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.

Andrea Rees | Graphic Designer & Entrepreneur

I began selling on Etsy in 2012 after an inside family joke became popular amongst friends and acquaintances. My parents, sister, and I have always created those paper chain countdowns — yes, the ones you used to make in kindergarten — to help count down the days to reach a milestone (e.g. graduation, retirement, etc.) So it seemed only fitting to create a 40-week chain to announce my first pregnancy to my parents. However, being a creative/graphic designer, blank strips of paper certainly weren’t going to do — each link had the dates, week number, and what fruit or vegetable the baby was currently the size of. Read more>>

Sierra Devoe | Founder & Executive Director of Project Rise

My business has taken on many faces since its inception. Especially as it evolves and scales into the company, God sees fit. Now, the ideology or concept has always stayed the same. If you have read any of my previous articles or heard me speak, then you know that the idea of Project Rise was birthed from my own experience with financial struggle. I did everything that was deemed by society as a pathway to live a comfortable life, a financially stable life. I got the degrees, did the internships, volunteered, and worked the hours. But I still kept falling short. I worked as a social worker at an outpatient mental health facility. And the same challenges my clients were facing, I was facing. Read more>>

Victoria Peters | Business Owner

During the pandemic a friend and I were making cute sweatsuits and decided to try tie dye. I immediately loved it and they turned out super cute. When we went on walks in them people kept stopping us and asking us where we got them. I started dying everything I could get my hands on and Tye Dye By Tori was born. Read more>>

Drip Trip | Musician, Pizza Artist

I started Trippy Pizza Company LLC when I lost my job as a web developer at the Detroit Land Bank. I had already been the cook for our home events, so I thought to use my skills at the music and art events we had been hosting. It had a really great debut and I made over $800 in that 6 hours. Read more>>

Jeremiah Steen | Executive Director

Throughout my career – in the early stages, I served on several youth advisory boards. Through these opportunities I learned the importance of organization critique. Also, I learned how organizations were using young people as performative pieces when fundraising on their behalf. Many organizations would claim that the young people that they worked with were at-risk, vulnerable, in desperate need of service and the program they need funding for would be for youth by youth – youth receiving opportunities to gain leadership skills and develop a in-depth understanding of the industry’s ecosystem that they were in. Read more>>

Robin Chodak | Grief/Life/Spiritual Coach and Author

I came up with the Idea of my grief coaching business when I realized there were people like myself who were trying to cope with traumatic loss and unable to find support. In 2005 when my husband, Steve died by suicide, there was not much help available. We didn’t have iPhones and didn’t have access to the internet, unless you had a personal computer in your home. There were not many support groups dealing with loss related to suicide. Years later, I knew I wanted to help people process their grief and I could do it by starting my own grief coaching business. Read more>>

Philip Smith | Ice Cream Man and Para Educator

My business, The Ice Cream Pedal’r, came about because I needed a side job to help pay my bills during the Summer when I wasn’t working my normal job with the Clare/Gladwin Career Technical Education program. As a kid I worked for my dad’s ice cream parlor and thought that a “mobile ice cream business” might be fun and profitable. There wasn’t anyone selling ice cream treats locally, so I looked in other states and picked up a few ideas and ran with it. I started selling ice cream from an old fashioned vending tricycle at the park and local events. Then I moved on to catering at weddings and other family and corporate gatherings and events. Read more>>

Cindy Eggleton | CEO, Brilliant Detroit

I worked leading education efforts at a local foundation. I saw what worked and what did not work. In that it was clear that changing paths early in life could change poverty generation to generation. I met my co-founders, Jim and Carolyn Bellinson, and together we knew we needed to change the typical models. The statistics were clear: 14 percent of children in Detroit were reading at grade level and over 30,000 kids at that time did not have any early learning options. We saw the problem as being a lack of coordination and access in one place. My partners had the business acumen and I had the education and impact knowledge. Read more>>