Building something of their own
- Gabriella Gonzales
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
From lashes to lattes to boutique fashion, young women in San Antonio are leading a new wave of small business ownership.
By Gabriella Gonzales
July 14, 2025
SAN ANTONIO – Inside a quiet studio in Southtown, a creative corner of San Antonio, Texas, lash artist Bianca Martinez stands over a client, hands steady and eyes focused. Her lash sets are precise, but her goal goes beyond beauty.
Martinez, 27, owns and operates Estheticverse, a cozy one-room lash studio she built from scratch. She’s a licensed esthetician, a full-time business owner and part of a growing group of young professionals turning their creative skills into independent careers.
“At first, before I was an esthetician, I was going to school for engineering,” Martinez said. “I realized real fast that it was not for me. So I had to take a step back and think on what I really enjoyed doing, and at the time, it was makeup. So I got into esthetician school, and I really enjoyed all aspects.”
Part of a larger movement
More and more young adults are choosing entrepreneurship over traditional career paths. According to Guidant Financial, millennials now make up 21% of all small business owners nationwide, an increase of 25% in the past year alone. In Texas specifically, new business formation outpaces the national average, with about 0.38% of adults launching a business each month compared to 0.34% nationwide, according to the Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship.
In cities like San Antonio, where small businesses are essential to the local economy, creative professionals are carving out space for work that feels personal and purposeful.
“There’s a lot that goes into owning your own business,” Martinez said. “So my first step was definitely to write down everything that I needed to get done before I opened.”
Martinez isn’t alone in that experience. Like her, Savannah Patterson and Stephanie Anderson both turned creative passions into full-fledged businesses after rethinking their career paths.
From family roots to fashion pop-ups
Savannah Patterson, 24, started Roots & Wings Boutique with her mom and grandmother in Georgia. The business began in their home in 2016, grew into a storefront by 2019, and expanded to 3,000 square feet in 2022. When Patterson and her husband relocated to San Antonio with the Air Force in 2024, she brought the boutique with her, this time online.
“I enjoy going to different markets and meeting a bunch of new people,” she said. “It’s always a different vibe and area. Like, everywhere you go, and no two experiences are the same.”
Now, she runs the boutique through live sales on social media and weekend pop-up shops, blending fashion and customer connection in every event.
“It’s kind of like personal shopping to a certain degree,” Patterson said. “We just make customers feel good about themselves.”
Serving up coffee and connection
Stephanie Anderson followed a different path but shares a similar story. After working in a mobile coffee trailer on Navy bases in Pensacola, Florida, she realized how much she loved creating drinks and connecting with people. When she and her husband moved to San Antonio, she decided to launch her own business.
That’s how Bloomin Brews Coffee came to life.
Anderson now operates the trailer herself, crafting drinks and attending events across the city. She’s grown a following by centering her brand on warmth, connection and care.
“Being my own boss is so rewarding,” Anderson said. “It’s so much fun. I don’t think I could ever work for somebody else again.”
Earlier this week, Anderson even donated a portion of her sales to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund. It’s an example of how she sees her small business as a way to serve her community.
“I just want to spread joy, make good cups of coffee and connect with our community,” she said.
Faith, confidence and community
Martinez said imposter syndrome was one of the biggest obstacles she faced in starting Estheticverse.
“Just believing in myself and knowing, like, girl, you're good, you can do this, that was the main thing I feel like I struggled with,” she said.
She credits her faith, her fiancé and her mother as her biggest sources of encouragement.
“Because I'm a faithful person, I just prayed to God a lot,” she said. “I always said, God, if this is for me, then it'll be for me. And I kind of just went with the flow.”
Martinez thrives on the creative side of her work, especially designing custom lash sets. But she said the business side is more demanding.
“The artistic side is my favorite part,” she said. “I wish I could just do that and not have to focus on the business side.”
She also sees her identity as a Latina and South Side native as central to her business mission.
“I’m familiar mostly with the South Side. That’s like my roots,” she said. “Usually on the South Side, you're around Hispanics predominantly, and so I think that's rooted me here and makes me feel a sense of community.”
She believes Hispanic representation in entrepreneurship matters.
“I think Hispanic representation in any field is important,” she said. “I think we get overlooked as a community often.”
Advice for future entrepreneurs
Despite different paths, all three women share similar advice, which is to take the leap, even if it’s uncomfortable.
“My advice is, I guess, just go for it,” Martinez said. “Because you're never gonna have it all. You're never gonna know it all. It's a growing business. It's a learning business. You're always learning. So I say just go for it.”
Comments