Women in Business

Katherine and I opened our doors three months ago.  Katherine - eight months pregnant.  Me - a mom of two little ones with another full time job.

People kept asking us what we were thinking?  How we were going to pull this off?  What about our kids?

We knew we had fully supportive husbands and families.  We knew we had an amazing architect/designer in Dom Price.  We knew we could get to our launch date.

What we didn't know was whether we'd have a fully supportive staff to get us going.  A staff able to withstand the numerous hiccups that would come along with getting a new business up and running.  A staff that we trusted to leave the business to during Katherine's impending maternity leave and during my work days.  A staff that would be able to market the space like we would do if we were able to be there 24/7.

I cannot be more thankful for the four women we have on staff right now.  They are all brilliant artists, but, more importantly to me, they are kind, they are supportive of us and each other, and they have helped the business grow.  This job can be difficult at times -- an unruly child, a crazy glitter explosion, the incessant cleaning, a demanding parent -- but these women are unwavering.

I'm simply impressed by the way the six of us (Katherine, myself, Grace, Heather, Bonnie and Devin) have been able to withstand each other being sick, withstand my kids' sicknesses, withstand Katherine's maternity leave, withstand some slow weeks, withstand my nitpicking, withstand my kids running around the space, withstand the space flooding (and on and on) to keep this place a continuously evolving, changing and (perhaps most importantly) growing studio.

I don't hear a lot about women supporting women in all women run businesses, but I think this is a really fun case.  Just wanted to put this out in the world.

Post by:  Anna Vergos Blair