SEATTLE — Pike Place Market is one of the oldest farmers markets in the nation and it's become the home of hundreds of women-owned businesses.
The first all-women-owned business in Seattle, Three Girls Bakery, opened in the market in 1912.
Currently, a third of Pike Place Market businesses are fully owned or operated by a woman and more than 225 businesses are fully owned or co-owned by a woman.
Running a business comes with challenges and several organizations are ready to help prospective entrepreneurs get off the ground.
Some of those challenges are greater for women than they are for men looking to start a business.
Accessing capital, mentoring, securing childcare and networking can be among the challenges women face when planning to launch a business, according to the Association for Women’s Business Centers.
In Washington state, there are several non-profit organizations that offer business start-up training, financial guidance and various seminars and conferences.
Among those groups is the Washington Center for Women in Business which has helped more than 1,000 new women-owned businesses open since 2016.
Looking through her lens
Artist and photographer Phoneix Nalyvayko owns Royal Phoenix. Her signature photographs of iconic Pacific Northwest locations are featured on stretch canvasses. You can find them for sale at Pike Place Market.
She's been taking photos since she was about 11 years old.
Born in Ukraine, Nalyvayko came to the United States when she was 16 with her dream in hand, ready for challenges. Nalyvayko said she struggled with poverty for many years but never lost sight of her goal to become a full-time professional artist.
"I was always very passionate about it and I thought it was amazing and a magical form of art and it really allowed me to capture the beauty of our planet and you know, nature and cities and people," Nalyvayko said.
Royal Phoenix has been a standing business at Pike Place Market for more than 10 years while Nalyvayko also runs an online store for her business.
Nalyvayko said she advises other women entrepreneurs to always be open to learning.
"I think the best thing that really helped me is continual self-education and I'm always taking classes," Nalyvayko said. "I'm always networking and so the best part of it is learning more. You have to continue learning and evolving and also you come into a lot of challenges and failures and it's important to remember that failures are part of growth."
Working for generations to come
Not far from Nalyvako's space at Pike Place Market is Eighth Generation.
Eighth Generation is a Seattle-based art and lifestyle brand owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe. It was founded in 2008 by Louie Gong, a member of the Nooksack Tribe.
The CEO is Colleen Echohawk, an enrolled member of the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake.
According to the Eighth Generation website, it is the first Native-owned company to ever produce wool blankets.
"It's so exciting to think about creating home goods that anyone around the country can buy and when a kid is getting ready to go to the pool and they take out a native beach towel," Echohawk said. "There's true representation of Native people and culture"
Eighth Generation was created to provide an "ethical alternative" to “Native-inspired” art and products through its artist-centric approach and 100 percent Native-designed products.
Echohawk said the leadership of "powerful Native women" will spark change at the Pike Place Market and beyond.
"We have to remember that it is still a glass ceiling that we have to continue breaking," Echohawk said. "It’s not just one glass ceiling but there's many glass ceilings that we have to continue to break through."