CRAVING local businesses!

Last night was the launch of CRAVE Portland guide. It is so inspiring to be part of a guide that has a group of such amazing women entrepreneurs who are all following their dreams and making it happen! This book is definitely something you need to check out as it is the ultimate guide to Portland women owned businesses.

Here is a sneak peak of some of my favorite quotes from the book!

What tip would you give women who are starting a business?

                “Bury all fears of failure in a bow, lock it up and throw away the key. Any passionate woman can nurture a business into success with focus and determination.”- Jasmine Tran of Essance

What tip would you give women who are starting a business?

                “Be exactly who you are. Clients will resonate with that and come back for more.”- Brandie Kajino of SOHO Solutionist

                “Remember your sisterhood! Reach out for help, and it will be there. Business is not about cutthroat competition anymore. We are most successful when we help each other thrive.”- Juniper Martin of Juniper Martin, MD

Oh and did I mention there are discounts offered from the businesses in the back of the book! : ) No matter what your CRAVING there is something for you. Available at Skin Zen, come pick one up and check out all the awesome women owned businesses!

My Sister! My Friend! My Business Partner….?

  When I tell people I have a business with my sister I hear everything from “That would be my dream to open a business like that with my sisters,” to “I don’t think I could do something like that with my sister!” But business wasn’t always something we did together. As a kid I started many businesses….The Babysitter’s Club, The We Love Kids Club, The Cleaning Club, the list goes on but I’m just now noticing that they always seemed to end with ‘Club!’ They made a decent profit, in fact we once made enough to take the entire company to see the Nutcracker. The ‘entire company’ was always the same: myself as President, my best friend Danielle as Treasurer, my other best friend Brittney as Secretary, and my younger sister Marcy…definitely not ever included! And I think she was totally fine with that, she didn’t seem too interested.

Fast forward about 15 years and here Marcy and I are running Skin Zen Acupuncture and Esthetics (She wouldn’t let me name it The Skin Zen Club J nor was I allowed to be designated ‘President’). How did this all come about? I was in the middle of acupuncture school and Marcy was trying to decide what career path to take. We wanted to find something she would like to do that would fit nicely with acupuncture so we could start a business together. Well, Marcy wasn’t up for Medical school J, insurance billing sounded boring to her, and I couldn’t talk her into massage school either, so finally we found an esthetician program that focused on natural skincare. I’ll admit it, I had to kind of talk her into it, but she jumped in with the vision of combining our skills for one awesome business. Luckily, it turned out she happened to absolutely love learning and practicing natural skincare. Plus, she ended up being completely amazing at the treatments too, if I do say so!

So here we are with our business and we both absolutely love our jobs and being able to make our own decisions, but what’s it really like starting a business with your sister? For us, our personalities and strengths are different enough from each other that it works to our advantage. While we are always respectful of each other and are really drama-free, we can say things to each other that some wouldn’t be able to say to a co-worker or business partner. For example, when I ask what she thinks of the advertising flyer I made, she can just cut right to it and say “That color is so ugly!” And I have no problem nagging her about posting the blog I wrote. Not that we don’t ever get on each other’s nerves, but we aren’t worried about offending each other.

As we continue to build our business together, we push ourselves and each other to provide the best possible care and service to our customers. We are just living our dream of loving our work, and we’re looking forward to adding another sister to the business once she’s old enough…we think we have our youngest sister talked into joining us as a massage therapist once she’s 18!

A sister is both your mirror and your opposite.

You can kid the world, but not your sister.

Why I Love Acupuncture

  Being an acupuncturist, people assume I love acupuncture, but people are constantly asking, “How in the world did you end up doing acupuncture?”  It seems even more unlikely to have happened since I grew up in a very small town that had never had an acupuncturist.  I knew about acupuncture and had even seen it done at a young age because my family had used it to heal a variety of things. But the thought of ever doing acupuncture as a career had never crossed my mind even once. It wasn’t until my second year of college when I wrote a paper about Chinese Medicine that I really became interested in what it had to offer. After three years of studying acupuncture at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, the things that intrigued me when I first learned about it are same reasons I still love the medicine today. Here are a just few of the things I love about Oriental Medicine:

·         Nature: Oriental Medicine uses nature to explain and diagnose things going on in the body. For example, a redness of the skin may be ‘heat’ or an involuntary shaking of the body is addressed as ‘wind.’

·         Treating the unexplained: Since it was created thousands of years ago when there weren’t modern diagnoses, Chinese Medicine is designed to treat symptoms or patterns. This means that even if a person’s illness or symptoms can’t be labeled as a specific Western medicine diagnosis, a Chinese Medicine diagnosis can be given and treated with acupuncture, herbs, or other modalities.

·         Considers the entire body and a root cause: A Chinese Medicine diagnosis doesn’t just look at the one issue or symptom the patient is complaining about, but considers everything else going on in the body as well in order to look for a root cause to resolve. For example, if a person has neck pain it is a problem local to that area, but there may also be other internal causes that need to be treated as well.

·         Balance: Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are all about balance- balance in the body, balance of yin and yang, and overall balance in life. This just makes sense to me because in general too much or too little of anything can be a problem.

·         It works!!: No matter what people may say about acupuncture and whether we know exactly how it works or not, the fact is it does work! While every person responds differently to any treatment, I watch it help and amaze people all the time!

And that is exactly why I love acupuncture and I love sharing it with people every day!

By: Jessica Tatieze, LAc, Skin Zen Acupuncture & Esthetics