Feature: Owning the day

Trading security for freedom

 We interviewed five brave women who started their own businesses. We
wanted to know what motivated them and a few excerpts are interwoven
within the photoscapes.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LANCE DAVIES + WILLIAMS STELZER + ELLA ANDERSON

ALEX EWALD, owner
La Tapa restaurant, 16 years

  What’s the best part about owning your own business?
I am the boss. It’s a lot of work, but you get exactly what you have put into it. I can lead my business into the direction I want to take it.
I can express my creativity through my employees, without having to do it all myself. Good delegation, respect and trust are the key.

GINA FEDDERSEN, owner
Isola Bella, 4 years

What was your lowest point and how did you get beyond it?
When you’re first starting out, just trying to get shops to take you on as a new designer. Getting that courage to call people up.
It’s a lot of rejection at first. And also the logistics of shipping to the states. I gave myself time and worked on my collections.

COLETTE DIEDE, owner
6-Paq Scuba, 12 years and Island Blues Bar and Grill, 7 months

What was your lowest point and how did you get beyond it?
Island Blues was the first time I’d gone beyond what I knew I could do myself. I didn’t know how to run a kitchen! And well, I got by with a little help from my friends, from above, even from strangers sometimes. The right thing just happens at the right time. I’m not alone.

SAPHIA BOYNES, owner
Beauty Lounge, 9 years and soon a second location in Havensight

What made you think you could do this alone?
I’m determined! I’m a very hardworking person. I saw that there wasn’t a multicultural salon and I’d always wanted to do it. I never was a person who thought small. I have so much other stuff in store!

MARGARETTE MAJETTE, owner
St. John Projects, 11 years

What made you think you could do this alone?
I saw a need, and, maybe [had] some naiveté. I was confident in my abilities. I’m not sure I factored all of it, when I took the first step off the cliff, but you get the momentum going and you just catch up to it somehow. Every day is challenging and fun and different.