It all started with a healer in London, some six years ago. I was visiting my eighty-year-old friend, a close friend of my mother’s. Since my mother’s death, Jan has been as close to a mother as I would hope to have. She is a renowned water colourist who married an Englishman after the war and has lived in England and painted for more than fifty years. When Jan told me she had been to see a healer, I just had to go see for myself. It turns out the healer is a Cranial Sacral Osteopathist. Do we even have such a thing in this country?

When I went to see the healer, Ingrid, asked me, “Who are you, really?” I was stumped for a moment, and then I found myself replying, “ I want to have a center for women to address beauty on the physical, mental and spiritual level. She said, ”That’s it!” That was who I am, really, who I have always been and who I will be. One who is of service to my fellow sisters (is that an oxymoron?), who can address their beauty and open the door so they can address their own beauty on all levels. After the treatment, I left her office with a copy of The Artist’s Way tucked under my arm, a story about creativity, how to develop it and the nature of its source.

The reason I decided to start a business was because I saw the sign. Unless you see the sign, you will not know which way to go. Unless you read the road signs of life, you will not believe. I wanted to believe! The sign was on East Bay Shore Road as you wait at the stoplight on Pulgas Road in East Palo Alto. It was the Start Up sign. “Do you want to start and grow your own business?” The sign read. Yes, I did!

I had been a resident of the Gardens in East Palo Alto for ten years working in industry as an administrator. I had been laid off the year before and decided to reach out to my dream, way ahead of my anticipated schedule, by studying facials at a beauty college in Fremont. When I saw the road sign, I put two and two together, not knowing it might add up to much more than four.

April 2005 the doors of Address Beauty Facial Salon were opened in Menlo Park, California. Thanks to John Marshall, a long time colleague, whom I had worked with at Eloise’s, Painted Nail in the 1980’s. John had opened the door by offering a space for me within his shop. I walked through the door one step at a time, sometimes very small steps, but forward never the less. I had a dream, a passion, I was given the time, I took the training and proceeded to make financial plans all before John presented the offered space. Joining Beau Visage in Palo Alto December 2005 with Sira who has been doing my facials for more than 18 years has only broadened my comfort level to be under the tutelage of someone I deeply respect.

The biggest challenges starting this business have been my own fears, self doubt and personal confusion that have diverted my focus from the master creativity residing within me all the time. Personal issues, the death of my father and the need to de-clutter my life have been the most immediate distractions. Being a citizen of the twenty first century is a major hurdle because the information revolution is indeed, revolting! It is so difficult to juggle one’s time, energy and passion in this fast passed world that surrounds us. Overcoming these hurdles is possible by going inward to a wee small place of peace, continually, and again, then once more.

Some how I understood that building good credit was going to be important to me in my life. So after the seven years had passed a bankruptcy in the eighties, I set out to build good credit more than ten years ago. Also working in industry in administration turned out to be invaluable in meeting my business challenged when I had to produce a business plan as my final assignment in the Start Up Program and produce brochures, business cards and other business literature for Address Beauty Facial Salon.

My participation in Start Up has impacted my life greatly. I have interfaced with people I would not have imagined would open my idea chamber to the possibilities that would lay ahead. Our Start Up teacher, Earl Padon, was excellent in teaching us how to net work amongst our selves and with the community as well. For example, there was a man in my class named Smith who had started a limousine company. My name is Jones. We joked that we could meld our two services of day spa and limousine service to bring clients to the shop and back home or even on to an event. We could call it Smith & Jones. That was a fun idea and who knows? Start Up took networking to a higher plain for me.

My husband is so proud of me as well. He helped me paint my shop and hang my sign. Our relationship is becoming richer as I become richer in my passion in life. I have had an opportunity to inspire, hire and receive remarkable assistance from at lease one other person in my community. This woman has started her own business, Get Real Clean and Organized, with Patrisha. She has been a big help to me in de-cluttering my home and my life so I can think more clearly and put more punch in my business.

It may be too premature to assess how owning my own business has impacted my life because my doors have only been open for several months. The main impact is that I see I am a “can do” woman. Step by step from picking out a sink and a faucet to obtaining a business license, I can see that I can do each of these tasks one-step at a time. Because I can see, I see better. I have come to understand that I am about “changing the world, one face at a time”. I have just been assigned a mentor by the fine staff at Start Up. I have been looking forward to this stage. I am ready! I will focus on developing a clientele now. A glorious ride, a dream coming true, all because I sought after a healer in London.