Darke County, OH News

elementsLife Yoga Studio

The Face of Small Business - How We Got Here**

by: Emily Jasenski, co-owner, elementsLife Yoga Studio with C.J. Jasenski

I am a non-business business woman. Most entrepreneurs are born with a sense of leadership running through their veins, but I certainly was not born with that gene. I am not sure that Harvard Business School would agree with our business plan, which consists of intuitive decision making, last minute marketing, and design on-the-spot-out-of-nowhere-crazy -idea-turned-fantastic programs. I know that most business planners, and executives would scoff at our ridiculous methods but for whatever reason it works for us, and it didn’t take me long to figure out that we aren’t alone.

Four years ago we started this business so that I could work part-time, and stay at home with our kids. I simply wanted to teach Yoga in a Yoga Studio. Due to the fact that there was not a Yoga Studio in Greenville, we decided to create our own. Mind you, our vision for this Studio was not elaborate, just small and simple… a place for me to teach.

At the time, my husband & business partner CJ was working as a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer out of our home. When the economy plummeted in 2008 things changed for us drastically. Pregnant with our second child there wasn’t much I could do to remedy the downward rollercoaster that we were on, and CJ was scrambling to do what he could to keep us afloat. Shortly after the birth of Charlie, CJ began having seizures, and as hard and scary as it was in hindsight it pushed us make some very serious decisions. Knowing full well that we did not have the time or energy to grow two businesses we had to make a decision, his business or my little part-time Yoga gig. We decided to toss the coin into the Universe and have IT choose, heads would be CJ’s business, and tales would be mine. With all of the signs pointing to tails all it took from that point on was approaching a local building owner in our Downtown, and asking him if he would be willing to help us out by lowering the rent for a few months while we got our feet wet in a bigger space, and to see if the business would grow beyond the part time status we had been maintaining. Needless to say, the landlord agreed and we were able to grow elementsLife to the level you see today.

That is our story in a nutshell. There are so many small business owners out here doing the same thing. We are not business experts driven by the bottom line. Instead, we are driven by our passion to create something new or to satisfy an apparent need within our communities. Although it may sound great to do the work you love we are at times forced to step away from our true inspiration and create a new product or service to keep the lights on. This process can be grueling, stressful and scary at times but it does force us to try…try and try again until we get it right. It is during these times of development that we listen closer to our gut, dig deeper and trust that it will all work out in the end.

Many believe that small business owners work for themselves because we don’t want to work for others, or that we have to be in constant control, but the truth is that many of us wish that someone would step in every once in a while and take some of the control away so that we can go to bed before 1:00a.m. We do what we do because we are who we are…it is an extension of ourselves, our families, and the communities which we are driven to preserve, build or maintain. We may struggle, but that struggle forces us to find creative ways to make things happen. Believe it or not…business is not always about the money!

**The “Face of Small Business” is a new monthly focus designed to bring you information about Chamber entrepreneurs and business owners on “HowWe Got Here”. Assisting entrepreneurs and small businesses and understanding how they operate is critical to growing jobs.

The June 2011 ADP Small Business Report indicates that of the 157,000 non-farm private sector jobs created, small businesses with 50 or fewer employees created 88,000 jobs; medium businesses created 59,000 jobs; and large business created 10,000. Growing the creative economy can occur one small business at a time and we are well positioned to grow this part of our economy. With the shifting economy, now is the perfect time to focus on this new, high growth emerging economic direction.

The Darke County Chamber has resources for your business. We are here to help you build a business or optimize results within your current business. Please contact me at sharond@darkecountyohio.com or 937-548-2102 for more information or assistance. Sharon Deschambeau President