Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Travis Gerhart, founder of Best Health Co., located in Seattle, WA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Our vision is to support and motivate our customers to Do Better • Feel Better • Live Better. We set out to create premium products to help our customers Thrive & Besupervital®. Our goal is to give you the goods to light a spark of adventure that never stops burning. Every customer and every order means the world to us. It means we can continue to support local farmers and offer goods sourced in ethical & sustainable means with little to no impact on the environment.
We believe that the highest quality is all that matters. We chose spagyric herbal extract methods to maximize the energetic and nutrient potential in each of our mushroom products. We are proud to offer eight carefully selected mushroom extracts: Chaga, Cordyceps, Lion's Mane, Red-Belted Polypore, Reishi, Shiitake/Maitake, & Turkey Tail. Wellness in every drop! Our spagyric mushroom extracts are made in the Pacific Northwest from 100% mushroom fruiting bodies grown in North America. By using sustainable & ethical sourcing, these synergetic extracts contain All The Love ❤️.
A new offering is our nature-inspired candles that are created with intentional aromatherapy using 100% aromatic essential oils. Our plant-based vegan wax blends natural & renewable coconut wax, olive oil, & organic vegetable oil.
The X-shaped wooden wick is FSC-Certified and adds a high-crackle element to these candles that we absolutely love! Soy-free, gluten-free, toxin-free, paraben-free, & phthalate-free. Designed and hand-poured in Seattle by Best Health Co.
The glass vessel we use for our candles is a Biophotonic Violet Glass. This unique violet biophotonic glass vessel has properties that filter damaging light to both protect and revitalize natural products, drastically extending their shelf life. The Violet glass allows portions of the UVA and infrared light spectrum to pass through, promoting freshness while energizing the organic molecules of the products stored within.
We also offer an Electric Candle Lighter that is rechargeable and free from toxic butane that accompanies our candles nicely.
Tell us about yourself
I came to founding Best Health Co while working with patients as a practicing chiropractor in Portland, OR. One of my favorite aspects of patient care was to help guide nutritional and healthy habit decisions that really made a daily impact through their unique health and wellness journey. I was drawn to functional mushrooms due to their amazing ability to bring balance to many or all body systems, depending on the mushroom species. They really are a remarkable product category, and I'm thrilled to be able to bring them to a wider audience.
The company was founded in January of 2019, and from that time until July 2020, I spent on the backend learning how to work with design software, build branding concepts, define my ideal customer, set up a marketing strategy, register trademarks, and setting up methods for product quality, raw material sourcing, and testing. I launched the mushroom products to the public via an eCommerce Shopify store in July of 2020. The growth that the first year was slow. 2021 was much better, and 2022 is projecting to be even better yet as we've exceeded certain growth metrics so far as of Q2.
My reason for starting this company was three-fold. I wanted to help a wider audience. I wanted the freedom to work where I wanted and when I wanted. I love finding and researching complicated health topics or new and evolving research and finding ways to apply that to everyday life. So many shortcuts can happen during product development, and I wanted to start a company that offered the absolute best of whatever we chose to offer. So far, I've been able to do that with our mushroom products and our recent launch of 100% essential oil aromatherapy candles that are inspired by nature and some of my favorite regions of the US: High West, Cascades, and Pacific.
Creativity, design, customer feedback, and knowing that I'm making an impact on customers' lives are what drive the day-to-day.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Initially, my biggest accomplishment was learning design and other technical software to build the entire thing from the ground up myself. From creating the logo to label design and then expanding the product line, all of that has been surprising and really fulfilling because it's just all new to me. Continually learning new things is really what it's all about. Then, within the last year, expanding into new markets via practitioner offices and got our international shipping strategy set up and running.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
There's never an end to problems that need solving; it's kind of the whole thing. Learning to like the fact that if you are able to solve the issues and move past them, whatever the issue pertains to is usually much better on the backend because of the attention given.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Learn as much as you can from podcasts that talk about how to do it in a way that resonates with you. Whatever the business, there's someone out there giving out info that can speed up the process. Podcasts are free, and I listened to everything I could that I thought would be helpful and learned a ton in the process.
Pick a business idea that, when it starts to get really hard that you'll still have fun doing it, that resonates with you personally, and that you'll enjoy continuing to learn new things to support growth. Growing pains are real, and if you don't really enjoy the day-to-day of the business, it can take the fun out of it. The wins are in the overcoming of the obstacles, but each business and person is so unique; this was just my perspective.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://besthealth.co/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/besupervital
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/besthealthco/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeSupervital
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisgerhartdc/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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