By Blake Herzog, Photos By Blushing Cactus Photography
Once again it’s time for us to welcome our readers to the Women in Business and Leadership issue, where this
woman-led and staffed publication salutes the female leaders and entrepreneurs who have made Greater Prescott a community looked to as a model and/or a future home by people across the state and nation.
The women featured in this year’s Women in Business and Leadership section have found success across the professional world. Many got their start by learning the entrepreneurial skills required to start a business and keep it thriving in the face of competition and shifting economic conditions.
‘Study your environment’
Lucy Leyva, owner of Prescott Maid to Order, Sedona Maid to Order, MTO Janitorial and Prescott Property Maintenance, says the first rule of entrepreneurship is “you have to study your environment and see what’s needed.”
She had never worked for a cleaning company when she launched Prescott Maid to Order in 2005 but quickly learned the value of her service to clients.
Housecleaning help is not the luxury it was once seen as, Leyva says: “I mean, a lot of people, they have no doubt in their minds when they’re hiring a landscaper. But cleaning is like, ‘oh, no, no, no. I’ll do it myself.’ I’ll tell them, it’s a lot of time that you have to spend on cleaning. And there’s companies like mine that can just get it done.”
‘You are the seller of your business’
Kim Blumstein is a self-taught baker and cake decorator, and she and her then-husband opened Flour Stone Bakery & Cafe in Mayer in 2015, later moving it to Prescott Valley.
Part of her education came from listening to all the speakers she could at bakery conventions held in Las Vegas: “I think one of the most vital things that I learned years ago was that people love a product, absolutely, but they’re most interested in you as a business owner, you are the seller of your business.”
She pivoted following the pandemic as demand grew for her cakes and operating costs for the cafe soared. She became a state-licensed cottage baker and brought the business home, where she now makes about 500 cakes a year.
‘I’m going to take this leap and do it’
Christine Hardin spent her Chicago childhood rearranging her room’s furniture and admiring the area’s renowned architecture. Then she grew up, married a homebuilder and became a mom and a lead legal secretary for the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office.
She’d been inching toward home design through her husband’s company by decorating its offices and spec homes, and he began pushing her to start her own firm. “And so after six months, I finally said, OK, I’m going to take this leap and do it,” she says, launching Niche Design Co. in November 2019.
“Seven years in, it’s like all I want to do. As soon as I started, I was like, yes, this is where I’m meant to be.”
Turn the page to learn about these and many more remarkable women; where they started out, their triumphs and struggles along the way and how they’re contributing to the Greater Prescott community. They might inspire you start a new venture of your own!
