Tasha and Rica Kendrick-Palmer didn't abandon healthcare when they opened Black Phlox. They simply found a new way to heal their community, one fragrance at a time.

Scent is powerful. It can transport you across time, unlock forgotten memories, and bridge the gap between loss and comfort. Tasha and Rica Kendrick-Palmer, both of whom spent decades working in the healthcare industry, learned this lesson not in a hospital, but in their Houston neighborhood during the darkest days of the pandemic.

When a neighbor lost a loved one to COVID-19, their family brought over some of her belongings. The scent of her perfume still lingered in the fabric, an unexpected comfort that instantly brought back cherished memories. For a few precious moments, that familiar fragrance bridged the distance between loss and remembrance.

"That's when it dawned on me. What if there was a candle that smelled like her perfume?" Tasha said. They worked to recreate the fragrance and presented it to the family, offering comfort that could be rekindled in moments of sorrow.

Witnessing that impact sparked something bigger. As essential workers throughout Houston faced unprecedented challenges, Tasha and Rica realized they could offer their community something healthcare systems couldn't: intentional moments of peace, pathways to meaningful memories and permission to find joy amid chaos, and all offered through scents.

From treatment to transformation

What started as a single gesture of comfort evolved into a mission. Tasha and Rica began offering free candle-making classes to essential workers across Texas and beyond. From Houston, Dallas and San Antonio to Louisiana and North Carolina, they created spaces where frontline workers could pause and find respite through creation.

"We were all quarantined and it seemed a lot of us became interested in learning new things," Tasha said. "It was an emotional time, and we wanted to help healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters, grocery store workers — whoever was open during that time — find a little reprieve."

For Rica, who had been coordinating nursing staff and vaccination stations across the greater Houston area, these workshops became as therapeutic for her as those that attended. After nearly 20 years in healthcare, the pandemic changed something fundamental. "I was starting to build up anxiety myself, something I had never really experienced before," she said. "But making candles with people, seeing their happiness, that was making me happy."

The workshops revealed a truth both women couldn't ignore: They were still healers, just using different tools. Instead of medications and medical equipment, they had discovered a sustainable way to continue their healing work outside of their healthcare jobs.

As demand for their volunteer classes grew, Tasha and Rica recognized they had created something with real business potential. In 2022, Rica stepped back from nursing full-time and a year later, the couple opened Black Phlox, a brick-and-mortar candle-making studio in Houston.

More than just candles

Black Phlox takes its name from a flower that represents unity and harmony, symbolism that aligns perfectly with their mission to "curate community, pour to yourself, and kindle resiliency."

The studio offers candle-making, perfume and cologne-making workshops, with fragrance creation becoming their most popular service. They've expanded to include mobile experiences for weddings, showers and corporate events, where clients create customized scents that tell their own stories.

"We encourage people to forget about recreating something they've already bought," Rica explains. "This is your opportunity to make something that no one else has made, something uniquely yours."

That authentic approach has built a loyal customer base, with over 90% of their business coming from reviews and word of mouth.

Building with the right partners

Transitioning from healthcare to entrepreneurship required more than just passion and creativity. Tasha and Rica needed a financial institution who understood their vision and could support their growth at each stage.

The couple have been Chase customers for over two decades. When they established Black Phlox, partnering with Chase for Business felt natural. What set the partnership apart was the personal approach their banker took to understanding their business.

"Daniel, our banker at Chase, asked us something no one else had: 'What's your plan for tomorrow? How are you going to grow?'" Rica said. "He wasn't trying to lend us money. He genuinely wanted to make sure our livelihood kept growing. That's when we knew we had the right advisor."

The relationship with Chase for Business has proven essential as Black Phlox has scaled from volunteer workshops to a thriving operation. With Chase's support, Tasha and Rica secured their first line of credit, gained access to small-business coaching and financial consultations through Chase for Business's Coaching for Impact program, and learned to better manage day-to-day operations and cash flow all while focusing on what matters most: creating healing experiences for their community.

"Our Coaching for Impact mentor, Zsaquez Jordan, challenged us to step back and see our business from a new perspective, asking, 'How can we simplify even the basics?'" Rica said. "She didn't just offer advice, she helped us rethink our approach so we could avoid constant course corrections."

The company's relationship with Chase also led to Black Phlox's participation in The Experience Houston, an event series from Chase for Business designed to support and educate small business owners through a full day of programming and networking with other entrepreneurs and industry experts. The Experience reflects how Chase for Business continues to show up for the small business community in impactful ways. The event series has made stops this year in Seattle, Boston, Tampa and San Diego and wrapped its five-city series in Houston in November.

"Tasha and Rica's journey from healthcare to entrepreneurship exemplifies the resilience and innovation we see across Houston's small business community," said Robert Hines, South Region Area Manager at Chase. "They've created a business that stays true to their calling as healers while building something entirely new. That's the kind of entrepreneurial spirit we're proud to support."

The legacy of healing

From healthcare professionals to fragrance entrepreneurs, Tasha and Rica's journey proves that healing takes many forms. They haven't abandoned their calling. They've simply expanded their definition of what it means to care for others.

"We're not just making products," Rica said. "We get to sell smiles. We get to sell memories. At its core, we help people find resiliency, and that's what we've always done. We're still healers. We're just healing in a different way."

Visit chase.com/business to learn more about how Chase for Business is supporting small-business owners.

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