6/8/2023 0 Comments True leaf marketIn 2006, we had the opportunity to acquire a competitor, Handy Pantry. I sold off my printer company and focused on our wheatgrass business. By 2004 the business had grown to the point where it passed up my old printer supply business, with much better margins. We originally offered only inexpensive hand-crank juicers but expanded into the electric juicers. We created a line of indoor herb garden kits, sprouting kits and expanded our line of juicers, wheatgrass supplements, and other items. We began expanding our product line into other “grow your own” type products. We started in August of 2000, and by December were doing well over the hoped-for $5K / month. We founded Living Whole Foods, Inc., and launched our first website.Īt the time, I thought the business was so niche, that the best we could hope for was maybe $5,000 per month in revenue, which I figured would be sufficient to get Kaitlin through school, much better than a part-time job. She would run the business day-to-day, and I would handle the online presence and marketing. We decided to partner up and sell wheatgrass growing kits and juicers online. Kaitlin is a vegan and was getting into growing and juicing wheatgrass. We brainstormed and decided to focus on something she was passionate about. Kaitlin approached me about helping her start an online business in order to pay her way through college. Bottom line is, I spent years in front of a computer learning how to market online by simple trial and error. I was hooked and got obsessed with marketing online and by 2000 was doing much more revenue online than I was doing with the original local business. In 1995, that was just completely crazy to me. I listed a refurbished NeXT Laser Printer on the UseNet in 1995 and ended up selling it to someone in Portugal. I had started that business in 1990 serving my local area but soon discovered the Internet as a way to reach a wider market. At the time I ran a small business repairing laser printers and selling printer supplies. In 2000, my sister Kaitlin had graduated from High School and was preparing for college. There are various threads that weave together. Our history is a little complicated because True Leaf Market as a business is the culmination of several businesses that all came together. What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
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