Liberty Lake spa leases larger space

Sarah Hamilton Face has moved to a 1,200-square-foot office in the Liberty Lake Health and Wellness Center, at 1334 N Whitman Lane. 

The company, which provides individuals with skin care, cosmetics, hormonal balance treatment, and other treatments, was founded in April of 2015. 

“Since that time, we have expanded our services and needed the new space,” says owner Sarah Hamilton. “The new space is double the size of our old location, and I think it’s likely we’ll expand again in another year or so.”

Previously located in an office space at 23403 E Mission, in the Liberty Lake Portal, the company moved into its new space last month. 

Hamilton, who also owns Pilgrim’s Market in Coeur d’Alene, is a registered nurse who is trained as an aesthetic nurse specialist and a certified nutritionist. She has been working as an injectables trainer for more than eight years.

At its new location, the business has added services such as bioidentical hormone treatments, HydraFacial, microneedling, chemical peels, customized facials, and face and body waxing.

She adds that the company shares its new offices with Dr. Geoffrey Stiller, of Linea Cosmetic Surgery, who will oversee patient visits and provide consults for cosmetic surgery.

Along with new service offerings, Hamilton says the company has added five new employees, boosting its total employee count to seven. 

The new employees are advanced registered nurse practitioner Natalia Yermakov, registered nurse and injection specialist Ashley Stepp, master aesthetician Samantha Johnson, patient coordinator Jessica Cuevs, and office manager Kim Hadley. 

—LeAnn Bjerken

 

Marketing veteran forms new company

With two decades of marketing experience, Spokane resident Hezekiah Corppetts has started CVL Marketing Group LLC, with the intention of helping small businesses in their marketing efforts.

Corppetts officially formed CVL last month and immediately began recruiting sales reps as independent contractors to help grow the business. As sole owner, he currently also is the business’s only employee and is working from his home.

“Small businesses owners are great at their business and understand their products and services better than most. But the reason eight out of 10 fail in their first year is that they don’t understand and know how to market,” says Corppetts, who derived the name CVL from his initials and those of a now deceased mentor.

Corppetts says there’s a difference between marketing and advertising. Unfortunately, he says, most small business owners can’t differentiate between the two.

“Marketing involves the process of bringing preinterested, premotivated, and prequalified customers to your offering to buy your product or service,” Corppetts says.

To help get his businesses started, he is offering small business owners the opportunity to receive a free report offering an assessment of marketing opportunities on which they can seize.

“I’m really excited to get with small business owners to help them out,” Corppetts says. “There are a lot of great ideas in this community that people are trying to capitalize on, but it’s hard. It’s hard to run a business and market it at the same time. That’s basically having two full-time jobs.”

—Kevin Blocker

 

Mercantile opens in Garland District

Garland Mercantile has opened in a 1,050-square-foot retail space at 823 W. Garland, says co-owner Jerry Huston.

Hot sauces, spices, gourmet popcorn, Tom Sawyer coffee, jams, jellies, barbecue sauce, and honey are some of the products the shop sells, Huston says. It also sells some survival equipment and books. 

“Not all (products are) from local vendors, but I try to keep it as local as possible,” says Huston. His shop also carries candy bars and jerky, which he says he can’t get locally.

Huston says he worked with Spokane Public Market until it closed. After that, he would sell at different shows, such as Custer’s Home & Yard Show, and at a few farmers’ markets with his daughter, Angela Huston, also co-owner of Garland Mercantile. The two are the store’s only employees, he says.

While they aren’t working shows and farmers’ markets currently, they plan on picking it back up in the future, he says.

Huston says he’s always wanted to own a shop, Also, he says his daughter is “really into this, and between to two of us, we can handle it pretty well.”

Garland Mercantile is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

—Samantha Howard

 

Spokane mom starts lice-fighting concern

A Spokane woman who worked previously as a medical assistant has started a business combating head lice, motivated in part by the experience of having a child who contracted lice last year.

“My teenage daughter got it, and through that experience I recognized how hard head lice is to get rid of,” Joan Berkowitz says. 

It prompted Berkowitz to start her own business, A Lice Thing To Do LLC, in July. Berkowitz goes to the homes of those infected with head lice to treat them. She charges $75 per hour and provides free rechecking after treating head lice. 

“I’ve been going nonstop ever since,” says Berkowitz, who says most of those she’s treated are adolescent girls.

Berkowitz completed formal training and earned a certification in head lice prevention from The Shepherd Institute for Lice Solutions, a nonprofit treatment and training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. Katie Shepherd, internationally renowned for her ability to treat head lice, founded the institute in 2004.

Berkowitz says studies have recently shown that head lice are beginning to develop a stronger immunity to the typical over-the-counter treatments available to the general public. She says most lice treatment products contain strong pesticides that are absorbed through the scalp and never released. Berkowitz, who also works with local nonprofits and social service agencies, encourages parents to watch for FDA warning labels and to seek alternative treatment options when possible.

Berkowitz says girls tend to be more vulnerable to head lice.

“Girls are more huggy, tend to have more sleepovers than boys, and are sharing pillows,” she says. However, she says she’s treated many boys who play football and end up grabbing each other’s football helmets.

—Kevin Blocker