Despite losing everything last year, two women who survived the Eaton Fire are determined to rebuild their businesses stronger than ever.
Elizabeth Hall lost her home and all her inventory of Eeze Natural Health during the wildfire.
“I got to see my inventory,” she said. “Every day I was the one filling the orders out of the home, and it was really hard to think it all just went away overnight.”
It took Hall a full year to relaunch her products.
“I learned that you have to make sure you have the proper insurance, not just for your home,” Hall said. “It took time to save up, to be able to reinvest in inventory again.”
She said being a woman business owner added another layer of challenges.
“The struggle is real,” Hall said. “Currently, I am still supporting this business, financially, on my own. But, I have so many other female founder friends that are looking into VCs, raising capital to grow into the next phase. The percentage of females who receive that kind of financial support pales in comparison to what men get in the businesses.”
Across town, another small business owner faced the same loss.
Playlab Beauty in Old Town Pasadena lost most of their inventory of Japanese and Korean beauty products when founder Vanessa Nabhani’s Altadena home burned in the Eaton Fire.
“We were only a year old at the time, but we had a customer base too that was really wanting us to survive,” Nabhani said. “They were loving what we were doing, and so I also felt this immense responsibility not just to my family at home but my family and community here.”
Nabhani said she started her business to show her daughters that success could look different. Her girls are in the store often, reminding her why she never gives up on her passion and giving them a front-row seat to what determination looks like.
“I feel like I am very battle-tested at this point,” Nabhani said. “After going through what we went through, you can always rise from the ashes.”
Both women said it’s a special sisterhood that bonds them, giving them the strength and encouragement to keep going.
