How to start your own business in 2025, according to people who already did
The US is home to over 33 million small businesses — organizations with fewer than 500 employees — and businesses of this size account for nearly all of the country's employers. Nearly 46 percent of Americans are employed by a small business.
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But the path to getting these businesses off the ground — and ensuring they're sustainable — can be daunting. There's money to raise, leases to sign, staff to build, inventory to acquire. And in today's turbulent economy, with uncertainty around tariffs and predictions about a coming recession, these hurdles can seem insurmountable. But as these six entrepreneurs who all recently launched their businesses prove, there will never be the 'perfect' 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.
Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Don't be afraid to change course
From Joyce Medeiros, CEO and co-founder of Investrio, a bookkeeping and tax prep software for solopreneurs:
I'd 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't 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's not a credit card issue; it's an accounting problem. That led us to pivot the strategy, the marketing, the way that we approach the business and the product itself.
'I've made no money some months.'
I was a financial coach before Investrio really took off. I've 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't want to be left behind. You really want to plan ahead for the finances.
Lean into your strengths — and outsource where you can
From Grace Howland, founder of Évoquer, a direct-to-consumer fragrance brand:
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.
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've 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.
I've 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's been helping me mix. Every time she mixes a trial, she sends it to me, and then I send her notes. We're on trial number 106 and still going. We're going to launch in October, maybe November, and I just did not expect it to take that long, honestly.
Consider your customer's price point
From Maria Colalancia, owner of Aperitivo Society and Aperitivo the Shop, a business that hosts community dining experiences and a storefront selling home items in Boston, respectively:
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, 'Hey, I'm new-ish to Boston. I really like hosting dinner parties. Is anyone interested in a somewhat regular dinner party?' 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've now quit my full-time job.
'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.'
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, 'Oh my god, that is so expensive,' or not fully understanding all of the costs that go into that end price that the customer is seeing. The average consumer doesn't always understand, especially in a world with Amazon and Walmart where they're bypassing a lot of those middleman costs. It could get to a point where I can't 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.
Listen to the needs of the community
From Zach George, owner of East Atlanta Comics, a comic shop in Atlanta:
I have worked at a bar down the street for 11 years in November. I've been a bouncer there. I love the neighborhood. A friend of mine who's a bartender opened a record shop two years ago, Black Habit Records. It gave me inspiration to see if it was possible to do a comic shop. I've 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't an easy thing to get together, but when I saw the store, I was like, 'It's worth trying.'
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's no Toys R Us anymore. There's no KB Toys. Kids don't have a spot where they go to pick out something cool. That's been really cool to see: all the neighborhood families that come in here on a regular basis. And then, also, the homies that I've grown up coming here and getting hyped on Batman is pretty cool.
Embrace the power of negotiation
From Irene Ham, founder of Poom Cosmetics, a direct-to-consumer skin care company:
I started my brand four months after I gave birth, so I was deep into postpartum, taking care of a newborn. I'm Korean and use a lot of Korean skincare and cosmetic products, so I wanted all of my products to be manufactured from Korea. I really love their focus on skin health. I was researching manufacturers overseas while my baby was 4 to 6 months old, and then I finalized a manufacturer who was able to lower the minimum order quantities. It took two years to formulate my foundation.
'If I had my inventory ship after the tariffs hit, I would have had to pay around 26 grand for tariffs.'
When the tariffs were announced, my inventory was shipping. Luckily, I was able to avoid the tariffs this time around. If I had my inventory ship after the tariffs hit, I would have had to pay around 26 grand for tariffs. I did not have that money.
But now that I've launched, I am in a place where I can account for the tariffs. It's giving me a lot more negotiating power with my manufacturers. Can you lower the minimum order quantity? That's the biggest obstacle in a product-based business, that minimum order quantity, where they require you to reserve so much inventory up front, and it's very expensive. I understand that there's a chance that when I get my inventory, it's going to cost maybe 30 percent higher.
Level up when you can
From Christy Lee, owner of Seventh House Marketing, a creative marketing agency:
I was in-house for a jewelry brand for three and a half years, and I was the chief marketing officer. I have always been sure that an agency is what I wanted to do, but I didn't know exactly what it would look like. I didn't start any work, front-end or behind-the-scenes, for Seventh House until I quit. I took a month and a half, 24/7, where I was working hard to get everything prepared for the marketing, the branding. I developed the website by myself. It was very scrappy, because I was just me starting out as a team of one. Then, I was able to launch in February 2024.
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