We have found that radio ads work the best for us here in our rural community.  We also advertise in a small classified add paper called the Trader that circulates into all the outlying areas around here.  Our big advertising dollars have been spent advertising in Mothering Magazine.  This has always brought us business nationwide.  They recently stopped printing and are only on line so we are gathering up info on what our options are now.  Talia also did a newsletter for a couple of years but has moved it all to Facebook.  Marketing is not our strong suite.  We are taking a good look at it right now to see what we can improve.  We have found that our local newspaper ads have been pretty ineffective.  We also print up fliers and poster on all the bulletin boards in town and in the surrounding small towns.  Bulletin boards are used a lot in our community.

Can you name one big challenge in your business that you had to fight through and can you offer any advice to others?

Our biggest challenge is getting people to understand the true cost of bargain shopping.    

Most of us here in the U.S. have been trained to shop for the best deal.  The problem is we only look at the monetary price of the item and not the full life cycle of the product.  People complain about how expensive organic products are and green building products are, but they fail to see the long term costs of the conventional alternatives.  These costs include: the environmental impact of manufacturing and the health care cost associated with that, what are the working conditions and wages of the people producing the product, the direct health impacts a product has on those exposed to it via EMF's or Chemical exposure, and lastly the disposal of the product and how that effects the environment and human health.

Organic cotton is the only cotton I will buy or sell. Non Organic cotton is heavily sprayed with toxic pesticides and is now in many cases Genetically engineered. Cotton farmers in India are committing suicide as the GMO crops fail to produce and require even more chemicals then they used before. Then the cotton is taken to a sweat shop were the workers are not much better off than slaves, sometimes even children. The cost of conventional cotton in human suffering is staggering, yet everyone complains that organic cotton is so expensive. We are even starting see organic cotton sheets and products at big chain stores and the price can be much lower than what we sell.  The reason it is cheaper is because it is not fair trade and they use toxic dyes.  They take organic cotton and put it into the conventional manufacturing system of sweat shops and child labor.  When you choose to buy a product that is produced sustainably and is Fair Trade certified, it may cost more money but you are supporting people earning living wages and not being poisoned buy there work only so they can survive.   All we can do is continue to talk about these type of choices and spread the information around.  I also believe we have to walk what we talk.  We have to support sustainable businesses and stop giving our money to the profit driven corporations.   

How does your family benefit from the business? I mean, does the business you have support the lifestyle you want for your family? If yes, in what way?

Our business supports our lifestyle in a big way.  We worked hard to get our business to the point where we could have employees.  Now I am only in the store 3 days a week.  This allows me to grow some of our own food.  Last year we got 10 chickens for eggs.  I have been building a green house from salvaged windows and wood.  

I noticed the mention of raising fish in your last newsletter.  I am hoping to raise fish in the green house as well.  It is called Aquaculture and you can use the pond water to water and fertilize plants.   I just built a garden bed in the green house to grow all of our greens to avoid the radiation issues. We are also exploring zeolites for decontaminating soil.  You can put a 1/2" – 1" of zeolites as a mulch and it will bind up the radioactive particles in a chemical bond so it cannot be released. If you are interested I could send you some links.  

The other place our business really supports us is in homeschooling our daughter.  We started homeschooling Grace last fall.  It has been an incredible journey this year.  The store allows us to be flexible with our schedule and have enough time to spend with Grace and help her explore the world.  I also Teach Svaroopa Yoga twice a week.  We have a very full life and our store really makes it all possible.