In 1989, when the other women in her neighbourhood were either heading to offices wearing power suits with shoulder pads, or embracing the role of full-time, stay-at-home moms, Jennifer Desloges made a bold choice. She started her own business.

Twenty years and 15,000 clients later, what started as a part-time, home-based electrolysis studio has grown to a $200,000-profit-per-year operation. It includes not only West Coast Electrolysis Institute, but commercial locations of West Coast Electrolysis (www.hairfreeforlife.com) in Vancouver and Langley, with plans for 10 to 20 new franchises (to be re-branded under a new name) within the next year. It’s also now a two-generation Desloges business, with daughter Janine running the Langley location and serving as qualification specialist for franchisee applicants.

For Jennifer, the choice to become a mompreneur – well before such a word existed – was an easy one.

“I’d left my job to stay home with my kids because my son, Marc, had asthma,” Jennifer said. “When they went to school I didn’t want to go back to being an employee, but I knew I needed something to do.”

These days, starting a business is the solution to this problem for more and more women. According to Statistics Canada, there are more than 821,000 woman-owned small businesses in Canada. (There are about 137,000 in BC.) By 2010, that number is expected to top 1 million. Over half of those women have children, and a third have children under age 12. 

Back in 1989, it was actually Jennifer’s husband, Marcel, who found the opportunity that would change their family’s life forever. He came home with a copy of the Globe and Mail, with an ad for electrolysis training circled. Marcel had simply spotted it and thought it could be a good part-time business that Jennifer could run from home, while the kids were at school. But for Jennifer, seeing the ad was an “aha” moment, and calling the number was a decision that would be a lifesaver personally as well as professionally.

By the time she saw the ad for electrolysis training, Jennifer had been struggling with an all-consuming problem for about eight years. When she was pregnant with Janine, she’d developed polycystic ovaries – a condition that causes the body to produce male hormones. To her horror, she started developing dark hair on her body and face. The condition got worse over time, and by the time Marc was born she was struggling to camouflage a full beard.

“I’d spend 20 to 30 minutes a day tweezing my face on weekdays, and three to four hours on the weekend,” she said. “But I couldn’t keep up with the growth. By Thursday I’d have to start shaving my face. I was wearing out my clothes because of the thick stubble on my legs. There wasn’t a second that I didn’t think about hair.”

She became introverted and shy, not wanting to go out in public for fear someone might glance at her chin. Like many women struggling with excess hair, she hid the extent of the problem, secretly tweezing and shaving when Marcel wasn’t around.

When she called the number in the electrolysis-training ad, Jennifer learned that the students practised on each other, and she could spend as much time as she wanted to on the table. She immediately started training, and after over a year and a half of treatment, her male-style hair growth was permanently removed.

Ready to fully embrace life again, and knowing what an incredible difference electrolysis could make in the lives of other women who were suffering with excess hair, Jennifer converted the carport of her home into a studio and started taking clients.

“The first day I made $100, and we went out to celebrate,” Jennifer said. “Six months later I bought Marcel a car.”

Jennifer’s business began growing exponentially when happy clients started to refer their friends. And little Janine, by now eight years old, helped the marketing effort by being brutally honest with teachers and friends’ parents about their fuzzy upper lips.

After a year and a half, Jennifer was working 16-hour days, and realized that despite being based at home, she needed childcare. With the amount of money her business was bringing in, Marcel was able to quit his job, and in the early 1990s, he found himself playing the role of Mr. Mom.

Having achieved her own business success through dedication and plain hard work, Jennifer’s motivation for franchising is partly to grow West Coast Electrolysis to even greater heights – but, perhaps even more, it is also driven by a strong desire to help other women run successful businesses of their own.

“Starting and building West Coast into a successful business took a lot of time and effort,” Jennifer said. “I would like to give that same opportunity – to make a good living, to run a business that helps clients feel better about themselves – to other entrepreneurial women. But instead of their having to struggle like I did, I’m offering them a turnkey way to reach those dreams.”

The exponential growth of Jennifer’s business puts her outside the normal bell curve of mom-owned businesses. Statistics Canada data show that women-owned businesses grow much slower than those owned by men – a trend they attribute to the many factors women are balancing in their lives. While men start businesses to make money, women tend to start businesses to create flexibility and a balance between work and family life. That’s exactly why Jennifer started her business, but having Marcel at home meant she was able to dedicate much more time to her work and foster explosive success. 

One day, listening to the kids playing, the Desloges were struck by just how different their family was from the others they knew. Marc was playing with a kitchenette set, and Janine strolled into the room with a briefcase. She said to her little brother, “Honey, I’m home. What’s for dinner?”

Even though Jennifer was working long days, running her own business meant she had the flexibility to help out at the kids’ school, and attend their sports tournaments. The other moms didn’t perceive her as being much different from them. But Marcel, showing up with Marc at hockey practices, often faced some taunting from the other dads, who teased him about being a househusband and developing his baking skills. Taunting aside, though, the unique arrangement gave the Desloges the chance to be involved in their children’s lives in a way they never could have done if they were employees.

“I worked a lot, but I also knew that there were more important things,” Jennifer said. “Having my own business gave me the flexibility to be a better mom.”

The fine balance of work and family is important when playing the roles of both mom and entrepreneur. For Jennifer, it’s about giving 100 percent of your attention to what you’re doing at the time. When Jennifer’s at work, she’s all-electrologist, completely focused on her clients. When she’s at home, she’s a wife and mother first.

“Being a parent is the best gift I’ve ever been given,” she said. “My kids are everything. Business has to come second. Of course, the business is like my third child.”

It’s also important to recognize when you need help, either with your kids or with your business. Jennifer would not have been able to work as hard and as much as she does without Marcel looking after the kids. And she wouldn’t have been able to grow her clientèle without seeking help from specialists – including a marketing person and a business coach – to help her.

“I know I’m the best electrologist,” Jennifer said. “When I know I’m not the best at something, I find the person who’s the best.”

Her franchisees won’t have to make the same trial-and-error marketing mistakes that Jennifer did before settling on the team and model that worked best for her. She’s working full-out right now to develop a franchise package that includes marketing materials, a website, and a locum, or fill-in, service – something she’s really excited about.

“Taking even a week off is really hard when you’re managing clients’ treatment,” Jennifer said. “When the kids were little we went on lots of holidays but they could never be more than a week long. The locum service will allow franchisees more flexibility in their personal lives.”

Twelve years ago, Jennifer discovered another benefit of running her own business – the opportunity to work with her daughter. The summer Janine was 15, she helped out at her mom’s reception desk. After seeing how positive the clients felt when they left the studio, Janine decided she wanted to become a trained electrologist, just like her mom. Fifteen minutes later she had a needle in her hand and Jennifer was showing her the ropes. Janine’s been working on paying clients since she was 17, and now at 27 has her own flourishing electrolysis studio – the first franchise location of West Coast Electrolysis in Langley.

Like her mom, Janine is thinking about how running her own business will impact her family life when she’s eventually ready to have kids. She hopes to have the same flexibility her mother did to attend important events in her children’s lives, and she’s planning on taking advantage of the franchise locum service to take some time off when her children are small.

Jennifer, for her part, is excited about having the freedom to play Grandma whenever she wants.

After 20 years in business, Jennifer Desloges has mastered the fine balance required to be a successful mompreneur. Thinking about how she’s done it, she offers this advice for anyone – mom or not – who’s thinking about balancing a business with family life:

“Love what you do. Work hard and play hard, and remember that you have to sleep and eat once in a while. Spend time with your family and your husband. And get a BlackBerry!”