| The trend of women-owned businesses has been growing over the last three decades, and each year more women are embracing the freedom, hard work — and for many, financial security — that comes with business ownership. The latest statistics show that about a third of American non-farm businesses are owned by women, a number that has been steadily grown.
Around Kitsap, women own everything from salons and boutiques to human resource agencies and restaurants — and often break traditions and step into a man’s world to own construction, engineering or landscaping companies. Some take the road to enterprise in search of a flexible schedule that allows for more family focus, others need a break from corporate America, but many simply want to be in charge of their own lives.
“I’m very independent, it’s part of my personality. I would not do well having someone telling me what to do,” says Andrea Howard, who recently opened Indulgence Bed & Bath Boutique on Bainbridge Island. And although she’s done “her own thing” her entire career, the opening of that store was still an intense experience.
“I would not be honest if I didn’t say I was ready to run for the hills,” she says. “But the die is cast now, I’m fully in business. I know I have to ride out the first two years.”
Howard, who moved to Bainbridge Island from California less than two years ago, has lived in Kitsap for four years in the ‘90s, selling real estate. So she thought about doing that on Bainbridge when she realized there was an unfilled niche: The island needed a bed and bath store that could offer both high end and high-quality but affordable selections. Howard put her 20-year background as an interior designer to work, and decided to open a custom bedding store to help people “make a design statement.”
“A lot of people need guidance, I’m finding,” she says. “They get frustrated, but we offer them our expertise as part of the price.”
Howard feels the store “is hitting its stride,” and the customer base is growing, but she finds that getting the word out is one of the most challenging aspects.
Spreading the word is a common hurdle for newly opened businesses. Ellen Earl, owner of Gig Harbor Adventure Boot Camp, says business has been picking up since she started out at the beginning of this year, but she is focusing her energy on marketing herself.
Earl, a certified personal trainer, worked as a senior systems analyst, programming computers for almost a decade, when she felt she needed a change. Although initially she enjoyed her job, especially because she got to help people, with time she got burnt out. Always athletically active, she wasn’t making progress in her martial arts training when a friend suggested she should get a personal trainer.
“He got me past my stumbling block and showed me how to train smart,” she says. So when he suggested she, too, would make a good personal trainer, Earl became intrigued, researched the field, and soon changed careers. “I am a people-oriented person and I do like physical activity,” she says. “This is a better fit and I still get to help people, just in a different arena.”
Earl worked as a personal trainer at a Milton gym and lived in Auburn, but needed to move to Gig Harbor to be closer to her aging parents. When she heard about the adventure boot camp program used in California by John Spencer Ellis and Christina Lucy, she approached them to see if she could use the model, which they have developed over 20 years. The boot camp, which is strictly for women, consists of one-hour sessions five days a week over four weeks, usually held outside, except for extreme weather. Participants show up at 5:30 a.m. — 20 pushups if they’re late.
“You can’t have a spa-like setting in a boot camp,” Earl says.
The sessions include circuit training, weight training, calisthenics, yoga, Palates and more, and she spends one on one time before camp with each participant to set up personal goals.
Earl says having support from Ellis and Lucy helps her learn from them and avoid mistakes, but she still finds that being a single business owner can become a “slippery slope” for those who are not careful. “You have the freedom to make your own decisions… but there is no one there to tell you no,” she says. “There is no one else looking over your shoulder.”
Marcia Breece, owner of Morgan Hill Retreat in Poulsbo, also finds that going solo — especially for a woman — has added challenges. In her case, not only is she the only decision maker and the person who wears all the hats, the upkeep of her property and animals requires intense physical labor. But Breece loves her little paradise, complete with beautiful gardens, llamas and 22 chickens. It’s a place she opens to strangers looking to escape — following her own search for an escape from corporate “life.”
After an extensive career in telecommunications, which took her all around the world, Breece was looking for a cabin where she could write her book. A friend suggested a Poulsbo Realtor, who in turn suggested a farm — complete with llamas. Moving to the Morgan Hill Farm from Bellevue was quite a change, but not a strange environment: Her grandparents owned a dairy farm, and as a young girl she often visited and helped out. “For me, it’s almost like coming full circle,” she says.
And to prove that she was up to the challenge, Breece added chickens, got her hands on all the books she could on gardening, llamas and chicken, and in about five months was ready to open her bed and breakfast. Celebrating its first year in April, Morgan Hill Retreat offers two suites, and Breece is working on a third. She didn’t want to have “bed and breakfast” in the name though because she didn’t want to give the impression of a Victorian atmosphere.
“The idea of a retreat is to not feel cluttered and to relax,” she says. “The llamas add to that, they are very tranquil animals… I do seem to attract people here who are trying to get away — maybe from corporate America.”
Breece misses the routine of her own corporate life a little, and finds working around the guests schedules can be challenging. Still, it’s a worthy tradeoff. “The thing about it that’s really wonderful is in the corporate world I met people all the time, but I had all the pressure and politics of the corporate world,” she says. Now, she’s traded that pressure for a rural lifestyle, and she still meets new people all the time.
“Life is too short,” she says. “It seemed like the perfect next step for me.”
It’s certainly a step that many women find the right one for them, and a rewarding move despite the many risks. |
