Start a Home Business with Herbs!

Image Gallery Well kept, prolific beds are the first step toward a profitable herb business MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF

Anyone who walks into Phyllis Shaudys's house in Bucks County, Penn. enters a wonderful garden of fragrance — and it only takes a moment to discover why. Jars containing rose petals, lavender, mint and scented geraniums line the mantel, while numerous potpourris fill the many shelves. Citrus peels dry on top of the television set, and the fat family cat purrs dreamily in his own big carton of catnip.

Phyllis's spare bedroom is "decorated," too, with the boxes of dried herbs, bolts of fabric, laces, ribbons and labels that she will soon transform into quick-selling, attractively packaged potpourris, sachets and herb pillows.

The Birth of a Business

Mrs. Shaudys began drying her home-grown herbs and flowers in 1960. She put many of the plants to use around her home over the years and turned others into "personal" gifts for friends and relatives. Then, in 1976, a neighbor suggested that she make herbal sachets and sell them to the flood of bicentennial tourists who were expected that year in the nearby, historic town of Washington Crossing, Penn.

"I had always made potpourris and sachets to give as gifts," Phyllis explains, "but it had never occurred to me to go into business."

Nevertheless, no more than a week later — with some red-white-and-blue material, a little ingenuity, and the enthusiastic help of her whole family — Phyllis had her sachets packaged, labeled and on the shelves of two local stores. And that's how her new company, Herbal Acres, was born.

The little herb pouches sold so rapidly, in fact, that Phyllis was encouraged to look for additional outlets for her sachets. She confesses that she was terrified of trying to sell her handmade products to strangers, but — in 13 attempts — the timid peddler sold to 11 stores. (And, only a few months later, one of the shops that had initially said "no" to her offer became a good customer.)

"In fact, I was almost too successful," the herbalist recalls. "My repeat orders came in so quickly that my years-long collection of potpourris diminished at an alarming rate. I had to gather rose petals from my friends and from a local nursery to add to my supplies, and I hurried to plant new herbs and propagate some of my old ones. By that autumn, though, I had enough new material to make seasonal sachets of red and green 'Christmas' fabric and also to begin to expand my line of products."