WIB – Q&A With Doryce Sher, Founder of Aromatic Apothecary
1. Can you please tell us more about your business?
Aromatic Apothecary is a business that manufactures, wholesales, and retails ready and easy-to-use aromatherapy products. The products are all therapeutic and are used to help treat everyday ailments. The products fall into the category of complementary medicines, but not in the traditional sense of medicines.
We have our own online store and supply other retail online stores, health shops, pharmacies, and specialty retail outlets. We also stock certain salons and spas. The business is woman-owned and now in its 32nd year of existence.
2. When, how and why did you start your business?
Trained as a pharmacist, I worked for 10 years in retail and hospital, pharmacy, and did locums. I never enjoyed dispensing drugs. Having had the option of studying prescription drug addiction before I qualified as a pharmacist, I was concerned all the while that I worked, about the overuse and abuse of prescription medication, particularly painkillers and sleeping tablets.
In 1991, I made up my mind to sell the pharmacy that I owned, because what I was doing each day was not congruent with my beliefs. I vowed to never dispense another drug. But what else could I do?
I had read about aromatherapy in a book, called “How to banish cellulite forever” in which I was introduced to essential oils. Immediately I thought that these marvellous natural ingredients, which are beneficial and therapeutic, could be well used to make people feel better.
However, being a pharmacist, enabled me to understand that essential Orioles with no instruction were not going to be used by the public unless they were prepared in ways that people could use essential oils safely. I thought the public needed ready and easy-to-use products, with essential oils as ingredients, to make them feel better.
That way I could do what I believed in and use my pharmacy qualification. Hopefully, people would consider using one less painkiller, one less drug. At the time I was considered very alternative, and now 30 years later, it is mainstream to understand the wide abuse of painkillers and sleeping tablets in our Western world.
3. What is your role in the business?
I am the pharmacist who oversees production and ensures compliance with our pharmacy license. I oversee admin and day-to-day operations. I give my input on marketing and business plans and mainly drive sales. I have my finger on the pulse of each area of the business.
4. Where did you study and what did you study?
I grew up in Zimbabwe and was schooled and matriculated there. I left to study pharmacy at Witwatersrand Technicon and qualified in 1981. 10 years later I did a diploma in aromatherapy and then a second diploma in reflexology.
5. How did you finance your business?
The business was self-funded for the most part, which limited its growth and provided many challenges. In 2020, my current partner invested in the business with a business plan to scale and grow the business, on which track we are currently on.
6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.
An average workday means checking emails, writing an action list, and executing the actions. Dealing with suppliers, customers, staff, production, admin, whatever needs to be done. I usually plan the night before what I’m going to do the next day. It doesn’t always go according to plan.
Sometimes I’m in the office and sometimes I work from home, sometimes on the road. Sometimes there are meetings, other times I need to just think and strategize. There are expos that require the physical effort of setting up packing up and selling – some days are 10-hour days, most are 8-hour days, and some are half days.
7. How do you balance your home life and your work life?
There must be a quote about purpose …every day I feel purposeful! Whether work or play. I plan how I’m going to have time to do all the things I want to do when not at work – I am never bored. I plan.
Whether it’s work-related or a hobby, including relaxation time, outdoor hiking, or doing a jigsaw puzzle, I make time. These are all activities that fulfill me. I’m either working in my business on a day-to-day basis – usually Monday to Friday – or hobbying – usually on the weekends. There are times when work requires me to work weekends as well.
When I’m outside of work I’m working “on” the business and am always thinking. I get up early and often start the day with a walk, yoga, or gym. I choose early nights over watching screens. I have a wide circle of friends who are authentic and caring. For all my adult life I have taken an interest in personal growth and each thing I do is nourishing to my body, mind, or soul.
During the years of working, and bringing up my children there was a lot of compromise with my own needs. Work and my children’s needs were paramount. The rewards are well reaped. Relatively speaking it was such a short time in my life, but now I have the luxury of having all my time to myself.
8. What drives you and inspires you?
What drives me is the will to feel accomplished and purposeful. I follow, thought leaders and cutting-edge thinkers on audible books or podcasts. I am continuously inspired to fulfill my life purpose, which I believe was to create this business to offer people something other than a drug to feel better. I keep abreast of research in my field.
For myself, I maintain my physical and mental health by being conscious and always finding ways to be happy. I am a natural optimist. I get through problems I think I have adaptability and resilience, which is an advantage. I believe we suffer from information overload, so I am very mindful about what I feed myself intellectually.
I listen to podcasts and audiobooks of like-minded people and forward thinkers and I learn. I listen while driving or knitting. I am selective about what I see – I seldom watch series or have the TV on for no reason and I never watch anything violent. I don’t watch the news, yet I am still informed. I try not to trawl social media and I am aware that sleep is most important.
9. Where and when do you have your best ideas?
My best ideas occur when I’m in the shower, on a walk, or when listening to a podcast. It is when my mind is distracted, which allows creativity to happen naturally. Sometimes during sleep, ideas, precipitate, and solutions to problems occur. I’ll write things down in the middle of the night. I keep a pencil and paper next to my bed. Often during discussions with like-minded people, new ideas are inspired.
10. Where and how do you market/advertise your business for sales leads?
Face-to-face, marketing or person-to-person marketing happens at expos and in-store promotions. People are advocates and I always carry products with me. We believe that putting products in people’s hands is the best form of advertising. We do the traditional social media and newsletter communication. There is nothing more effective than talking directly to people. Listening to what people say is important when it comes to leads.
11. What is next for your business?
What is next for our business is to segment product ranges into different target markets and have different income streams that are identifiable. We are always working on our business plan. Short medium- and long-term plans are key to keeping us on track. We are focusing on brand awareness and consumer education.
12. What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business?
Find your passion, and your uniqueness, and create a way to offer that commodity or service to people who want what you offer. When I first started my business, I made aromatherapy bath oils for stress and sleep that I used for myself. When I sold my first bottles, I realized I did not yet have a business, until people returned to buy more. Once they returned to buy more and told others about it, I knew that I had a business.
Make sure that your offering is what other people want. Then it becomes a question of how to scale it to reach more people. Manage your finances and your time carefully so that you don’t run out of capital or energy. Start small so that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Be flexible and adaptable!