Mea Garretson is the sole owner of Moments by Mea Studios. This entrepreneur works in Northwest Ohio, and travels to different areas in the country while photographing special moments for so many people. Her business specializes in photographing engagements, couples, weddings and senior portraits. Moments by Mea was founded in June of 2020, not realizing how successful the business would be.
Moments by Mea is Christian based photography business, owned by a strong daughter in Christ. Mea is a 21-year-old entrepreneur who recently graduated from Northwest State Community College in spring of 2024. She originally went to school for education, but decided to pursue her dreams of doing her photography business full-time. On the side, she substitute teaches in some local schools. Most of her weekends are spent taking photographs of families, couples, weddings, products for businesses, and seniors. She grew up with her family fostering many children all throughout her life, and has been through so much starting at such a young age.
Being a junior in high school while starting a business can be difficult, but Mea managed it very well. When she first started the business, she photographed families and high school seniors the most but found that her favorite sessions are couples, engagement and weddings. She also photographs a certain number of seniors each year and calls them “Spokesmodels”. These spokesmodels receive a few photography sessions for their senior year. Her clientele grew fast after her business started. Her clientele grew the most when she started second shooting with other photographers at weddings. She says that word of mouth is the most important part of growing her business. Word of mouth helped her travel to different parts of the country for her clients' weddings which has always been a goal for her. Not only do the contracts, sessions, and planning take a long time, editing for photography takes quite a bit of time, especially when you truly care about your client and the
way their photographs turn out. The editing process for Moments by Mea ranges for each session. Her turnaround time for regular sessions is three to four weeks, per her contract, and weddings take six to eight weeks. She spends a lot of her time editing her photographs and makes sure her clients get the best they can.
Seeing and knowing what Mea has been through with her business, it is such an influential part of my dream to open my own business. From photographing her clients' weddings, to planning her own wedding, and traveling to different states for weddings, it is truly inspiring that she achieved her goals. Mea sets a goal in place and will not take no for an answer. In entrepreneurship and starting a business, we should all have that type of mindset. If more people were like Mea, a lot of things would get done. Something I have learned from her is to never settle for less than you deserve and always strive for more, no matter how hard it is, trust God in the midst of everything, good or bad and never take a moment for granted.
Vera Wang is known for her streamlined and sophisticated bridal wear. Her story is a familiar one for anyone who has ever dreamed of making something of their own, or finding a place where they could fill a void in the market. She was the daughter of affluent Chinese immigrants, and grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Vera Wang attended school at Chapin School and the School of American Ballet. Wang competed professionally as a figure skater throughout her teenage years. She fell short of her Olympic dreams when she and her partner, James Stuart, placed fifth in junior pairs in 1968. Vera earned her degree in art history after studying abroad at the Sorbonne in Italy.
In 1971 Wang hung up her ice skates and began working for Vogue. By the age of 23 she was a senior fashion editor. She held that position for fifteen years before leaving to work at Ralph Lauren as design director for accessories. In 1989, Wang married her long time boyfriend Arthur Becker. It was at this time that she became frustrated with the slim design selections in existing bridal wear. She sketched her own design and commissioned a dressmaker to bring the sketch to life at the cost of $10,000. It was the following year, with financial backing from her father, that she opened her own bridal boutique in the Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue in New York City. At the age of 40 Wang opened The Vera Wang Bridal House and initially offered couture gowns for celebrities and socialites by famed designers that included Guy Laroche, Arnold Scaasi, and Christian Dior. In this time Wang honed her skills and launched a signature collection line of streamline, elegant, and sophisticated bridal wear.
During the 1994 Olympics is when Wang would garner her first international headnod in fashion. She designed a hand-beaded ensemble for figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Since this time Vera Wang has launched equally popular lines of elegant evening wear, fragrances, lingerie, and jewelry. In 2006, Wang paired with Kohl’s to produce an affordable line of ready-to-wear clothing called “Simply Vera.” I chose Vera Wang first because I was struck by the idea that not every entrepreneur starts out as an entrepreneur. She had dreams of being an Olympic skater and once that was over she had to find a new passion. I like the fact that she worked for Vogue and Ralph Lauren before she finally made the leap out on her own. It struck me also that what she knew first hand was fashion. Wang knew what she liked and didn’t like in the fashion industry and found a niche. Her first store front wasn’t even to sell her own designs, but to sell other famous designers until she had enough in her collection to showcase. She also didn’t try to put her hands into everything all at once. She started in bridal, the elegant evening wear, and it continued from there. Vera Wang’s story of how she became the woman in fashion she is today is proof that a twist of fate is not the end of the story. Wang was able to take her passion for fashion and make it something extraordinary.
Sam Walton was one of the most influential entrepreneurs on modern retail in America. He famously founded the superstore chain Walmart as well as the warehouse store chain Sam’s Club. Today, thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club stores are found across the country, and some internationally, all of which began with a single store in Rogers, Arkansas.
In 1940, Sam Walton graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in economics according to Biography.com. His first job out of college was at J.C. Penney Company in Des Moines, Iowa. This was his first experience working in a retail store. He went on to join the army in WWII before returning home to start his first store. He borrowed $25,000 from his
father to start a Ben Franklin franchise in the town of Newport, Arkansas. Over the next two decades, Sam Walton and his younger brother James worked their way up to owning 15 Ben Franklin franchises. Walton became frustrated with the chain’s corporate management and their ignorance to his ideas of expanding to more rural areas and decided to start his own store. His first Walmart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962. The store quickly took off and became a publicly traded company just 14 years later in 1976. By the year 1991, Walmart passed Sears & Roebuck to become America’s largest retailer.
Walmart was successful, even in times of economic recession. In 1991 when the economy was sinking, Walmart had a 40 percent increase in sales. Walmart was not looked upon favorably in many small towns because it competed with local businesses, often causing them to go out of business. Walmart worked to redeem itself by providing jobs and donating to local charities in the communities it was a part of.
Walton lived humbly and was known for driving the same red pickup truck around for many years. He and his wife Helen lived in the same house in Bentonville, Arkansas for their entire life together. He wasn’t concerned about being wealthy. When he was named the wealthiest man in America by Forbes Magazine in 1985, he was irritated because he just wanted
to run his business and wasn’t worried about his net worth. One of the main lessons that can be learned from Sam Walton is that counting on others to make your ideas happen doesn’t work. Ben Franklin let him down when it came to franchising in small towns because they didn’t believe it was possible. Walton paved his own way and proved that rural areas could be profitable for large retailers.
Sam Walton formed American retail into what it is today and paved the way for many other superstore chains. Walmart currently has 4,599 stores in operation and is still the largest retailer in the world. A new idea and the determination to make it a reality what made Walmart become a reality.
Nike has become one of the largest athletic brands in the world and it started in an entrepreneurship class in college. The “swoosh” logo is described as the sound of someone running past you. Phil Knight ran track for coach Bill Bowerman in Oregon. Bowerman was obsessed with anything that could make his runners faster, he often mixed potions for them to try and altered their shoes to help shave a few seconds off their time. Phil Knight had the idea to start a shoe company during an entrepreneurship class in college, it wasn’t an overly analyzed or serious plan but just part of the program.
After completing school, Phil convinced his dad this would help round out his education and he agreed. So, he traveled around the world visiting many places, he included Japan in this trip as part of his business idea. Many things happened on this trip, and it was time to cut it short and go home, but he hadn’t been to Japan and continued. He studied books on doing business in Japan and met with the company Onitsuka (Tiger) (Asics) and convinced them to send him some shoes to sell in the United States under the company name Blue Ribbon. He took the shoes to coach Bowerman who liked them, they both invested in more shoes and were business partners.
Phil worked as an accountant and a schoolteacher while going to track meets and colleges selling Tiger shoes out of the trunk of his car. He reinvested his earnings to get even more shoes on the next orders. He communicated with Onitsuka through the mail, and often the shoes took months to get here.
Eventually he began building a team of others to help sell shoes in different locations primarily in the western states. There ended up being another person selling Tiger shoes on the eastern side, so he went back to Japan and convinced Onitsuka to make him the exclusive Tiger shoe distributor in the United States. The problem came when Knight and Bowerman began wanting to create their own shoes, and it appeared Onitsuka was also looking at bigger retail opportunities in the United States so unfortunately that partnership didn’t work out. This meant another trip to Japan to find a manufacturer for Nike shoes. Nike was named after the Greek goddess of victory, a mesmerizing place and statue he visited on his travels. The new Nike shoes weren’t up to the quality of tigers, and it took time to get a product they were happy with.
Nike is well known for their shoes waffle outsole that Bowerman originally created using his wife’s waffle iron. Nike faced many hardships and struggles throughout the years, primarily legal battles that could’ve bankrupt them. A big breakthrough they had was getting manufacturing done in China and signing Michael Jordan. They get a bad rap for a lot of things but have also made incredible changes to the way shoes are made and to conditions for workers overseas. It took a lot of determination and persistence to start and grow Nike into the business that it is today.
Shoe Dog, written by Phil Knight truly is an inspiring entrepreneurial journey. “The way that Phil Knight use to talk about Nike, speaking at a large conference he stood up and he said to the audience if any of you have ever run for exercise can you please stand up most of the room stood up he said if you run at least once a week please keep standing most of the room sits down he says if you run twice a week please keep standing he says if you run three times a week rain or shine regardless of the weather or the temperature please keep standing there’s now a smattering of people in the room he looks out at them and he says the next time you’re out there before the sun is up its dark its cold and its wet and you’re running by yourself we are the ones standing under the lamppost cheering you on that’s how he described Nike and in an instant you understand what Just Do It means” Simon Sinek.