Kerrie Korzatkowski
The summer I turned six years old I had a moment that changed the course of my life. My family took me to see a community theatre production of the musical West Side Story, I remember my feet couldn’t reach the floor and I sat forward on the edge of the seat with my feet dangling and my hands holding the edge of the seat like a bird perched on a branch waiting for the show to begin. There were a lot of people sitting in the seats around me, voices echoing through the room, loud and joyful laughter filled the air- the deep warm laughter that only adults shared mixed with the silly conversation the musical instruments were having as they squawked loudly at each other in short little bursts of excitement. Read more>>
Sabrina Stempel
After my first child was born I was completely overwhelmed and unprepared. I was so focused on learning and preparing for child labor but not the aftermath. No one prepares you for what it’s really like to have a new baby. Weeks and months went by and I was getting more and more sleep deprived. I read the books, talked to family and friends, and my pediatrician. No one’s advice helped…it actually just confused me more. Finally I reached out to a sleep consultant for help. Read more>>
Stephanie Sullivan
When I was a kid I spent summers with my grandparents and my grandmother taught me to paint with watercolor. We’d sit outside on the patio and paint still life – everything from landscapes, to baskets of fruit. I clearly had an inclination toward the creative. As I got older, this inclination shifted from a love of painting to a love of theater and I’ve been acting on stage for the last 20 years. About four years ago, I decided to try one of those wine and paint nights; I’d never painted with acrylics before but had a great time and felt inspired to start painting again. Read more>>
Thomas Burns
I first knew I was interested in A/V technology in high school, when I had a job at a gas station and with my savings bought a nice pair of speakers. I loved listening to music with the better sound quality. From there, continued my interest in A/V technology by becoming a delivery driver and then a salesman at an electronics store. I got familiar with the technology in a hands-on way. At times, to close a deal, I’d offer to come to the customer’s house and hookup their stereo for them. Read more>>
Kevin Huber
CaveTech is a very interesting story of a struggling entrepreneur overcoming adversity by never giving up. I’ve very young found I have had an insatiable curiosity about everything. I also had ADD so I chased after every curiosity learning a long list of diverse topics from robotics to programming. My curiosity and ADD I didn’t follow the most efficient path but I traveled down a path which I think is better than no path looking back. I also found out I was really good at failing or rather losing interest and moving on due to the failure. Read more>>
Adam Glick
I’ve always been creative, having gone to college for photography and enjoying home brewing and other creative pursuits. I like creating and doing things for myself, from working on my house to cooking, to most anything. For the last 15 years or so I’ve been a health insurance broker. I wanted to do something different, something more creative and wanted to help others create and do. The Pursuit Supply is basically my hobbies plus a bit more. We have a lot of different items with our core being products to brew your own beer and stuff to make instant and film photographs. Read more>>
Kiley Peters
I’ve been working in digital marketing for about eight years. I’ve worked at search marketing and ad tech agencies; I’ve worked client side managing digital marketing initiatives for The Second City; I’ve been a partner at a boutique PR and content marketing agency; I owned a freelance digital marketing consultancy for three years and ran a popular Chicago comedy blog for two years. I built my first WordPress website in 2010 and have built dozens since. It’s safe to say I’m not afraid of change! Read more>>
Justin Snyder
I first heard about the puppet opera when I was in high school. At that time, the creator of Opera in Focus, Bill Fosser was looking to train apprentice puppeteers. So I contacted Bill and he invited me to attend a performance. I was immediately blown away by the puppet opera. I had never seen such lifelike puppets or such intricate miniature scenery before. After that performance, I sat down with Bill and discussed the particularities of training to be a puppeteer with him. Luckily he saw potential in me and offered to take me on as his apprentice. Read more>>
Margot Toppen
Dance has always played a central role in my life. As my mother frequently reminds me, I’ve been dancing since I could walk, and my training and experiences through dance influenced every facet of my development. It was not until I was out of college and several years into my career as a journalist, however, that I realized the power of dance to make a difference in the world. At that point, I was “moonlighting” as a dance instructor and performer, but spent most of my days in a cubicle, writing and editing content for various media companies. Read more>>
Susan Witek and Rebecca Adolf
Chicago area traveling puppet show with over 20 years of experience. Offering live puppets and entertainment for children, especially ages 3- 5 years old. We travel to your location and set up a portable stage, indoor or outdoor, for private parties, birthday parties, festivals, library programs, senior homes, corporate events or general audience shows. Puppet shows are a fun and engaging event that becomes a lasting memory for a young child. Read more>>
Michael Santangelo
I kicked off my entertainment business (operating as CEO and main entertainer) in 2005. Funny enough, I feel that I embarked on this journey mostly out of a hunger to be challenged by something I really had no reason to pursue, in that I never sang publicly prior to that and outside of my “costume,” look nothing at all like Elvis. Those odds against me, I still had a laser-like focus on learning the nuances of my voice (without voice lessons) and developing an act worthy of an audience and moreover, someone to value it enough to pay me for it. Read more>>
Lidia Andronic
Belmont Feed & Seed was opened in 1989 in a small room at the current location by two partners. It was started to supply the growing need for pigeon feed and pigeon supplies. Both of the partners were Pigeon Racers that were actively competing in the sport of pigeon racing that was known as a gentleman’s sport in the early to mid-1900s. Pigeon Racing is the competition of raising and training homing pigeons that have the natural ability to travel back to their home from distances up to hundreds of miles away and timing them in a competition against other competitors’ birds. Read more>>
Kyle O’Shanna
When I was 18 years old I started working for my neighbor who owns an asphalt maintenance company while also going to community college full time at night. It was the hardest and dirtiest work I had ever done, but I was making better money than all of my friends and even some people my parents’ age. I stayed at that job for 3 years doing mostly asphalt seal coating and asphalt crack filling, along with some general labor. I would sacrifice my summers while all my friends were having fun and going out to be able to wake up at 5a.m. to work all day making great money. Read more>>
Lynette Welker
I originally started working for the previous owners when I was 15 years old. I continued to work here through high school and college and in 2001 we, my sister, brother-in-law and myself, took over the company from the previous owners. Ever since we have been working together to grow the business to what it is today. While working for yourself is great it has constant challenges. Right after we took over, in April 2001, our country suffered the attacks of 9/11 and that was an extremely difficult time of uncertainty. Read more>>
Oleksandr Nikolaichuk
We have been steadily generating high-quality results and are supplied with all the necessary resources for large-scale project solutions. Our team has completed more than 600 successful projects for our clients so far. Wezom Agency also develops any individual project by order. For the past sixteen years, our expert team has been generating revolutionary ideas and converting them into unique and viable solutions for our clients. We use our own proprietary system called Wezom CMS 4.0, which allows our talented team of developers to bring even the most complex ideas to life. Read more>>
Apolinar and Jennifer Texis
I use to work for another cleaning company for over 8 years but they closed down during the last year I started to take my seminars to rich my knowledge and learn how I can be on business and compete. Every day we work so hard to make the difference our idea is to be one of the best company on market. Now we have the new customers by recommendations which is great our customers recommend us for a good reason. Read more>>
Alex Thorn
After I decided to leave the World of Pro Wrestling, I needed to heal my wounds. The left knee, lower back problems, right rib cage, hips being out of line & neck being 60 degree’s forward from where it should be… all needed to be healed somehow and since I had so much extra time on my hands, I had to hit the gym. And consistently. As I dedicated myself, gym members began to notice the changes my body was making and I was posting so much to social media about my workouts that I began using the hashtag #ThornFitness. Read more>>
Kevin Davis
Fairfield Homes was started in 2013 by Kevin R. Davis and Scott P. Nielsen (Principals). The Principals bring a combined 60 years of broad financial and operational home building experience with a variety of local, regional and national builders. The experience gained from those companies was invaluable in formulating a unique type of custom home builder which is Fairfield Homes. Our mission is to deliver new custom homes using smart growth techniques by revitalizing in-fill properties in older neighborhoods where our customers want to live. Read more>>
Jorge Castillo
Castillo landscape was started in 1995 by my father Sergio Castillo. It all began with one small truck and endless hours of labor my father endured in order to provide for our family. He started off in our Melrose Park neighborhood by mowing his coworkers’ and family friends’ lawns. When I was around ten years old, I started to tag along with my father. During this time, I learned from his hard work ethic by working alongside him. When I began high school I started to notice well known landscaping companies throughout the area. This is when my vision began, I wanted to become as great as them one day. Read more>>
Ted Park
Caliber Restoration is a commercial construction consulting agency which formed in 2016. Incorporated through necessity, Caliber has become a leading force within our industry and aspires to be AMERICAS roofing company one day. Although competition is vast, (40,000+ registered contractors in Illinois) Caliber has grown 10,000% from the previous year. Yes this is NOT a typo. Most roofing companies sustain themselves with an average of 1-5,000,000 million a year. Caliber has a projected book business around $20,000,000. Read more>>
Mariusz Czader
Perfect installation is family own business and although we are founded just couple years ago in 2013 we have much more experience than that. The founder, Wesley is a Polish immigrant that came to United States to provide his family a better life. He started working with windows and soon having his own truck and employees he subcontracted for many well-known companies. His both sons helped out with the business. Mariusz the youngest son has joined the company full time in 2016 and now is managing the business. Read more>>
Tracey Rausch
I have had a strong love of all things art as far back as I can remember. I painted my very first ‘mural’ in my grandparent’s bedroom when I was approximately 8 years old. I remember begging them to let me make their room beautiful. “You need lots and lots of little rainbows right over your bed’ I assured them. And they let me. They never painted over it, as silly as it may have looked. It is one of my fondest memories. I painted my very first “real” mural 18 years ago in my daughter’s bedroom. Read more>>
Hilary Sopata
I was raised in a small town in Indiana and was the first person in my family to earn a bachelor’s degree. After college, I worked in both residential and commercial fields, gaining experience and building my professional network. That launched me on a path of gaining new experiences. A dozen years later, I started my own company, became the president of the American Society of Interior Designers Illinois Chapter, won a design award for commercial green design, became a juror for our professional exam called NCIDQ, and spoke at NeoCon, which is a world trade fair for the design industry held at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Read more>>
John Moy
Opened store in 1999, known then as Lee’s Dollar Plus. Started as corner bait store with little tackle. When began expanding, customers asked us if we were worried about the opening of Cabela’s, the big box store then breaking ground. Already I had adopted the philosophy of handling only high end tackle. I figured with Cabela’s already offering a wide range of tackle and us only handling high end tackle, we might be able to give the customer tackle Cabela’s count not offer. Read more>>
Brandon Mackey
I started off in the contracting industry while apprenticing underneath my father. He did some work as an Insurance Adjuster, and from there eventually got into doing general contracting for damage claims, storm damage, water damage etc. He used to bring me to job sites as a teen and show me how the work would get done, everything from scheduling crews to meeting with insurance adjusters on the behalf of homeowners. Most importantly he made sure I was taking mental notes on the Business end of things. Read more>>
Emily Wilderman
After numerous years in Corporate America’s technology industry I decided it was time to pursue my long time goal of being a small business owner and somehow incorporate my passion for wine, food and travel. This ultimately led me to the WineStyles family and in January 2014 I took over the WineStyles Park Ridge location. Since then, I get to share my love of wine with my customers and the community of Park Ridge. The goal is to demystify the wine buying process and provide people a comfortable and welcoming environment to sample new wines and learn about wine. Read more>>
Joseph Hall
I started roofing in 1982 in Des Plaines. My friend was working for a local roofing company for $8 an hour, and that sounded good to me so I applied and was hired. I accepted the job offer, mainly because the pay was good. I quickly came to realize I really enjoyed the work I was doing. After working with the local roofing company for one year, I accepted a different job offer with a union, predominantly commercial, roofing company. I worked for the union for 5 years and then decided to strike out on my own, in 1988. In 1988, I began my own company, Advanced Roofing Technologies. Read more>>
Jaysin Osterkamp, Andrea Osterkamp
I’ve always been into film. From an early age, I was more interested in how movies were made than how it looked. I would read books about special effects and tricks and the like. When my dad bought a camcorder I would get my friends together and we’d make terrible movies of our own. While in college, I used to help a friend work on weddings for some side cash. There wasn’t much to it, but I always thought we could do more with the films than what was traditional wedding videos. Read more>>
Dr. Eunice Deane
I was in a high speed car accident on the freeway when I was 27 years old. The car was hit, I my head hit the metal part of the visor, and spun the car around in one direction, then the car was hit again and spun around in the opposite direction. Initially, I went to the medical route for care; I was in pain, again, by the time I walked to my car after leaving the physical therapy office. The medical doctor told me I would have been better off if I had broken some bones and that I would just have to learn to live with the pain. Read more>>
Jill Erickson
My co-producer, Michelle Power and I went to college together in Hastings, Nebraska. We both moved to Chicago to pursue performing. I do quite a bit of solo performance work and after 10 years of being in Chicago, I found it frustrating that there weren’t more venues where I felt could perform. Everything seemed so genre specific like open mic poetry or comedy. We wanted to do something different from what was happening in the arts, and so in 2007 Beast Women began. A lot has changed since then and there are many more opportunities for solo performers to display their work. Read more>>
Anthony Pugliese
Definitely not , it’s been a test of ultimate will, when you get out of school you don’t know if you’re going to even make your rent, much less a living. The medical establishment is against you, the insurance companies are against you, the patient comes in that is on 8 different prescriptions and been to the best doctors and hospitals in the city some with little or no help, they smirk and say what are you gonna do? But now on some days I come to work and say how am I going to handle all these patients? 60 percent of them are trying me as their last chance, the others are your so called health freaks. Read more>>
Laura Hooper and Audrey Francis
Audrey and I met at the School at Steppenwolf when we were cast as lovers in Balm in Gilead. During our “big moment” in the play, we got in a screaming match that ended in a knife fight. It was thrilling! After rehearsal one day, I went up to Audrey and said, “We need this to be the best knife fight ever. Wanna stay after and work it?” Audrey said “yes.” And our knife fight was badass. From then on we continued to team up and work together professionally. We shared a desire to work hard and take risks. Read more>>
Kathi Wotal
Acupuncture is not my first career. I was a full time mom for many years, then I got my bachelor’s degree in geology from NIU and worked as an environmental geologist in the Chicago area for about 10 years. The kids grew up and moved out, and I realized I wasn’t happy in my career. I wanted a total career change but had no idea what I wanted to do, except that I wanted to be able to help people. One afternoon I was out to lunch with 2 friends from work, and we were discussing career changes. Read more>>
Tim Szafranski
When I was in middle school, 12 years old, my father, Tony, and I picked two lawn mowers that were being thrown away. With my father’s mechanical skills we were able to clean the carburetors out and get the lawn mowers running. I then went and knocked on all the doors of the neighbor’s on my block. I got my first client just a few doors down. He played for the Cubs, Dave Kingman. I maintained his (well his mother’s) property that entire season and got the taste for earning money. Read more>>
Carol Cook
The Music Room opened for business on September 26, 1994, at 49 West Slade Street in Palatine, Illinois. Our location on Slade Street was a storefront in a brick building consisting of about 2500 usable square footage. We opened with four lesson studios, four teachers and a handful of books and accessories. In 1997, we added a fifth studio and moved our offices to an apartment located directly above the storefront. In 1999 we expanded even further by acquiring the adjacent building at 47 west Slade. Read more>>
James Suh
I’ve always been interested in cars ever since grad school when I bought my first one and didn’t have any money to fix it; so I started learning how on my own. That progressed into building up and customizing cars. So then, I was always getting my cars washed. I would take my car in on the weekends and see how busy it was and I thought to myself that people will always have cars and they will always get dirty, so a car wash is a great business with constant demand. Read more>>
Natalie Gilberto
Like many young women, I was enrolled in a mini ballerina dance class as a toddler and quickly fell in love with the art form. When I began teaching dance classes in high school, I realized this is what I wanted to do with my life. I graduated with a bachelors in kinesiology, minor in dance, and my Illinois Teaching Certification from Western Illinois University and could not wait to make my mark on the dance community. Over the next seven years I worked for some amazing dance studios, but was continually disappointed with their curriculum. Read more>>
