Starscapes home-based business opportunity

GROW AN HERB INCOME

Herbal sales now amount to $5 billion nationwide. This shop grows an herbal income of $250,000 a year.

Gingko biloba. St. John's Wort. Echinacea.

These--and dozens of other herbal and natural remedies--are fueling a boom in the herbal remedies industry. Sales of medicinal herbs have doubled since 1995 and now amount to over $5 billion annually nationwide.

And that trend is expected to continue. As boomers age and as we all question traditional approaches to health, Gerald Celente, director of The Trends Research Institute, forecasts that the entire health and natural foods field is primed for growth in the next millenium.

While others may just be learning about herbs and their medicinal properties, Bob Keith has known of the healing powers of herbal remedies for over two decades. As the owner of Dragon Herbarium, Keith has watched his business grow steadily as public awareness and acceptance of alternative remedies has blossomed over the years. With the recent addition of shopping cart technology to his website, Dragon Herbarium's gross sales are approaching a quarter of a million dollars--and Keith expects the trend to continue.

Herbal Beginnings

Back in 1975, Keith and good friend, Richard Love, were working as business machine repairmen. But both had a dream of starting their own business. Keith began to learn about herbs first and he says "I really turned [Richard] on to herbs." It was Love, however, who made the entrepreneurial plunge first. In 1975 Love opened aptly-named Love's Herbarium.

Soon, says Keith, Love convinced him that he should come and work in the herb store. Those first years were lean ones and Love couldn't pay Keith much so the two friends struck a deal: If Keith would work for a very modest salary--$100 weekly to start--Love would make him a full partner after three years. Keith not only stayed on but within eight years Keith had bought his partner out and renamed the business Dragon Herbarium.

At the time that the business was started back in the mid '70s, "it was easy to get into [the herb business] for not much money," says Keith. He figures the total outlay came in "under $600 for inventory--and rent was cheap then too."

Today, Keith thinks an interested individual could start a very small herb store with an investment of a few thousand dollars in inventory, in addition to the usual business prerequisites of storefront rent, utilities, shelving and the like.

An herb business with as many offerings as Keith's mature enterprise would cost much more, he notes. For starters, Keith carries around 400 different herbs. Of those, Keith says that between 300 and 350 fall into the "natural healing" category and the others include spices used for cooking and potpourri and some thirty varieties of tea.

Some of Dragon Herbarium's best-selling herbs are echinacea--a remedy for colds--and root of golden seal--an antibiotic alternative. All herbs are sold in bulk to allow for individual customer needs and to preserve freshness. After twenty years in the business, Keith has no trouble finding suppliers, "and I can always find products on the Internet," he adds.

Keith also carries a number of related items like incense, candles, crystals, quartz, and amethyst along with books and magazines on natural remedies. "Natural crystal theme" jewelry, tie-dyed clothing "and different things that interest me" round out Keith's eclectic approach.

With this kind of inventory, you'd expect Keith's customer base to be solidly New Age or latter-day hippies. But you would be wrong. "It's pretty diverse," says Keith of his clientele, "everyone from little old ladies with canes looking for henna for their hair to Gen Xers."

Keith feels fortunate that he discovered herbs before the rest of the world did. He says that his business has basically increased as public awareness of the benefits of herbs has increased. Keith notes that the herb industry has really surged in the last four or five years. He attributes this to the public having discovered what he did so many years ago, "that herbs really do work. Most of the time natural medicines will do the job."

Marketing

Keith figures that his two plus decades in the business is his biggest draw. He has a number of regulars and others are drawn in by word of mouth. Consequently, Keith doesn't advertise much. Occasionally he'll run an ad in a neighborhood newspaper or a high school yearbook but, by and large, his advertising budget is earmarked entirely for his display ad in the Yellow Pages, which costs him about $1300 monthly.

Five years ago, Keith ventured into cyberspace with a website at www.dragonherbarium.com. In 1999, Keith added advanced shopping cart technology to the site and hired someone to devote ten hours monthly to promotion of the website. The result? Website orders have doubled.

While Keith limits his online inventory to herbs, essential oils and incense, he has high hopes for the Internet portion of his business: He hopes ultimately to be a purely Internet-based venture. If he can get to that point, Keith says he'll close the storefront "and move out to the country."

For now, 'though, Keith enjoys his chosen vocation. He is, essentially, in a helping profession. Many customers ask him for ideas on which herbs will help which ache or pain. "Some folks even call me 'Doctor Bob,'" Keith adds.

"I like the business because people are happy to come and see me," says Keith. "That wasn't the case when I was fixing business machines. And, besides," adds Keith, "I don't have to work for someone else."

For more information, contact Bob Keith at 503-244-7049.
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