We all want a peek into the future. We want to find a unique path that both fulfills us and helps us make the world a little better. Ultimately, we want to know that everything will be OK. But the future requires a leap of faith and a lot of trust in ourselves and those around us. This month’s entrepreneurs had to forge ahead with big and small steps to find their way. Let them inspire you about the possibilities.

Swanky Steer bubbles over with vibrant color, joy, and fun. In many ways, that delight is the tangible result of the friendship between Kristen Gault and Erica Rector – a rainbow shining after a powerful storm, navigated by chosen family. The store, which opened this spring in Fountain Inn’s charming downtown, started as a traveling boutique. It was a dream, then a reality, but always a focal point as Gault was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer at age 37, Gault was surrounded by family and community, but it was Rector who helped her dream of life after treatment.

“This completely started in the chemo chair because I went with her every Friday,” Rector says. “It was something to get her mind off of the terrible thing she was going through. We decided in the midst of the crazy chemo and everything that was going on that we would start an online business, just off of Instagram and Facebook, and we would sell clothes, because we love clothes.”

Rector, who has an insurance agency and also serves as a fire commissioner, leads a busy life, but she has found ways to fill her color-coded calendar with what is meaningful and important to her. And without a doubt, that includes her best friend. Soon, the pair was selling clothes and accessories through pop-up shops while their husbands were participating in rodeos, hence the “Swanky Steer” name.

“We quickly learned that we just loved telling our story and meeting people and sharing our love for fashion, if it was just to make somebody feel better about themselves with a pair of earrings or with a denim shirt,” Rector says. “Then we had an opportunity to move into a brick and mortar, which by the way, we said we would never do. It was a completely God thing. And everything just kind of fell into place.”

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In between those milestones, Gault, a teacher at Bells Crossing Elementary School, completed treatment and is cancer-free. Both women have poured themselves into the store, using it to lift, include and celebrate their customers, their faith, and their rock-solid friendship. There were tough days, when Gault could not even fold clothes because of the side effects of her treatment, yet the pair traveled and sold their items for more than three years. It was a viable side business, yes, but Gault says it was much more. One important goal was met with the opening of the brick and mortar store.

“When we had our traveling boutique, we didn't have a lot of room, so we were very limited as to what we could carry,” Gault says. “I knew I was not reaching everybody and that broke my heart, because we carried small through large. That is not everybody. I said, ‘when we open a storefront, we are going to meet the needs of everybody from size to price,’ and that has been our goal with this. So, we are extra small to 3x, and we are $5 to $200.”

The store’s reception has meant that Gault’s “face hurts from smiling.”

“I truly feel like this is my ministry, like not only did God put this in my life to share Jesus's love and all of that with others, but it's to make women understand that every day is a gift,” she says. “You're not promised tomorrow and it is so important to love on others. That's what we're here for.”

Learn more at instagram.com/swankysteer and on Facebook.

Julia Porter carved her own path to becoming a jewelry designer and business owner. She was persistent, but patient, and the result is wearable art that bears the essence of earth and nature.

After high school, Porter attended the Savannah College of Art and Design to study sound design. “I kind of changed career paths while I was down there,” she says. “I stopped attending college and I started working at a little art store on River Street. And the owner, I bugged her for months for a job, and I ended up working there throughout the five years that we lived there.”

Porter had found her path, but she didn’t know it just yet. It was a chance meeting with jeweler Jessica Anderson of Epiphany Bead and Jewelry Studio that set the future in motion. Anderson asked Porter if she wanted to help in her studio in addition to her part-time work in the art store.

“I learned everything I know from her,” Porter says.

Like many kids, Porter had a childhood love of geology, which is evident in her work.\

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“I have always been interested in rocks,” she says. “That's a big part of it for me, just the stones themselves. I use all natural gemstones. I love rocks. My husband and I, we look for rocks when we go places. For me, it's just the natural beauty of that.”

Porter patiently learned the process of creating jewelry and then found her niche with nature-based designs in her River Street Rocks line. When she and her husband moved to Greenville, she rebranded her business as Jewelry by Julia Porter. Her work is in shops across the Upstate and available through her website.

Porter balances the business with her growing family and her other passion, becoming a certified lactation consultant. She is interning for that certification now, while her son attends preschool. She has found alchemy in the combination of patience, work, and support that is making her dreams a reality. She encourages other women to hang on to their dreams and “go for it” when they can.

“It is scary,” she says. “Growth is a scary thing, and it takes time and patience and consistency. If you have that support system – and that's an important thing as well, having support from friends and family – I would say go for it. I mean, you should love your job, and I'm very grateful that I have the capability to do this. This past year has been huge for me. I think it's just that I really found my style and stuck with that. Yeah, go for it.”

Learn more at jewelrybyjuliaporter.com and instagram.com/jewelrybyjuliaporter.