Chef-turned-innkeeper Amanda Zimlich cooks breakfast and does all the housekeeping at Otter’s Pond B&B on Orcas Island.

Joanna Reese funds her Maine shops on a shoestring. “[We do] as much as we can ourselves,” she says, “to save on costs.”

“Virality is fleeting,” says Kelsey Campion. “We could go viral tomorrow. We could go viral in a year, we could never go viral again.”

Jodi Gebarowski learned to reduce, reuse, and recycle from her grandmother. Now she’s turned that into a business.

Shandra Turner launched Bougie Grazer in Atlanta after leaving her property management job during the pandemic.

The Trasks recently opened JT’s Steakhouse, a farm-to-table restaurant in Ely, Nevada.

Roll Mobility, an app for mapping accessibility infrastructure and linking disabled communities, went viral. Now the team needs to raise funds.

Victor Zamudio, co-owner of Brown Soul Brewing Co. in South Gate, CA, hopes his brewery can serve as “a beacon for others” looking to start a business.

Steve Christo runs a custom boot shop in Virginia. “I thought, ‘If I can build nuclear detectors, I should be able to make a boot,'” he said.

Once an actuarial analyst, Liz Young of Denver has achieved work-life balance and financial stability in his new role.