From Living Paycheck to Paycheck to Making Payroll: What It Really Took to Become an Entrepreneur

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For National Entrepreneurship Month: the unglamorous truth about starting AvantGarde, carrying the weight of a payroll, and why I would do it all again.

By Rebecca Contreras

AvantGarde didn’t start in a corner office with my name on the door. It started at my dining room table.

There was no logo, no website and no social media launch. What I had was a list of people who had trusted me over the years, proposals waiting to be written and a phone I kept picking back up. I made the calls. I asked for meetings. I asked for opportunities. I knocked on door after door and heard “no thank you” more times than I care to admit.

And I kept knocking.

I had traded a steady paycheck for the hope of one day making a payroll. Trust me, those are two very different kinds of pressure.

This month we celebrate National Entrepreneurship Month, and you will see plenty of highlight reels: ribbon cuttings, awards, big announcements. I celebrate all of it, because every one of those moments was earned. But I want to talk about the dining room table, because that’s where entrepreneurship really starts. It’s also the part nobody posts.

The Leap Isn’t One Jump

Everyone says “just take the leap.” Let me be clear: starting AvantGarde was not one brave moment. It was making calls, mining my network of people who already knew my work, writing proposals, sitting in meetings and asking for the next opportunity, then getting up and doing it all again the next day. Every contract mattered. Every conversation mattered.

People love to romanticize entrepreneurship. What they don’t see are the long days, the uncertainty, the cash flow worries and the constant hustle it takes just to keep moving forward.

I was never afraid of hard work. What scared me was failing publicly.

I had spent years working my way up to top executive rank in government, from the State of Texas to the White House to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. I had a title, benefits and a support system around me. Walking away from that security was terrifying. I worried about whether I could generate enough revenue to support my family. At that time, my husband had left his full-time job to start LaunchPad, our community outreach 501(c)(3), so he was building our nonprofit. I worried about whether I could really close the deals on my own. And some nights, I worried I was making the biggest mistake of my life. Did I leave a high-paying corporate job to start all over?

Could I really build a business that would afford me individual freedom?

The fear never completely disappeared. I simply became stronger than my fear. I prayed and believed through my fear, and especially through the uncertainty.

The leap isn’t one jump. It’s thousands of small, intentional steps forward.

Growing Up With Nothing Taught Me How to Find a Way

Anyone who has read Lost Girl knows I didn’t grow up with a safety net. When you grow up without money, connections or anyone to call when things fall apart, you learn how to survive and figure things out. You learn to find a way when there doesn’t seem to be one.

I didn’t realize how valuable that was until I became an entrepreneur. Starting AvantGarde meant solving problems every single day with very limited resources. I had to be creative, persistent and willing to outwork whatever obstacle was in front of me. Being resourceful wasn’t a business strategy I learned in a classroom. It was survival, and it turned out to be one of my greatest assets.

Hardship also taught me how to read people. When you’ve lived through it, you develop a heightened awareness of people and circumstances, sometimes before anyone says a word. That awareness has helped me build strong, lasting relationships, understand what clients really need and lead teams throughout my entire career, but especially now in my own company.

But most of all, growing up with so little taught me gratitude.

To this day, I never take an opportunity, a contract or a relationship for granted.

I Had to Stop Waiting for Permission

Honestly, I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur right away. For a long time, I thought of myself as someone trying to build a business, and that is a very different thing than owning one.

The shift came when I realized entrepreneurship wasn’t about owning a company. It was about creating value, solving problems and building something bigger than myself. To do that, I had to stop seeking permission.

Once I accepted that I belonged at the table, and stopped waiting for someone to tell me so, my confidence changed.

My dear friend Lisa Copeland says it best: “Do it scared.” But make sure you DO IT.

The biggest transformation wasn’t in the business. It was in my mindset, and in believing that I could actually do this.

That growth hasn’t stopped. I am still in process. When I started, every decision felt urgent. Today, every decision feels important, but not every decision feels critical. Experience gives you perspective. In the early years, I worried about whether we would survive. Now I think about how we sustain our culture, develop future leaders and create impact that lasts long after me.

Nobody Sees the Weight

The least glamorous part of being an entrepreneur is the weight you carry on your shoulders. Nobody posts that part either.

You’re responsible for payroll, contracts, benefits, growth, culture and client satisfaction. But behind every one of those words are people, their livelihoods and their families. When we lose a contract or revenue and have to lay people off, that is a huge weight. I don’t carry it lightly, and I never will.

People see the successes. They don’t see the sleepless nights, the hard decisions or the disappointments that come with them. Entrepreneurship can be lonely. Learning to carry that weight while protecting your faith, your health and your relationships is one of the greatest challenges I have faced as a leader. On those days, my faith is what keeps me grounded. I don’t have to carry it all on my own strength, and I am grateful for that every single day.

This is also where my years in public service still show up every week. In government, I learned that leadership is tested during pressure, not during calm. The leaders I admired most didn’t panic. They gathered the facts, listened carefully, stayed focused and made the decision in front of them.

Every week at AvantGarde brings a challenge, an unexpected issue or a difficult call. People look to their leaders in moments of uncertainty, and how you show up matters.

My job isn’t to react emotionally. My job is to provide clarity, confidence and direction.

The Best Part Has Nothing to Do With Me

If the weight is the hardest part, my people are the best part.

It’s not the awards. It’s not the revenue. It’s watching people grow. I LOVE it when one of my senior managers comes to me and says they want to promote someone or move them up the next rung of their career ladder. Some of my proudest moments have come from knowing an employee bought their first home, earned a promotion, found their confidence or was finally able to support their family the way they dreamed of.

And the thing people remember most? It costs almost nothing. I make myself available.

I make it a point to know my team. I ask about their spouses, their children, their parents, their dreams and their challenges. I celebrate their milestones and walk with them through hard seasons. Over the years, employees have told me they were surprised I remembered a conversation about a sick parent, a child’s graduation or a personal goal they had shared months before. I’ve made calls after a loss, sent handwritten notes and checked in when things got tough. I care about our clients the same way, because there are real people behind every contract.

I learned that growing up and throughout my years in public service. The leaders who made the biggest impact on me weren’t always the smartest people in the room. They were the ones who made others feel seen, valued and important.

Anyone can manage performance. Great leaders invest in people.

People may forget the meeting, the project or even the challenge you worked through together, but they never forget how you made them feel. When they know you genuinely care about them and their families, they bring their whole selves to the table. That’s when trust grows and extraordinary things become possible. It’s about people!

Would I Do It Again? Absolutely.

People often ask me if anyone can be an entrepreneur. I believe entrepreneurship can be learned, but not everyone is ready for it. It takes resilience, discipline, persistence, resourcefulness and an ability to live with uncertainty for longer than you would like.

Most people underestimate the emotional endurance it requires.

A great idea gets you started. What keeps you going is what you do after the excitement wears off and the obstacles show up. So if you’re standing where I once stood at that dining room table, here is what I would tell you:

Start with purpose, not freedom. Start because you have a purpose you can’t ignore, and because you believe in the vision and mission down in your gut.
Build your support system. Entrepreneurs are not built on an island. I am so blessed to have an incredible support system around me, and I would not be walking this road successfully without it.
Do it scared. If you wait for the fear to leave, you will wait forever.
Invest in yourself. Read. Learn. Ask questions. Build relationships.
Don’t wait for permission. Most of the doors I walked through, I had to knock on first.

So, is it worth it? Absolutely. I would do it all again.

There were sacrifices. Financial risks. Sleepless nights. Missed opportunities. Moments when nothing felt certain. But building and growing AvantGarde gave me something no title or paycheck ever could: the opportunity to build something meaningful, to create jobs and to leave a legacy for my family and for the people who work alongside me. For me, it has been worth every challenge.

I still think about that dining room table. The proposals. The phone calls. All those “no thank yous” that came before every yes. Fifteen years later, it’s one of the places I’m most grateful for, because it’s where I learned I was stronger than my fear.

So to the young woman reading this who grew up the way I did:

Your circumstances may shape your story, but they do not have the

power to define your future.

Dream bigger than your current surroundings. Invest in yourself. Take a risk on yourself. The life you’re dreaming about may be waiting on the other side of one courageous decision.

Happy National Entrepreneurship Month!

Leading With People First at AvantGarde

The belief in people that started at my dining room table still shapes how we lead at AvantGarde today. Learn more about AvantGarde and how our team can support your mission at www.avantgarde4usa.com.