In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m promoting the support of women owned businesses. Here are some amazing women-owned businesses to support in the Los Angeles area. According to the World Bank, only one in three businesses globally are owned by women. During Women’s history month and beyond it is important to support the businesses of extraordinary women who took the courageous leap to establish wonderful businesses across LA. If you don’t live in L.A. take some time to find and support amazing women-owned businesses in your area. 

1. The Little Branch Vintage

    1091 Gayley Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024

    310-208-4000

    Website: https://thewestwoodvillage.com/business-details/?ID=399 

    Owner:  Margie Warriner

Located on Gayley Avenue in Westwood Village, The Little Branch Vintage specializes in wedding bouquets. Founded in 2008, The Little Branch Vintage offers its clients creative, avant-garde and designer floral arrangements. Whether it’s a centerpiece bouquet or a large-scale bouquet, the goal of this company is to reflect the style and personality of each of their clients. Margie Warriner is the founder of Little Branch Vintage. Her business has been featured in various magazines such as: People Magazine, California Wedding Day, Junebug Wedding, and Once Wed. 

2. Westwood Flower Garden

     1091 Gayley Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024

     (310) 208-4000

     Website: https://www.westwoodflowergarden.com/about-us 

     Owner: Margie Warriner

Located in Westwood Village, Westwood Flower Garden is a flower company that offers bouquets for all occasions including weddings, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc. 

Westwood Flower Garden serves the surrounding areas including UCLA, Santa Monica, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, West Hollywood, and other Westside cities. Owner Margie Warriner owns and operates both the Westwood Flower Garden and Little Branch vintage which are connected storefronts. 

3. Yogurt Stop

     8803 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069

     (424) 527-0154 

     Website: http://yogurtstop.net/about/ 

     Owners: Marta Knittel and Shoshana Joseph

Located on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Yogurt stop is a self-service frozen yogurt store that opened in 2009. It offers its customers different products such as: smoothies, cookie and donut sandwiches, custard, gelato, antioxidant drinks, and pies as well as 100 flavors of yogurt. The business was created by Marta Knitten and Shoshanna Joseph to provide an experience where friends, family, and colleagues can come together in a community setting.

In addition to being an original and unique concept store, it also attracts celebrities such as Kim Kardashian. One of the things I love about this business is how LGBTQ+ friendly it is and there’s a rainbow flag wall inside the shop which makes me feel right at home. 

4. The Bees Knees Studio

     1051 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024

      510-432-1712

      Owner: Gina G.

The Best Knees Studio is a hair salon that was opened by Gina G. This hair salon, located near  UCLA in Westwood, offers complete hair services including: cutting, coloring, care, advice, and maintenance. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Gina graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Textiles and Clothing. In fact, her first passion was not hairdressing but rather fashion design. After graduation, she began her career as a buyer for a large corporation. Realizing some of the realities of the working world, she decided to change course and become her own boss. She moved to Hollywood and launched her own clothing line. After failing to see the benefit of her clothing line’s return, she decided to turn to hairdressing. Having an innate talent with hair, she began her career as a hairstylist in Santa Monica at Toni & Guy Hair Academy. Later, after graduating and perfecting her hair techniques, she left the comfort of the salon to open her own private salon in Westwood. Gina’s top priority is keeping her clients’ hair healthy.

5. Côte

     Website: https://coteshop.co/

         Owners: Mary Lennon and Leah Yari

Côte was founded in 2014 by friends Mary Lennon and Leah Yari. Côte is a nail polish brand with 109 nail polishes that are five-free, meaning they don’t include formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), toluene, camphor, or formaldehyde resin. Côte’s polishes are also vegan and cruelty-free. Lennon and Yari decided to create Côte together to provide a nail polish line that is free of harmful ingredients and allergens to promote health and clean enjoyment in nail care. 

6. Heather Taylor Home

     1101 Glendon Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024

     (323) 305-4343

     Website: https://heathertaylorhome.com/ 

     Owner: Heather Taylor

Heather Taylor Home is a home goods company that was founded in 2013 by LA-based textile designer Heather Taylor. Heather Taylor is an art consultant, textile designer, home goods entrepreneur, wife, and mother. Her design inspirations come from her admiration of how other cultures set their tables. Heather Taylor Home is known for their neutral table linens with vibrant embroidery and textures, striped pillows, hand-woven wall hangings, towels, and scarves. Heather Taylor Home is a mix of her tastes, love of travel, and eclectic style of entertaining. Everything is designed by Heather Taylor herself. Heather Taylor Home has a colorful storefront located in Westwood Village on Glendon Avenue. Heather Taylor Home pieces are also sold at West Elm and online. 

SOCALO

     1920 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404

     (310) 451-1655

     Website: https://www.socalo.com/ 

     Owners: Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken

Socalo was founded by award-winning chefs/owners Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken in December 2019. Socalo is located inside Santa Monica’s Gateway Hotel on Santa Monica Blvd in Santa Monica and offers conscientiously-sourced, seasonal SoCal Mexican food along with cocktails, Mexican wine, and tap craft beers. Socalo is committed to using locally sourced produce and hormone-free meat and poultry. Since its debut, Socalo has been featured in “101 Restaurants and People that Define How LA Eats in 2020” from The LA Times and “18 Superb Santa Monica Restaurants” and “Hottest Happy Hours” from Eater, along with many other food publications. Owners Milliken and Feniger, long-time chef duo, together opened their first restaurant, City Cafe on Melrose Avenue, 38 years ago. Soon after, in 1985, the duo opened Border Grill in Hollywood which gained significant media attention and established the chefs nationally. 

8. Chit-Chat Cafe

     1854 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025

     (310) 820-9191

     Website: https://www.chitchatla.com/ 

     Owner: Chelsea Khakshouri

Chitchat is a laid-back coffee and matcha cafe located on Sawtelle in West Los Angeles that serves trendy Instagram-able drinks and tasty breakfast offerings. Chit-Chat is owned by small business owner Chelsea Khakshouri. Chelsea was studying to receive her Master’s in Social Science at UCLA with the intention of pursuing a Ph.D. afterward when she took the leap to open Chitchat. Chitchat opened the same month she graduated in 2018. As she finished off her master’s research project, she simultaneously launched the business. Chelsea was inspired to create Chitchat from her experiences witnessing how getting coffee can be a small act that can turn your day around. She opened Chitchat with the intention of creating an atmosphere to bring people together through creative flavor combinations and curating quality products to bring a moment of joy to people’s day.

by Georginna Feyst

Definition –

Intention: to have in mind as something to be done or brought about; plan

Creativity starts with a spark, an idea, a Vision. The vision can come all at once, or it can develop over time, like a seed sprouting and growing as you water it. This is in the realm of intuition. When we add intention and aligned effort to our intuition, we can manifest amazing things that are far beyond the realm of logic.

When we put our attention on something it grows. When we put effort into something inspired and intuitive, it begins to manifest almost naturally. Aligning our intentions and efforts with intuition allows for more rapid creation.

The power of intention is incredible and when coupled with aligned efforts its transformational. When we put effort out without a plan or an intention, we can end up exhausting our creative energy with less than fruitful results.  When we plan and set goals (vision) without adding effort toward those goals, nothing happens. However when we use intention and effort to support each other, we can move mountains.

This is one of the reasons people are inspired to set New Year’s resolutions. Decide on resolutions/intentions that inspire and motivate you internally. Then put your intentions, goals, plans, resolutions up in your personal space, office, or studio where you will see them and be inspired to infuse them with your effort and energy every day and keep them alive.

Some days we just inch toward our goals; other days we seem to take major leaps, but it’s the consistent applied effort and intention over time that moves us in the right direction, transforming our goals into accomplishments, our dreams into real experiences and our inner landscape into a fulfilled life.  Mick Jagger was wrong… If you align your mental and physical energies with those things that are good for you and good for the world, there is satisfaction available to you, every day of your life.