Mayra Ordonez's blog

Rob Lightner and his business partner Chris Coomber opened East Brother Beer Company, a brewery and taproom in Richmond, California with the idea that beer can be a democratizing force—by being more accessible to those who wish to try new “potions,” enjoy some downtime and foster relationships in an inclusive community.

Luisa Santos was only eight years old when she and her family moved from Bogota, Colombia to the United States in search of better opportunities. Since then, Luisa has found creative ways to support and participate in her community, and started her entrepreneurship journey with LuLu's Ice Cream, a nitrogen ice cream shop and catering business in Miami, Florida.

Raised in an immigrant family of merchants, Alejandro Flores-Munoz learned about entrepreneurship from an early age. He watched his mother, a single parent living in Southern California, work a full time job, while juggling side hustles selling perfumes, jewelry, and desserts door-to-door. Today, he is an entrepreneur himself, with several gigs selling personalized buttons and sunglasses, and a proud co-owner of Stokes Poke, a Hawaiian food caterer and pop-up business in Denver, Colorado.

Labyrinth Games and Puzzles is a family-friendly, community-focused store featuring a wide selection of non-electronic, specialty games, puzzles, and mazes in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, D.C. While the store is loved by children and legislative staffers alike, Kathleen Donahue faced an impossible situation just like everyone else when the COVID-19 crisis began, and she was forced to quickly pivot her business to keep it alive. 

A native Indian living in Johns Creek, Georgia, Preeti Tanwar has mastered the art of resilience through her IT firm HiEd Success. Passionate about her work and helping others, Preeti launched her business in 2017 with the sole purpose of providing cost-effective, customized solutions and services to higher education institutions and educational technology companies with a focus in process automation and analytics. 

With a degree in Business Administration and a desire to achieve the American dream, Aracely Garcia moved from Guatemala to the United States in 1995. She says her life hasn't been the same since she became co-owner of La Fiesta Party Supplies & Gifts, an import and export distributor of party supplies located in Los Angeles.

Daisy Bedoya was already struggling to make ends meet when the coronavirus pandemic forced her to close her business for a few months, leaving her with mounting debt. Graphx Designs and Concepts is a graphic design company that creates posters, LED light displays, window lettering and more in Largo, Florida. 

Two heads are better than one, and Mar Y Sol Alvarado and her husband Alfred are a clear example of this adage. As the owners of Alro Window Coverings—an installation service company in Mountain View, Calif.—Alfred brings his entrepreneurial knowledge to the table, matched with Mar’s business development experience from working in nonprofit organizations for more than 10 years.

In the midst of a global pandemic and a severe economic recession, entrepreneur Adriane Anderson was forced to rethink her retirement plan.

A Georgia native and a lover of hosting gatherings, Adriane Anderson opened her event venue Bless the Occasion just last year. She knew she wouldn’t be able to retire comfortably if she continued to rely on her income working at Publix, a grocery store chain, so she embarked on her journey as a small business owner in 2015. She purchased an old home in Stone Mountain, GA, and remodeled the facility—a process that took about four years to complete, as she had to navigate zoning changes and permit requirements. Her business hosts little girls' tea parties, etiquette classes, baby showers, birthdays and small events of up to 50 guests. 

Sherry Spellers combined her two passions to create a small business success story: a knack for repurposing old trinkets, with the desire to make women look and feel beautiful.

Her journey as a hairdresser was marked from an early age, when a traumatic incident caused Sherry to lose her hair. “I felt so ugly and ashamed. I knew in that moment that I wanted to help women feel good about themselves, and hair was a great way to do that,” says Sherry.