What do you do when your glasses don’t fit well – and the eyewear industry doesn’t see the problem? For best friends Tracy Green and Nancey Harris, co-founders of Vontélle Eyewear, the answer was bold: start their own company. In the season six premiere of This is Small Business, host Andrea Marquez kicks off her personal mission to become more of a risk-taker so she could eventually start her own business by learning from two women who embraced the curveballs that life threw at them and came out stronger. If you’ve ever felt like you couldn’t take the leap, Tracy and Nancey’s story might just be the push you need.

Got a bold leap of your own? Share it with us as an Apple Podcasts review, Spotify comment, or email us at thisissmallbusiness@amazon.com – you might hear it in a future episode.

In this episode you’ll hear:

(00:33) How listeners like you are stepping outside their comfort zones – plus, Andrea shares why she’s finally facing her fear of risk.

(03:35) How losing a favorite pair of glasses sparked an impromptu trip to Paris and a new business idea – and why noticing everyday problems is your first step to innovation.

(10:51) Ever wonder how to know when it’s time to go all in? Tracy and Nancey were juggling full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and a pandemic – until they realized they couldn’t wait for the “perfect” time to start.

(14:17) When everything goes wrong, do you pause or push through? From a health scare to a fire, these founders share how staying focused on their mission helped them overcome obstacles and keep building.

(17:58) The small wins, like a single email from a customer, can keep you going when self-doubt creeps in. Hear what kept Tracy and Nancey going, even when things got rough.

(20:17) How Tracy and Nancey pivoted from direct-to-consumer to wholesale and got creative about growing their business.

(22:55) Get advice on how to decide when to leap, when to pause, and how to bounce back from failure without losing momentum.

How Two Friends Quit Their Jobs to Build a Brand That Disrupted the Eyewear Industry

This Is Small Business