Edina Ladies Who Launch

How five local women turned their entrepreneurial spirits into thriving businesses.

By: Nancy Eike | From the issue: October 2011

Photo: Tate Carlson

Heidi Pierce, Lori Harrington and Carolyn Johnson of Satoree Design

Rachel Ray, media/cooking/merchandise mogul, has taken her love of food, cooking and talking, and (along with a lot of hard work, guts and determination) has amassed an empire—a brand that rivals even the greatest Domestic Diva of them all, Martha Stewart.

“Decide what it is that you are and then stay true to that thing,” she is quoted as saying in a recent article in CNN Magazine.

So, we wondered about those savvy, gutsy Edina women who have taken their own passions, thrown the proverbial caution to the wind, and set out on their own business ventures. How did they get there? And what have they learned about themselves along the way? Well, we didn’t have to look far; turns out that Edina is teeming with women entrepreneurs. We sat down with a few of those gals who have spent the time to figure out, as Rachel Ray puts it, “what it is they are” and how they stay true to that path.

Rachel Swardson - Bavia Health

It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention … and that adage certainly holds true in Rachel Swardson’s case. After giving birth to her third child in 2005, Swardson, feeling sore, tired, very overwhelmed and a lot under-cared-for as she lay in her austere hospital room, said to herself, “There has to be a better way to welcome a new mother into this world.”

So she set out to make a better way.

Swardson (who worked five years as a producer/medical journalist on PBS show Health Diary before having children) spent two years researching birth cultures around the globe, and noticed four constant components in each of the birth experiences within those cultures: heat, aromatherapy, song and massage. Armed with the knowledge vetted during her research, she created a postnatal therapy that would be brought right to new moms in their hospital rooms and was designed to help them ease their anxiety, soothe their aches and pains, help them sleep better, and better prepare them for their “fourth-trimester journey.”

So, with a $12,000 investment she secured from her brother and a friend, and $5,000 from an old IRA, she forged ahead with Go Home Gorgeous. Mind you, it was winter of 2008 and everyone tried to talk her out of it.

“People would say things like, ‘You’re a first-time business owner and the economy is crashing; this is the worst time to start a business,’” says Swardson, who answered her critics by saying, “This is the perfect time to do it.”

Turns out, she was right.

Fairview Southdale was the first hospital to sign on, and then Fairview Ridges and Methodist Hospital shortly thereafter. (Swardson has never had to call a hospital to sell her service; they’ve always called her.) To date, over 1,000 customers have either purchased or were gifted full-body massages, foot eucalyptus steam wraps, heated temple treatments, and a host of other services in 14 hospitals by a cadre of 32 pink-lab-coat-clad therapists.

Swardson has expanded her original vision to answer hospitals’ requests for bringing in her services for cancer patients, transplant recipients and donors, and those in hospice care; she recently rebranded, changing the name to Bavia Health. In keeping with that new vision, she has secured $1 million in financial backing, and has commitments to move into 40 additional hospitals next year in the Twin Cites and New Jersey. Not to mention that she was the 2010 Minnesota Cup General Division Winner.

“The joy is immeasurable that I feel for all of this,” says Swardson as we sit in “The Nest,” a meeting/conference/brainstorming room in their new corporate office. “I feel like I have three biological children and one brain child, and this baby is as demanding and loved by me and my other children as they are to each other. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

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