Read more>>

LaTosha McCauley | Authoress and Publisher

I loved reading as a youth. I enjoyed the way an author could paint written pictures of different realities. I could be a pirate one day and a fairy the next. It’s something so magical about controlling someone’s emotions through words. However, once I got older, Read more>>

Gabriela Barrantes | Photographer, Small Business Owner

My thought process behind starting a business was to allow myself to have more creative freedom while making sure that I wasn’t burning myself out. I felt like my career as a photographer in the corporate world wasn’t as fulfilling as I expected it to be so I embarked on my entrepreneurship journey as a way to bring back passion and purpose to what I do. Read more>>

Priyanka McKinnes | Artist

: I always dreamed of running my own business, but I struggled with math as a student and did not have many opportunities to create a business while growing up in India. I wanted to be financially independent and I didn’t want to depend on my husband financially. Read more>>

Suitor | Rock Band

We all collectively have played in bands over the years. Most of them being heavy or considered hardcore. This project started as us just wanting to write music a little more easy listening while still holding true to our influences. Read more>>

Kevin Noisette | Music Video Director

Hey There , I am Kevin Noisette, a music video director and CEO of KN Visuals, a music video production company based in south Atlanta. I have always been passionate about the art of cinematography and storytelling since a young age. Read more>>

Christine Baines | Business Owner & Educator

Before becoming a business owner, I worked in the education and non-profit space as a teacher and eventually learning director. Like most people in those industries, I worked tirelessly to implement solutions and quality learning experiences. I found myself working over 50 hours a week to innovate solutions and ideas to enhance the companies I worked for. Read more>>

The Review | Band

Well going into music like this, we knew it was pretty much an impossible feat, but it’s a dream that we’ve had for a long time that we came together and decided we are willing to work as hard as we can to reach it. Read more>>

Harmoniah Carter | Actress, Composer, Artist, Producer, Director and CEO

Ownership is a very powerful thing to have in the world. I’ve always been so committed to the corporations I’ve worked for in the past that I knew it only made sense to do just that for something I could start on my own. Read more>>

Destiny Diggs | Founder & CEO

I started YoungBlackSuccessful, LLC. in 2016, as a sophomore in college while studying Broadcasting, at Long Island University in Brookville, New York. I knew that I could anticipate a promising career in radio and television because of the connections that I made and because of the people that my father, Gary Diggs, international musician and music producer connected me with in the music industry. Read more>>

Marisa Tatum-Taylor | Realtor and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Expert

In Black and Hispanic communities, there is a wealth gap that will take us decades to close. Real estate is one of the most secure ways to not only build wealth, but generational wealth. When I decided to sell real estate, I focused on this issue and felt a personal obligation to reach as many families as I could with the knowledge needed to reverse the statistics. Read more>>

Chef John Heard | Pitmaster / Cater

I’ve alway had a passion for cooking and smoking meats. In my early twenties I had a dream of one day opening my own BBQ & soul food restaurant. It wasn’t until I moved to Georgia and found that my love for barbecue was truly realized. After attending Culinary Arts School at Le Cordon Bleu, I knew exactly what I wanted our of life. Read more>>