Cover Story: Entrepreneurial Spirit

 

 

How an IV nurse turned a caring instinct into a successful women’s health business.

By Judy Wade

 The difficulty Barbara Zarrell encountered finding a wig for her mother—who suffered from lung cancer—inspired Zarrell to form Women’s Personal Health Resource.

She was burned out from traveling more than 200 miles per day as a home health intravenous (IV) infusion nurse. Two am beeper calls were the norm. She had just gone through a divorce. She was adjusting to being a single mom. Her stress level was off the charts.

Did Barbara Zarrell take a vacation? Spend time at a spa? Hole up in front of the TV with a box of chocolates? Not exactly.

She took a deep breath and started her own women’s health products boutique.

“I’m a jump-into-the-fire kind of person. I’ve been that way my whole life,” she says. “My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1987, and during treatment she needed a wig. She didn’t want to be dragged around shopping, and ultimately couldn’t even find a wig. After she passed away, I thought about my mom and realized I needed to do something to help people, something other than nursing.”

That “something” turned out to be creating Women’s Personal Health Resource. From the day 3 years ago when she opened the door of her little 700-square-foot boutique in Monsey, NY, Zarrell says she has had a sense of satisfaction.

But starting a business from scratch is a pretty gutsy move. Since she had no retail experience and had never owned a business, what made Zarrell think that she could succeed?

“I felt emphatically that a woman’s special-needs boutique would enable me to combine my entrepreneurial drive with my nursing background and desire to work one-on-one with patients,” she says. “Plus, I had an understanding of anatomy and physiology, and of the emotional problems women go through when they are having surgery for cancer.”

Entering the Niche
First she investigated owning a franchise but discovered that the initial $250,000 purchase price, plus a high percentage of sales that must be returned to the franchisor, was not the route she wanted to take. Then she took an 8-month business course at the American Women’s Economic Development Corporation in Manhattan, an institution dedicated to women entrepreneurs. She also started attending trade shows to learn about product lines.

She wrote a business plan—at 64 pages the biggest one her bank had ever seen—which included statistics on breast cancer and cancer in general in the Long Island area, as well as photos of the products she would provide.

 Feeling attractive can help in healing. Barbara Zarrell shows some of her post-mastectomy bathing suits to Elise Israel.

Zarrell then took a true risk. She put her house up for collateral to secure a $60,000 bank loan and withdrew $30,000 from her 401K to raise start-up capital.

One of her first challenges was finding and renting the right location for her store. The small, homey structure that now is Women’s Personal Health Resource boutique is located behind the office of a plastic surgeon, who is Zarrell’s landlord. Zarrell furnished the rooms comfortably and tastefully with wicker furniture and floral fabric. Clients are invited to pull up a chair to a countertop with a mirror surrounded by theatrical lighting to choose wigs, makeup, and skin care products. She sees clients by appointment only because she feels that giving a customer her complete attention is crucial to her success.

“In the beginning I made a lot of mistakes, and I’m still making mistakes. You’re always on a learning curve,” she says. “I didn’t know how to price things. I didn’t know how to be a salesperson. I made monetary mistakes in terms of business sense, because I had none. So I learned by the seat of my pants.”

She did carry over from her nursing career one invaluable bit of knowledge. The only way to make it in the niche medical boutique business is to have contracts with almost every insurance company, plus Medicare and Medicaid. She now is a provider for most major insurance companies, and physician referrals, as well as marketing and advertising, drive most of her business.

Early in 2003 Zarrell’s business reached the point where she was supporting herself. Until then, she was still a nurse, seeing patients in the morning, then coming into the store, and seeing patients again in the evening. For 3 years she worked two full-time jobs. Her success sometimes gives her the chills. “It’s like I made something out of nothing,” she says. “But I still have three patients I see every month. I can’t give it up.”

Contributing greatly to her achievements, and accounting for 50% of her sales, is her Web site, www.womanspersonalhealth.com. “One of the reasons my Web site is so successful is that it is a living, breathing, ever-changing thing,” she says. “Most Internet sites in my industry were put up 2 or 3 years ago, and they haven’t changed. My site has new pages every week.”

Zarrell draws first-time and repeat visitors to her Web site by putting up current articles about cancer treatments, giving detailed product information, and answering frequently asked questions. Plus she spends some of her marketing dollars to buy key words, such as “breast cancer,” from Internet search-engine companies so that her site comes up as an option whenever someone searches for those key words.

Having high visibility on the Internet allows her to afford to stock more inventory than she can distribute through her brick-and-mortar store alone—which in turn allows her to please her store customers with a larger selection than she otherwise would be able to offer.

She readily admits her products are not the cheapest. She stocks upscale choices and difficult-to-find products along with the basics. And her clients respond. One satisfied post-mastectomy customer emailed, “I just got back from my aerobics class and I want to tell you what good taste you have.... I have received more compliments on the new bathing suit and it made me feel like a million bucks.” And from another, “Your Web site is wonderful. I live in a small town and we do not have what is needed.... I need help, and questions answered, and you are there for me.”

New Challenges
As part of her new entrepreneurial life, Zarrell speaks frequently with other boutique owners around the country, and she has a friend who owns a women’s health boutique just an hour and a half away. She is a member of the Essentially Women’s Buying Group, a group purchasing organization for women’s health care products and services, and attends the group’s trade shows, and Medtrade.

Now that she is in the black, is she thinking about expanding? Definitely, she says, but not right away. Two nearby hospitals have approached her about setting up a women’s personal health boutique in their facilities. Issues of zoning and getting variances for a retail operation in a hospital are among the obstacles, but she says expansion possibilities are always in the back of her mind.

Still, Zarrell is in no rush. Although a stable bottom line is essential to her business, it is not her only reward. Being there for her customers and treating them with compassion during a difficult time in their lives also bring her satisfaction.

Take, for example, a woman who recently contacted Zarrell about a wig. “[She was] diagnosed with breast cancer and came to see me, extremely upset because she had been told she must undergo chemotherapy and she would lose her hair,” Zarrell says. “I have a good selection of wigs, so, in the course of an hour, I was able to change her from being anxious and overwrought to feeling better about herself. She could walk out the door a happy person. When she hugs me and says, ‘Thank you so much. You really have made it easy for me,’ that’s my reward.”

Judy Wade is a contributing writer for Dealer/Provider.--