Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sarah Shaw, co-founder of Hillside Botanicals, located in Randolph, VT, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Hillside Botanicals is a small certified organic medicinal herb farm situated on a quintessential hillside in Central Vermont. In 2018, we started growing just a few crops on family land with a vision to create a diverse landscape that could yield food and medicine for our community. Today, we cultivate dozens of medicinal herbs and perennial crops using systems that prioritize soil health, clean water, human-scale power, and pollinator vitality. We sell our dried medicinal herbs to local and regional herbalists, product makers, apothecaries, and herb enthusiasts of all scales. Using organic botanical ingredients sourced from our hillside fields and traditional herbal knowledge, we also create handcrafted herbal and CBD wellness products that include herbal teas, tinctures, body care formulas, and unique seasonal creations that reflect the bounty of the landscape we steward. We're pleased to offer these products to our ever-growing community of retail and wholesale customers, who constantly inspire us to dream up new products that provide the farm-direct wellness experience we strive to deliver.

Tell us about yourself

As a young millennial, I grew up with the narratives of climate change, natural resource depletion, and growing health inequities as a constant source of background noise. From a young age, I felt a deep connection to the land and also a fear of how the natural landscape around me would change as I matured into adulthood. I held this environmental ethos quite close throughout my college career. I focused on the intersections of food systems, sustainable community development, and globalized challenges like climate change. In all actuality, until my early twenties, I was convinced all business was bad, but then through exposure to values-driven enterprises and growing connections in the local farming community, I realized business can and should be a force for good. So, in 2018, my partner began farming with the intention of co-creating a biodiverse landscape that could serve our community.

I simultaneously started intensively studying herbal medicine and completed a rigorous three-year Clinical Herbalist certification program here in Vermont. Today, those experiences have culminated into what is now Hillside Botanicals. Despite the challenges that come with farming and being a young entrepreneur, I am motivated every day by a deep calling to serve the Earth and my community. There is something new to learn or experience every single day, and that is something worth continuing to work for.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The biggest accomplishment I hold as a business owner truly recognizes my ability to learn and adapt. Entrepreneurs wear all the hats, and there's always a constant waterfall of "to-dos" that requires you to pivot and prioritize. If you told me three years ago that I would know how to approach bookkeeping, graphic design, contract negotiations, marketing, and all the other things that come along with owning a business, I would have thought you were nuts. All that to say, I feel accomplished in knowing that I can grow and learn alongside my business with a sense of confidence in my abilities.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Owning a business is incredibly personal. It's your child in a lot of ways. You spend months and years dreaming it up and, even more, time building it. Since I have a hand in every aspect of our business, from seeding crops to formulating and manufacturing our herbal wellness products, I have a deep connection to every consumable item that goes out into the world. It's hard not to feel like something is inadequate or to take an off-handed critical comment so seriously that you spend the next sleepless night mulling it over in your brain. At the same time, having such a personal connection to my business has allowed me to talk about its embedded values and mission in a way that inspires others to join us for the ride.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Surround yourself with people whose energy you find inspiring and uplifting. Starting a business is so deeply personal and difficult. Without a doubt, you will be calling on your community to support you in launching, growing, and managing your business. Plus, you never know who has some amazing piece of knowledge that can help you scale your venture.
  2. Prioritize self-care. You are the heart of your business, and managing a venture is a huge energy transaction. Your business is only as strong and healthy as you are, so fill up your cup, take time away, and make a point of regularly engaging in activities you find nourishing and supportive of your vitality.
  3. Don't be afraid to ask for help. No entrepreneur knows what they're doing 100% of the time. Heck, they might not know 50-75% of the time. Instead of stressing out about not succeeding or overwhelming yourself, reach out to mentors, family members, friends, or whoever might be willing to lend a hand or advice.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.hillsidebotanicals.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HillsideBotanicals
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hillside_botanicals/

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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