Up until February, Joya Patel was an employee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Becoming a civil servant again would be no easy task right now.

“Growth, as they say, eats cash,” said Christine Herron, co-founder of Achieve Sports in Aurora, Colorado.

Keriann Otaño felt isolation and economic insecurity as a singer, but an opera house official did her a good turn.

In the five years that Sam Newell and her husband have run Fruit Fair in Chicopee, Massachusetts, they haven’t had a profitable year.

Mike Woglom of Cargo Trailer Sales in Pennsylvania sells equipment that’s widely needed but often unnoticed.

Tyler Graybeal, owner of a Swedish-style store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, says keeping up with demand was difficult at first.

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

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

Dylan Demery is focusing on her woman-centric business, She’s Fly, after losing her full-time job. “It just feels right,” she says.

“We want to add something good to Burlington, Vermont,” says co-owner Hannington Kasagga.