At age 22, Kortney B. Murray got an early business lesson when she opened a clothing boutique in California. The shop eventually failed in part because of her financial inexperience, she says. Motivated to learn more about business funding, she embarked on a new career path, one that included a series of financial-services jobs and eventually the 2007 founding of Sarasota’s Coastal Kapital, which specializes in commercial equipment leasing and lending.

“I started Coastal Kapital from pure passion,” says Murray, the firm’s CEO. “Being an undercapitalized entrepreneur led me down a path of closing the doors to my love of fashion. It was not from lack of heart, but a lack of knowledge.”

Her aim now is to prevent that from happening to other small and medium-sized business owners. She says she enjoys educating entrepreneurs about their financial options and enabling them to “fuel their businesses” with “OPM — other people's money.”

Her company, which employs seven and plans to add up to eight positions this year, has customers nationwide and focuses on the construction and transportation industries, but also finances other equipment.

“We live in a world that is ever-changing, but since we are diverse, we can always supply the needs of different industries and entrepreneurs,” she says. “We offer solutions for the American dream. Growth will happen regardless of the interest rates or economic times.”