Mallory Jackson at work in her shop Bay Street Custom Framing in downtown Port Orchard

Women are led into the world of business ownership for all sorts of reasons — usually not to do with the idea of becoming wealthy. Sometimes it’s the happy reasons like following a passion, other times it’s the negative experience of a divorce, and sometimes it’s really just an idea that suddenly blooms, and next thing you know it’s 20 years later and you’re still having fun.

For Jaci Parrish, opening a beading supply shop was a classical hobby-turned-business story. She’s been beading for about a year, loved it, and saw the need for a local store. One day driving home from work, she noticed a space for lease in a beautiful location on Henderson Bay in Purdy. About two months later, on Jan. 22, the Beadin’ Path was in business.

“It was meant to be. I didn’t run into any roadblocks,” she said.

Parrish took a leave of absence from her job with the City of Gig Harbor to get ready for her new venture. Her sister, also into beading, came from Oregon for a few months to help out. The Beadin’ Path already offers classes, and Parrish plans to add birthday parties to the mix. But most importantly, patrons are invited to come in and use the space to work — which should be a beautiful idea come summertime.

“This has come at a great time in my life,” she said. “My education, work experience and creativity all came to fruition.”

For Laurajean Welch, the timing also seemed good when she opened Harrison Street Design in Poulsbo, specializing in window coverings. She’s been in the field since age 17 — her first job after high school was in a drapery shop. Falling in love with Poulsbo during a visit clinched the deal as she grew tired of big-city traffic, and Harrison Street Design was opened after she called Poulsbo her home.

That was 10 years ago, and since then her positive reputation has traveled all around Kitsap and often beyond. She says she uses all her senses to help clients find what works best for them. That usually means what works for one client doesn’t work for the next.

These days, Welch gets help from her husband, whom she met while they both worked at a firm in Bellevue. “I go out to the home and come up with the design idea, and he installs everything,” she said.

Getting help from her husband also works well for Nikki Johanson, who has been running Pheasant Fields Farm in Silverdale on a 15-acre homestead that had parents had bought. Her parents raised chickens on the farm, which she inherited, and three years ago she too got chickens because she missed the taste of fresh eggs.

But there is much more than chickens to Pheasant Fields. As if the farm isn’t busy enough year-round with the Community Supported Agriculture program which allows customers to get fresh produce every week based on a subscription system — Johanson hosts farm tours, egg hunts, including one coming up in March, and during harvest season a corn maize and kids-friendly events.

“It’s rewarding to see the happy kids and sell products,” said Johanson, who has two more farms that raise cattle.

Farming, she says, is therapy. “This is what keeps us alive,” she said. “It gives us a purpose.”

Doing something you’re passionate about is the only way to grow a business, concurred Anetta Butler, co-owner of Pacific Northwest Costume in Bremerton. Butler, who learned to sew from her grandmother, remembers her disappointment as a child when all costumes looked pretty much the same, made of a sack with a picture on them. At her costume shop, customers don’t have to worry about cookie-cutter costumes: They are designed and manufactured in-house.

After moving to Redmond from California, she one day asked her neighbor if she’d run a business together, and in 1981 they started their first shop “with absolutely nothing.” When it was time to expand, they chose to open a second location — and the Bremerton shop, now a decade old, was born. “Everything is continuously transitioning,” and retail business owners have to be aware of everything from industry to cultural changes, Butler said. “Business is not static, you have to be innovative,” she said.

Mallory Jackson, owner of Custom Picture Framing on Bay Street in Port Orchard, says she also enjoys implementing ideas and being small enough to be able to do everything in-house. The shop, celebrating 10 years in business, offers acid free matting and museum quality framing. It’s her training as a graphic designer, her education and past experience that has helped her achieve success and watch her business grow. “I love this work,” she said. “It’s a joy to come here.”

Linda Allen, a Bainbridge Island retailer, has found that keeping up with all the changes brought by disasters, political shifts and a roller-coaster economy is just as important as keeping up with trends and population changes. Opening her Fox Paw gift and apparel shop on the island about 30 years ago with a $25 investment, she has seen many shifts through the years. “Just as you think you’ve figured it all out, the picture changes,” she said. She’s also learned to operate right on the edge, with minimum staff and just enough inventory. “No one goes into retail to make a lot of money, we do it because of our passion and that’s why it’s so hard to let it go,” she said.

At Fox Paw, she doesn’t carry any item she doesn’t like and says the store reflects her personal identity. But the key is to stay ahead of, not in step with, the trends. By the time a product hits department stores, Fox Paw has been done carrying it for months. “Because we’re broad in our product base, we can go any direction we want,” she said.

Flexibility has also proven a good tactic for Julie Tappero, who started West Sound Workforce Inc. in Gig Harbor in 1998 because she saw a need in the community. Staying flexible has helped the young company weather the changes in the labor market. The company has grown to include a second office, in Poulsbo, and employ between 80 and 150 temporary employees in the Greater Kitsap area including Jefferson County in all types of fields. West Sound also offers permanent placement.

Tappero credits her office staff and involvement in the community with her success. She has kept active with groups ranging from Rotary and chamber of commerce to the Olympic Workforce Development Council. “I’m really committed to serving the community. I did it in my personal life, and I believe it’s important for businesses to give back,” she said.

Tappero has considered for a long time becoming a business owner, and said being able to implement her own ideas is the best part. “I don’t have to someone if I should do certain things. I have my own philosophy about how to run a business and treat people,” she said.

The joy of being around nice people compels Susane Dirks to give up her personal space, her own house, on a regular basis. As the owner of Frog Creek Lodge on the Key Peninsula, she rents out her home with its seven bedrooms to retreats, family reunions and other functions. A self-employed counselor who works with the court systems, she deals with many sad situations, and the lodge helps balance it out. Dirks opened the lodge in her home six years ago as a way to keep her big house after a divorce. She fixed it up, redesigned, and even built a labyrinth. “It takes creativity in advertising to get people here,” she said. “It’s been challenging and fun.”

Fun is how Sandy McFarlane describes what she and friend Nancy Wheeler do for a living. The two Key Peninsula women own a dog breeding business and a kennel, Almost Home, which in December was rated at the top by the Puget Sound Consumers’ Checkbook magazine. Twenty years ago, both worked full time while breeding dogs—and they took the plunge of opening a business, breeding Newfoundlands and Carin Terriers.

“We enjoy our clients and we feel the community appreciates what we have to offer,” McFarlane said. Both dog breeding and boarding require exhausting physical work, not to mention the 19 dogs they own themselves. But getting away from their passion, as many other women in business noted, is not an easy thing, and the pair are another good example how some truly great things can come out of love for something and hard work.