18 female entrepreneurs on their hardest and most rewarding moments

• Dreamers & Doers is a networking community of female entrepreneurs, creatives, and change-makers. Many of its members quit their corporate jobs to start their own companies.
• It’s not easy to build your own company — that’s why founders and small business owners dedicate most of their waking hours working towards creating their products, services, or solutions.
• For these 18 women, the sacrifices were worth the outcomes, especially when they were able to take back their careers and shed light on problems they’re passionate about solving. 
• “No matter how hard you struggle and how many times you may think about giving up, that feeling of seeing how far you’ve come is priceless. It makes everything worth it,” said Kelsey Specter, founder of Wild Side Design Co. 
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Shark Tank investor Lori Greiner once said, “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.” There’s a lot of truth built into this quippy quote.

Quite often, startup founders and small business owners are willing to go the extra mile because they are working on a product, service, or solution that they are passionate about. Even when times are tough and work weeks stretch into 80 hours (or more!), the rewards along the way usually surpass the challenges.

For the following 18 female leaders, their entrepreneurial journeys have certainty not been without trials. However, as you’ll see from their reflection, the good ultimately outweighs the bad — and quite often the “bad” is actually a catalyst for transforming their businesses into something game-changing.

Read more: The founder of the Girls’ Night In newsletter built her subscriber list to 170,000 people in less than 4 years. Here are her best tips for growing a loyal audience.