Starting a business is difficult. But when you have the drive, Georgianna Strickland has you’re up for the challenge.

“It’s exciting,” she said, “it’s really exciting.”

She’s been running her own marketing agency called Bizzee Bee Marketing for the last five years.

These days, she runs it out of her garage.

“My husband built this for me in November of last year,” Strickland said. “This was my Christmas present.”

She had become an empty nester in 2014 and thought there was more to life than a corporate job, so she decided there needed to be a change in her life.

“Finally, I took the leap of faith and I did it,” she said.

She created Bizzee Bee Marketing. That didn’t mean she was in the clear. She still needed to get her bearings on how to thrive and how to network with clients here and across the country.

While she spends some time in her garage/office, she spends a lot of time outside her home distributing advertising for clients through methods like t-shirts and yard signs.

When she’s not driving to meetings, she’s going to places like a community center in Tampa where Hillsborough County is putting on this economic development event to help small businesses, like Bizzee Bee, learn about what the county looks for when they’re hiring contractors.

So Georgianna is off to do what she says is the most important thing in her business.

“Networking, networking, networking,” she said.

That’s what all these businesses here are doing. And for small shops, like Bizzee Bee, it’s what has helped her stay afloat during these difficult economic times.

“Having someone to run things off of and point me in the right direction,” Strickland said. “I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at today.”

She’s gained a lot of insight through these types of county events and today, because she’s doing so well, she’s hoping to expand to where she can offer internships.

With this, the county helps fund 75 percent of the intern’s pay and gives employers a proper ground work so the intern might be hired full time when the internship is done.

“It’s a win-win,” Strickland said.

A feeling she gets every time she’s able to network and meet different businesses and clients at events like this.

Bizzee Bee has accumulated over 200 clients to help with their marketing.

She’s also helping with an organization that helps young kids learn how to become entrepreneurs and create their own businesses.