Three women of alternative health care: these Fairbanks women didn't know how to be businesswomen when they first opened their practices in 2001, but they soon learned.

• Author: Mayer, Amy
• Position: Small Business

A desire to compete in the marketplace and a zeal for starting a business don't generally fuel a person's interest in the medical professions. But after years of training and significant financial investment in their education, some graduates find the way to do the work they love is to go it alone. And that means running the business becomes a critical element of what they do.

Fortunately, Alaska offers a friendly environment for small business. Still, for practitioners whose crafts aren't well-known, starting a private practice can be daunting. Tree of Life Oriental Medicine, Natural Health Options and Ann Turner Studio are three businesses that opened in Fairbanks in 2001.

Ann Turner rented a storefront space in Chena Pump Plaza, she says, because "it was literally the cheapest commercial space I could find." And she'd gotten to a point where she had so many clients interested in the Pilates body-work classes she was offering that she couldn't stay in the space she'd been using at the North Star Ballet School. Pilates is a method of physical fitness through physical therapy-it's often used by performing artists and for rehabilitation from various kinds of injuries.

Turner opened the doors to her studio in August 2001. She's the only Pilates instructor in Fairbanks right now, and though she had three years of business classes before switching her college major, she says she disregarded most of it.

"The way I did it," she says, "is ignorance is bliss." Now, she recognizes that writing a business plan would have been useful. But she quickly adds that the black and white-or red-truth of a business plan could have scared her out of trying. What she did do right, she says, is ask for help.

"I employed a CPA and a financial planner. And I went to her and I can say that my doors are open today in part due to her." Ongoing advice helps Turner make good business decisions. And getting help is critical, she says, because running a business is almost like a second job. "I teach eight hours a day and I run a business on top of that ... that's a lot."

It's a sort of juggling act that mixes practicing your craft with being a business owner.

Acupuncturist Paula Kunkel is acclimating to the same combination, balancing management issues with her medical practice. She opened Tree of Life Oriental Medicine, housed in a building shared with several massage therapists, in March 2001. She's still building it into a full-time job for herself. Although she had...