When Yvette Salum and her husband, Hugo stepped into entrepreneurship, they didn’t start with a business plan dreamed up in isolation. They started with a promise rooted in community.  “People helped us when we first moved here,” Salum...

When Yvette Aitkens-Franklin moved to the United States from the United Kingdom, she thought she was coming for a fresh start, but she found so much more. Today, Aitkens-Franklin is the founder of Franklin Home Health Agency, a Marion-based home...

On mornings when cities still feel half-finished, Phillip Gonzalez, owner of Greenville Bike Taxi, stands in the middle of his own momentum — hands-on, eyes forward, and wearing every hat a growing business demands. At Greenville Bike Taxi, the...

Charlotte Berger, the owner of Charleston-based marketing and public relations firm, CBPR, did not set out to start a marketing agency as much as she set out to stop watching other people burn out. In Michigan, she’d always been drawn to...

Nautical Boat Club, a multi-location franchise, owned and operated by Jon Dukes, is a boating country club celebrating its 20th anniversary on Lake Murray. Dukes had a different career path – one that did not start in boating. A two-time Clemson...

When no one is telling the story, it’s easy for people to assume the work is one thing: faster equipment, better software, and newer tools. With ANC Group, a Greenville-based information technology company, the real difference is quieter than that...

When Derrick Law Firm founder, Dirk Derrick talks about building a personal injury law practice, he doesn’t talk about billboards, radio commercials or conventional legal marketing.  He talks about hunger.  Raised on a tobacco farm by...

When Katy Calloway first started building what would become Calloway Stern Group, a Charleston-based consulting firm that serves small to mid-size nonprofit organizations, she didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. She was trying to solve a problem...

If you’ve ever watched someone switch from “I’m trying to get through the day” to “I’m building something,” then it’s known to not have happened in a straight line. Sometimes, it starts with a technical skill you never intended to commercialize....

When someone starts a medical practice, people assume it’s a straight line – black and white. Find a location, open the doors, and wait for the phone to ring. Dr. Andrea Pezella, the founder of Southern Urogynecology Wellness and Aesthetics in...

On a hot South Carolina day, Lori Patrick, owner of Gabby Goat Farm, doesn’t describe entrepreneurship like a spark or a sudden leap. She describes it like work that compounds: buckets that need refilling, decisions that need refining, and the...

Evan Danyo, owner of Greenville-based trade business, Garage Door Today Greenville didn't set out to become a garage door enterpreneur by accident. He was set on owning a business since childhood. "I had that entrepreneurial mindset all...

In Charleston, South Carolina, summer has a way of embedding itself into everything -- sinking deep into walls, windows, and filling the space in bedrooms. The air can feel thick before a person steps outside. The idea for Nonnanest didn't start...

Some entrepreneur stories begin with a product. Others begin with a problem. LaChaska Salmond's began with identity under pressure and the realization that confidence isn't something you wear. It's something you can build, fund and...

In a world that often treats public service and private business as separate entities, Premier Investigations and Process Service presents a different story: one earned in government, carried into entrepreneurship, and another refined by reputation.

In high school, before most students even knew what they wanted to be, Prantham Parmar was already building a mindset around two things: competition and control. He wasn’t just drawn to numbers. He was drawn to the idea that money wasn’t magic. It...

Portia Smith, the owner of Pink Sheep Interiors, credits her retail career to one simple truth: she genuinely loves people. She never wanted a traditional nine-to-five lifestyle. Smith wanted the lively energy that comes from welcoming people...

Billy Blackmon Jr, owner of Florence-based business –  Carolina Strut Professional Exterior Cleaning. His services center on pressure washing and soft washing homes, plus driveway cleaning and more. But he doesn’t describe the business as a...

In an industry where culinary dreams are often simmering on the back burner, Chef Stephanie Bolden, a passionate chef took the leap into entrepreneurship and has not looked back since. Bolden is a reminder of how passion can spark a business:...

Valencia Arroyo’s business did not begin with a marketing plan, but it began with an urgent need. When a ringworm outbreak threatened her son’s scalp, the situation required immediate professional care. Once the fungal issue was resolved, she...