SEQUIM — Talk to those who believe in the future of downtown Sequim, and you find many of them have something else in common.
They’re women, and — like the women entrepreneurs across the North Olympic Peninsula — they also believe in themselves.
These are independent spirits, women who, with bare hands and determination, made their ideas work despite challenges both financial and personal.
Here’s just a sampling of the woman-owned establishments in the Sequim city center: Over the Fence, Pacific Mist Books, Hurricane Coffee, Damiana’s Best Cellars, Kim’s Cafe, Sequim Vision Clinic, Mad Maggi, Sequim Gym, The Good Book and Heather Creek are on Washington Street; A Catered Affair, the Botanical Touch, Let’s Shop and The Buzz Ice Cream & Coffee are on Sequim Avenue; and on Bell Street is another full line: Galare Thai, Imagine Gifts & Boutique, A Dropped Stitch, Twice Loved Books, Pam Walker Photography, Pathways Holistic Healthcare, Olympic Massage, Sanctuary Day Spa, licensed massage practitioners Elizabeth Barrett and Virginia Jefferson, Pacific Northwest Veterinary Hospital, Patti’s dog grooming and The Grateful Head hair salon.
Rubee and The Buzz
The beautiful thing about having a room — in this case a cafe — of one’s own is “the freedom of individuality,” said Deb Ferguson, self-described queen bee of The Buzz at 128 N. Sequim Ave.
She opened her place seven years ago, with a kind of alter ego, Rubee, gracing the front window and beckoning passers-by in for a hot drink, an ice cream cone or both.
Ferguson grew her business around the bee theme because her given name, Deborah, means honeybee in Hebrew — and because she’s about pollination among people, music and ideas.
The Buzz is known for its Wednesday open-mic night, its gatherings of knitters and thinkers — and soon, Ferguson promised, it’ll become a miniature cinema, complete with popcorn.
“I’ve wanted to do movies since the day I opened,” Ferguson said.
Within the next month, she plans to start screening hard-to-find films — independent, documentary foreign — on weeknights, for donations.
“For me, The Buzz is about community: having a place for all to be accepted, to be comfortable, to just be,” she said.
Over the Fence
Around the corner is Over the Fence, at 112 W. Washington St., where owner Jeri Sanford multitasks with style.
While rearranging furniture and greeting shoppers, she told a reporter that when she opened 14 years ago, she was a bundle of stress.
“I was putting myself right out there on Main Street, doing something I hoped people would like, investing my soul and my hard-earned money,” she said, “and setting myself up for rejection.”
However fearful, she went ahead. After working as a special education assistant at Sequim Middle School, “I was at a point in my life when I wanted to do something creative.”
Her advice to fledgling business women: “Get good mentors, and really listen to them. And my whole business plan is to reinvest every dime,” in the operation.
“Live meagerly,” Sanford added. “The difficult times will be there. Don’t cave in to them.”
Pacific Mist Books
Among Sanford’s fans is Marti McAllister Wolf, owner for 16 years of Pacific Mist Books at 121 W. Washington St.
“She’s got guts,” Wolf said of Sanford, who has expanded Over the Fence — and expanded again, defying the deep slump after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and holding her own amid the recession that’s still gripping the country.
Wolf, like Sanford and Ferguson, revels in the freedom to create an environment.
She bought the former Kat’s bookstore in 1993 after a long career in the insurance industry. She’d fantasized about a job wherein she was surrounded by her beloved books, but that was out of the question while she was raising her son; it just didn’t pay enough, she said.
Now Wolf, at 67, has the shop of her dreams.
She gets to tap her artistic nature — something “they beat out of you in the corporate world” — with her window and interior displays. Watching over it all is Wolf’s “silent partner,” a life-size doll named Miss T.
Wolf urges would-be retailers to “do your demographics,” as in make sure your business offers something needed in your particular community.
“Find something you’re passionately interested in doing,” she added. “It doesn’t work if you’re not passionate.”
You must also hold tight to the courage to stick it out for a few years without making much, if any, money.
“I had good credit and a lot of savings, and the determination that I was not going to fail,” Wolf said.
But this recession has challenged her.
Wolf said she’s ever mindful of the fine balance between keeping Pacific Mist well-stocked, so it looks healthy, and overbuying.
And since the bookshop is a one-woman show, Wolf works six full days a week.
She’s tried being open Sunday but said it wasn’t worth it. Yes, there were sales, but not enough to justify taking away the one day when she can catch up with things at home and take an extra-long walk on the Olympic Discovery Trail.
Botanical Touch
Among the newest women on the downtown Sequim block are Nicole Livengood and Ruth Cadden of Botanical Touch, 115 N. Sequim Ave.
They opened their trove of teas, herbs and other organic products last April, in the depths of the recession.
“We had people say, ‘You guys are nuts,'” Livengood said. But “we’ve had such a good response. More and more people are finding us . . . all we can do is grow from here.”
Working together has proved to be a learning experience for the two women, said Livengood, adding that they’ve both had personal challenges in the past year.
Yet they’re clear on their motto: “Keep looking ahead.” When asked whether a woman would be wise to open her own business at this point in history, Livengood said simply: “I highly recommend it.
“There’s nothing like being able to take care of yourself.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
