I launched a walking tour company with $3,600. Now it's replaced my full-time job

I launched my small business after seeing my elderly family members struggle. I validated my business idea on Craigslist as my first step.

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I was tired of asking my boss for permission to take my kids to doctors. So I became my own boss.

I'm a small business owner who took 50 of my employees to Greece. It was worth the $2,000 a person and 6 figures in revenue.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Paul Whitten, 37, the founder of Nashville Adventures. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I created the LLC in September 2023 and started running it nights and weekends while still working at Amazon. I did a soft launch on weekends in November 2023 at the end of the off-season, but this was just me doing tours for free.

I quit my full-time job at Amazon in February 2024, which is when I fully launched my business and it became my full-time job.

I was in the US Army from 2007 to 2014 and when I was in Afghanistan, I got injured and was sent to a warrior transition unit in the US. After my surgeries in the morning, I volunteered to give tours at the Patton Museum in the afternoon for three weeks.

Before getting a corporate job, I literally went from the Army to the Peace Corps in three years. I joined Amazon in 2019 as an area operations manager.

What I realized working there is that I do have a unique skill set. I can talk to anybody, and I can help people from wildly different arenas get on the same wavelength.

I made six figures in Big Tech, but I make more now. These three strategies are the ones that helped my small business income and profit grow quickly:

I started my company with $3,600, most of which went to getting the URL.