Many workers, perhaps disillusioned by cubicle walls and fluorescent lighting, may have indulged in a fantasy at some point in their careers. They\u2019d finally take that side gig and make it their sole source of income. They\u2019d open that boutique in the empty storefront they pass every day. They\u2019d turn that idea for an app into reality.<\/p>\n
The US is home to over 33 million small businesses <\/a>\u2014 organizations with fewer than 500 employees \u2014 and businesses of this size account for nearly all of the country\u2019s employers. Nearly 46 percent of Americans are employed by a small business.<\/p>\n But the path to getting these businesses off the ground \u2014 and ensuring they\u2019re sustainable \u2014 can be daunting. There\u2019s money to raise, leases to sign, staff to build, inventory to acquire. And in today\u2019s turbulent economy, with uncertainty around tariffs<\/a> and predictions about a coming recession<\/a>, these hurdles can seem insurmountable. But as these six entrepreneurs who all recently launched their businesses prove, there will never be the \u201cperfect\u201d time to start your own company. From the bouncer who opened his own comic book shop to the new mom who launched a beauty brand, small business owners share what it took to get their ideas off the ground.<\/p>\n Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be afraid to change course<\/p>\n From Joyce Medeiros, CEO and co-founder of Investrio<\/a>, a bookkeeping and tax prep software for solopreneurs:<\/p>\n I\u2019d been in finance my whole career before building Investrio, and I saw a need for entrepreneurs to get their finances just right. My co-founder also came from finance. Initially, when we set out to build a tool, we were helping with credit card debt, and we didn\u2019t really understand who our ideal customer was. At the time, we were helping Latinos, we were helping minorities. Upon looking at the data holistically, after a couple of months, we realized our customer is a solopreneur, and it\u2019s not a credit card issue; it\u2019s an accounting problem. That led us to pivot the strategy, the marketing, the way that we approach the business and the product itself.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve made no money some months.\u201d<\/p>\n I was a financial coach before Investrio really took off. I\u2019ve made no money some months. If you are ever curious about jumping ship, start working on some of those things that take time, like growing a social media audience, before you quit your job. I spent about a year building the social media presence, coaching on the side, and testing different products before I quit my full-time job. You might budget for three to six months until revenue comes, but it might take nine. You don\u2019t want to be left behind. You really want to plan ahead for the finances.<\/p>\n Lean into your strengths \u2014 and outsource where you can<\/p>\n From Grace Howland, founder of \u00c9voquer<\/a>, a direct-to-consumer fragrance brand: <\/p>\n I was working in investment banking and private equity in industrials, and my favorite part of the job was speaking with the founders about their startup stories and how they built their businesses. Last year, my firm announced they were moving to New York and shutting down their LA office, and I quit the next day. I filed for an LLC about a month later.<\/p>\n I lived and worked in Paris a few years ago, and I had this fragrance I wore every day while I was living there. Now, whenever I smell that, it brings me back to that time period of my life. I\u2019ve always loved the idea behind scent memory. So my brand is really focused on scent memory and attaching different experiences to a scent and then always being able to come back to those periods in your life.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve hired someone to do product development, because I am not a perfumer. I hired a nose, which is basically a sommelier for fragrances, and she\u2019s been helping me mix. Every time she mixes a trial, she sends it to me, and then I send her notes. We\u2019re on trial number 106 and still going. We\u2019re going to launch in October, maybe November, and I just did not expect it to take that long, honestly.<\/p>\n Consider your customer\u2019s price point<\/p>\n From Maria Colalancia, owner of Aperitivo Society<\/a> and Aperitivo the Shop<\/a>, a business that hosts community dining experiences and a storefront selling home items in Boston, respectively:<\/p>\n I moved up to Boston for a job and wanted to make this a place that I settled into and where I could try to build a community. I put out a TikTok and was like, \u201cHey, I\u2019m new-ish to Boston. I really like hosting dinner parties. Is anyone interested in a somewhat regular dinner party?\u201d That TikTok went viral, and so I jumped into action. I made an Instagram and got a website, and we had 700 people sign up off of that one TikTok. We hosted the first dinner two weeks later in 2023. I continued that for over a year and a half while also working my full-time job. In March of 2024, I wanted to open a store, but I was not actively searching. I saw a space and signed the lease. That was over a year ago, and I\u2019ve now quit my full-time job.<\/p>\n \u201cThe neighborhood has been really hungry for something like this for so long that we have a lot of really strong, loyal regulars already built in from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n I try to work with small businesses or local artists and smaller batch production. I might not directly see the impact of tariffs, but prices are definitely increasing, because they have to get their supplies from somewhere. People are very vocal about prices. It was shocking to me when someone would come in and be like, \u201cOh my god, that is so expensive,\u201d or not fully understanding all of the costs that go into that end price that the customer is seeing. The average consumer doesn\u2019t always understand, especially in a world with Amazon and Walmart where they\u2019re bypassing a lot of those middleman costs. It could get to a point where I can\u2019t source those products, and I have to pivot to other products, or the prices just get too high to where people no longer want to buy them.<\/p>\n Listen to the needs of the community<\/p>\n From Zach George, owner of East Atlanta Comics<\/a>, a comic shop in Atlanta:<\/p>\n I have worked at a bar down the street for 11 years in November. I\u2019ve been a bouncer there. I love the neighborhood. A friend of mine who\u2019s a bartender opened a record shop two years ago, Black Habit Records<\/a>. It gave me inspiration to see if it was possible to do a comic shop. I\u2019ve always loved comic shops and nerd stuff. I sold an empty piece of property that I had an investment in and used that money to finance the store. I did all this on 60 grand. I live pretty modestly. It wasn\u2019t an easy thing to get together, but when I saw the store, I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s worth trying.\u201d<\/p>\n The neighborhood has been really hungry for something like this for so long that we have a lot of really strong, loyal regulars already built in from day one. There\u2019s no Toys R Us anymore. There\u2019s no KB Toys. Kids don\u2019t have a spot where they go to pick out something cool. That\u2019s been really cool to see: all the neighborhood families that come in here on a regular basis. And then, also, the homies that I\u2019ve grown up coming here and getting hyped on Batman is pretty cool.<\/p>\n Embrace the power of negotiation<\/p>\n