West Company::Client Stories

Client Stories

Pacific Preserves ~ Fort Bragg

Becky Ahmadi's Artisan Jam Creations

Chandra Apperson, Attorney at Law ~ Ukiah

Chandra Apperson, Attorney at Law, Ukiah

By Kathy Brigham

Chandra Apperson not only has deep roots in Mendocino County, she is also heir to family traditions of self-employment and community service. Her father owns and runs Apperson Energy Management and her mother is CFO at the Mendocino Youth Project.

After a decade away from the County pursuing an education and working as an EMT Chandra has returned and “hung out her shingle” as a licensed attorney at law, focusing on consumer bankruptcy assistance.

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Lemon Fresh Designs ~ Boonville

Lemon Fresh Design in Mendocino County
By Kathy Brigham

Torrey Douglass designs websites under the name Lemon Fresh Design. And if your business is designing websites, your own website had better sparkle. That was a “no brainer” for Douglass, who studied digital design at S.F. State and worked in the fast-paced Bay Area dot.com world before moving to Anderson Valley...

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Jixi Day Spa and Salon ~ Willits

Rejuvenation In Willits
By Kathy Brigham

Mary Wilson has been working toward the creation of her own business for over 20 years. After earning her Cosmetology license in 1987, she worked in salons owned by others and built her clientele. Noticing the increased popularity of spa treatments -- and pampering in general -- she also became a licensed massage therapist in 1995. But it was not until 2005 that she took the plunge and opened Jixi Day Spa and Salon in Willits...

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Erica Fielder Studio ~ Fort Bragg

Erica Fielder Studio

the evolution of an artist in commerce

Erica Fielder’s business story is the story of a life journey that would eventually combine her love of nature and her need to create fine art. By 1983 her two passions had come together when she began making interpretive panels for parks and preserves along California’s coast. The panels perfectly blended her interest in ecosystems, art and a desire to inspire people to take care of the natural world...

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Rising Tide Sea Vegetables ~ Fort Bragg

County Business Carves A Niche With Seaweed
By Kathy Brigham

Larry Knowles is certainly not the first person to find a use for the bounty of sea vegetables to be found along the Mendocino coast. Native Americans have been harvesting seaweed for centuries and inland peoples once traded their most precious possessions for a bag of dried seaweed laboriously carried from the coast...

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Cowlicks Ice Cream ~ Fort Bragg

The Inside Scoop on Nancy, the Ice Cream Lady

As she wiped the mint-chip off her son’s chin, Nancy surprised herself by asking her friend, “Wouldn’t it be great to own Cowlick’s?”

Nancy knew what it was like to run a food business; she and her husband Bill own two busy Subways, and she’d never considered having a third. So what was it about Cowlick’s that started her dreaming?...

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OCO TIME Restaurant ~ Ukiah

OCO TIME RESTAURANT
What’s an OCO, and what is it doing in Mendocino County?

To Yoshiki and Naoko Sakane, owners of OCO TIME and IT’S TIME in downtown Ukiah, the OCO is a symbol of growing up in post war Hiroshima when Hiroshima had become a center for peace education and celebration. The OCO parlors were warm, friendly places and the OCO snack was yummy and cheap. As children, Yoshiki and Naoko visited the Hiroshima Peace Park and were immersed in a peace curriculum at school...

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