Steve Byfield started off pursuing a career as a music educator, studying at York University and playing in a jazz band in Southern Ontario. After his first year in University, he started working part-time for a recently retired police officer who had his own beer and winemaking business in Concord, Ontario. 

Sasha Senior never imagined her first business; Bliss Skateboard Shop, would be the only one of its kind to serve skaters in the border city of Windsor between Ontario and Michigan. After an inspiring conversation with the owner of the Wood Shed Skate Shop in Westland, Michigan - she jumped at the chance to secure the perfect space in a prime location.

Everyone has ideas, but not everyone acts on them. A lot of us are even strongly passionate about those ideas, but yet we never realize them. This is why Robleh Jama prefers curiosity over passion. Jama is the founder of Tiny Hearts, an award-winning digital product studio whose apps have been downloaded over 6 million times.

Did you know that about 4 million people in Canada are food insecure? Did you know that this country has a $49 billion food waste problem? Or that food waste emissions are 25 times more damaging to the environment than CO2 emissions?

As a child, Odeen Eccleston enjoyed reading the New in Homes pages of the Toronto Star, which she admits was her favourite section. She would read the newspaper with her mom every weekend and became fascinated with the featured properties. Additionally, her parents would take her to see the model homes at open houses in their neighbourhood at every opportunity.

Carole Sandy, a Toronto therapist, knew something had to change after she kept on getting phone calls week after week from people expressing the exact same need. I would get calls along the lines of, “I’m trying to find a visible minority therapist, a black therapist, someone who looks like me.”

Tanya Turton, 30, vividly remembers the painful moment that birthed what is now the Adornment Stories, a 24-week digital arts education program. After walking through the streets of downtown Toronto with her partner who was new to the city, her partner posed a question that would stick with Turton for years to come.

33-year-old Tameika Gentles grew up in a Jamaican household where good, but often unhealthy food was always in abundance, especially during the holidays. She slowly found herself gaining an excessive amount of weight.

Eyra Abraham grew up with hearing loss, so she learned how to navigate the world without one of her senses. But as an adult, she had an experience with a fire alarm that made her realize she was at serious risk. Out of this fear-filled experience, she embarked on creating Lisnen, a mobile sound awareness application. When there is a fire alarm or siren in the environment, the app uses artificial intelligence to give a notification, whether it be a buzz or a flashing light, it informs the user of what's going on around them.

10-year-old CEO, Kayana Williams, raises money for charities through a family-run social enterprise.

Tobi Oluwole’s Nigerian parents sent him to Canada at the age of 15, hoping to give him a chance at a “better life”. But the road to that bright future they envisioned for their young son, was not as easy as it seemed.

Photo: Leilah Dhore/How She Hustles In honour of Small Business Month, ByBlacks spoke with Emily Mills of How She Hustles about what it really takes to successfully build your own business. Mills is fresh off the launch of her latest project - the Startup & Slay Digital Series sponsored by CIBC, Futurpreneur Canada and Ryerson University.