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.
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