More people are becoming their own boss. According to the Small Business Administration, there are more than 33 million of them across the country and more are popping up every day.

Mike Bausch is the owner of Andolini's Worldwide Restaurant Group, with restaurants and food trucks all over Green Country. He says Tulsa is the perfect place to start a business.

"If you just want to be an entrepreneur, this is the best entrepreneurial city that I know in America," Bausch said.

His story started almost 20 years ago when he left law school orientation in San Fransisco and moved to Owasso to start a pizzeria.

“In Owasso, there was like 40 restaurants that opened between 2006 and 2010, of which around 37 closed. Big-name restaurants just open open, open, open, open; then close, close, close. And we had to get really good, really quick."

Billie Parker knows the challenges of opening a business. Parker owns Black Wall Street Market, an eclectic boutique and outdoor education center near 56th Street North and Osage Drive.

Different versions and locations of her store have been going since 2008. She makes some of the products herself and travels to Ghana to source others. She says the market is more than a job, but also her mission.

"My main seller is the Black soaps,” Parker said. “I sell 100 percent raw shea butter. I make my own jewelry, most of it from Africa."

Parker’s desire to be a business owner started when she was shopping with her mom as a girl.

“We went in there, and they didn't have anything from our culture,” she said. “I said, 'Mom, when I get big, I'm I am going to have something for us.’"

In the past three years, Americans' interest in becoming small business owners has exploded.

According to NerdWallet, there have been 16 million new business applications since 2021. Black-owned business ownership has increased even faster. The Small Business Administration says the number of Black-owned businesses shot up six percent between 2019 and 2022.

For both Bausch and Parker, it is not about getting rich. They say passion drives their businesses.

“It has to be… your core soul needs to do this,” Bausch said. “Or else your life will be a failure, and it will be a life unlived.”