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.

Donna R | Owner & Founder of CoffeeStix

My initial thought process behind starting CoffeeStix was How do I continue to make my Granny proud. She was there with me when I first presented the idea to family and close friends. She whispered into my now business partners ear that day and told her that CoffeeStix was going to be something special and that she was very proud of me. She passed away a few months later so my mission has been to continue to make her proud. Read more>>

Melissa Barber | K-12 Special Education Teacher and CEO of Coffee, Crafting & Community

It started when I was a teacher at a public high school. I was a self-contained special education teacher and kept getting asked the same questions over and over, year after year. Parents wanted to know if there were any programs available to their child during summer break and for those graduating what do we do next? Unfortunately the answer to those questions at the time was I don’t know. When finished with their senior year, typically students with a cognitive disability go onto some type of 18+ programing provided by their school district. Read more>>

Jessica Sekhon, M.s., Ccc-slp, Cas | Founder & CEO of Thrive Speech Therapy

My passion for becoming a speech-language pathologist began in childhood, inspired by my youngest brother’s journey through speech therapy due to muscle weakness from a genetic condition, Barth Syndrome. Witnessing his progress fueled my desire to enter the field. My first role as an SLP was in a school district, where I worked with over 100 children each week. However, after just a few years, I began to experience the early signs of burnout—a feeling that saddened me deeply because becoming an SLP had been a lifelong dream. Read more>>