Let's build your business together!

You've had a lot of herbal study and now you're ready to embark on a business, but you're realizing: building a business requires a whole different set of skills!


Join the Holistic Business Program and we'll go through every step of the process of building your business - together!


Our students have launched their own private practices, they've built herb gardening, farming, and CSA businesses, they're starting herbal and outdoor-focused schools for children, they've built herbal product companies and one even went on to create Herbstalk, Boston's own very successful annual herbal conference and winter market! 

You can too!


From daunting to do-able!

Sydney at Root + Kettle Herbals

The idea of starting a business sounds so huge and daunting, but this mentorship breaks everything down into bite-size pieces that make the process so much easier. Katja's personality is uplifting and encouraging, and I don't think I would have gotten the courage to finally start the business I've always wanted without her help.

Let's do this!

The purpose of this business program is to ACTUALLY BUILD your business. 

This is not a workshop where we'll talk about theory or things you maybe could do someday...

This course literally breaks down every single task you need to do for every single aspect of your business, and then provides very specific instructions about exactly how to do it.


😬 Are you intimidated by GMP?

⭐️ Not anymore! Every step you need to take is clearly laid out, with pictures!


🤯 Do you have a "complicated relationship" with technology?

⭐️ Don't worry! With very specific, step-by-step instructions (with pictures and video!), you can be confident enough to do your own tech!


😰 Does the idea of marketing make you sweat?

⭐️ We've got you! Not only do we break all the options down (including marketing you can do for free!), but we even have strategies to hate marketing less - you can turn your marketing into a public service so that you're helping people WHILE you're selling your herby goodness!


😖 Are you confused about taxes, budgets, and insurance?

⭐️ No problem! Not only do we break down everything you have to do - there are even budget templates premade for you so that all you have to do is plug in the dollars you spend and make!


You don't have to have any previous business experience, all you need is your herbal skills and a good idea - read on for the full details!


Support and Accountability

Marisol of Esperanza Herbals

I felt supported but also held accountable, which was a huge thing for me! I was not only able to create and launch my business and website that I had been wanting to create for over a year, but they also gave my confidence the boost it needed to put myself out there and really go for what I wanted.

How it works

  • Step-by-Step

    Each chapter represents a set of tasks that you need to do in order to start your business.

  • Video lessons

    Videos give you details about what has to get done, including examples of how other people have done it so that you can see exactly what you need to do.

  • Detailed Instruction Sheets

    You'll also find detailed instruction sheets - including lots of photos and video snippets - so that you feel confident every step of the way!

  • Feedback and Discussion

    You're not alone! You can ask questions anytime, and even show us what you're working on! You'll get feedback from Katja, and from the whole community too!

  • Plenty of Resources

    You don't have to know it all - whether you're looking for business insurance or bottle supply, we'll help you find everything your business needs.

What you'll need to get started


You can start this Herbal Business Program anytime - if you know your goal is to start a business, you might want to have this early on in your herbal education, so that you have a clear picture of what your goals are.


When you're ready to use this course to  ACTUALLY BUILD your business, this is what you'll need:


If you want to launch a products business, you will need:

  • enough herbal education to formulate and create great herbal products
  • some products that you have already perfected and tested on your family and friends - at least 3 is a good place to start.


Don't worry about labels, packaging, your website, marketing, GMP - we'll do all of that and more together in the Herbal Business Program!


If you want to launch a clinical practice, you will need:

  • a thorough clinical education - this is typically at least 800 hours of instruction, and about 400 hours of observation and supervised practice.


Don't worry about technology, insurance, office space, your website, finding clients, etc - we'll do all that and more together in the Herbal Business Program!


If you want to open an herb shop, you will need: 

  • enough herbal education to stock your products and help your customers make good choices.
  • it's extra helpful if you have enough skills to offer workshops, because this is a great way to build community around your shop and bring in customers!


Don't worry about a location, a website, accounting, online sales, inventory, or marketing - we'll do all that and more together in the Herbal Business Program!


Do you need more herbal education before you start your business? We can help!

You can find our educational recommendations for starting a product business or opening your own herb shop here.

You can find our educational recommendations for clinical practice here.


Do you have a different idea?

Just let us know and we will help make sure you have the herbal education you need to make it happen!

A Community of Support

Brighid at Solidago Herb School

I am so glad that I took this business class. Learning to manage and organize my time and being walked step-by-step through building a business was so helpful. And I especially loved having support fellow classmates - it is wonderful to share the experience with other herbalists as we follow our paths, each one unique but similar.

It's easier when we work together

This is a hands-on interactive program. Together, we are going to build your business!

  • YES! Let's build your business plan together!

  • YES! Let's get your website built!

  • YES! Let's market your business together!

  • YES! Let's make sure you have all of your GMP compliance set up if you're making products!

  • YES! Let's make sure you have insurance set up if you need it!

  • YES! Let's take all of the steps needed to get you up and running!

Here's what we'll be working on together:

Click on "Free Preview to see more information about each module

  • 1

    Introduction

  • 2

    What will i need to Start my Business?

    • What will i need to get started?

    • Some really excellent business advice

    • Coming soon...
  • 3

    The Big Picture: Mission & Vision

    • Setting your big picture

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Vision & Mission Statements

    • Manifestos & Value Statements

    • Word Clouds: they're a bonus!

    • What about a Motto?

    • homework 1: the What/Who/Why Worksheet

    • homework 2: More exercises to help you start writing

    • homework 3: Just Do It!

    • journal prompt

    • ⭐️ Find someone who inspires you

    • ACTION ITEMS: Mission & Vision
  • 4

    One, Three, and Five Year Goals

    • From idea to reality

      FREE PREVIEW

    • One, Three, and Five Year Goals

    • The goals we're working on in this course

    • A note for non-profits & charitable donations

    • An example of clear, focused goals

    • An example of unfocused goals

    • homework 1: setting your goals

    • Prioritizing goals example

    • homework 2: prioritizing your goals

    • Breaking down your first year goals example 1

    • Breaking down your first year goals example 2

    • homework 3: breaking down the first year goals

    • journal prompt

    • ACTION ITEMS: 1-3-5 Year Goals
  • 5

    Your Workspace

    • What do you need to do what you do?

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Timing these tasks

    • Commercial Kitchen vs. Community Kitchens vs. Certifying your Kitchen

    • Clinical workspace

    • Some other kind of space

    • homework 1: make your list

    • homework 2: add it to your plan!

    • journal prompt: it doesn't have to be perfect

    • ACTION ITEMS: Your Workspace

    • Technical Tools
  • 6

    Project Planning

    • It's getting real around here...

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Narrowing your focus

    • hoemwork: narrow your focus

    • Estimating Task Time

    • homework 3: estimating task time

    • Your Goals on a Calendar

    • NeuYear calendars

    • homework 4: your goals on the calendar

    • Using Trello to hold all the details

    • Getting Started with Trello

    • 13-Week Planning: Introduction

    • Supplies for 13-Week Planning

    • Some journals you might like: get one now!

    • 13-Week Planning: Goal Pages

    • How do i pick my three goals for each 13-week quarter?

    • 13-Week Planning: Stats & Milestones

    • 13-Week Planning: Weekly Pages

    • 13 Week Journal templates

    • 13-Week Planning: Daily Pages

    • 13-Week Planning: Weekly Wrap-up

    • Enormous to Manageable

    • Indistractable

    • Need more time & project planning methods?

    • journal prompt

    • ACTION ITEMS: Project Planning
  • 7

    Name & Branding

    • What's in a name?

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Naming your business

    • Getting a URL

    • CBD Complications

    • Transferring an existing domain name to a new provider

    • How to register your business

    • Branding your business

    • Branding Guide Sheets

    • Questions a Designer will ask

    • How to find a designer

    • Making your own logo

    • DIY Logo resolution & sizing information

    • Web-Safe Fonts

    • journal prompt

    • ACTION ITEMS: Name & Branding
  • 8

    Administrivia

  • 9

    Legal Considerations for Clinical Practice

    • This is not the practice of medicine

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Don't be a Doctor

    • What is the practice of medicine?

    • Safe Harbor Laws (and not)

    • Should you be a Registered Herbalist?

    • What about other "credentials"?

    • Disclaimer & Intake forms

    • ACTION ITEMS: Legal Clinical Practice
  • 10

    GMP for Clinical Herbalists

  • 11

    How is your planning & journal going?

  • 12

    Your Website: Planning

    • Let's tell the world!

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Domain Registry, CBD complications, and more.

    • Writing for an audience: identifying your customers

    • Customer Demographic Worksheet

    • Customer Demographic Worksheet - explained

    • You need words on your website

    • Words to avoid on you website

    • Do you hate writing?

    • What is SEO and why do you care?

    • People will forget what you say, but they will remember how you make them FEEL.

    • You need pictures on your website

    • journal prompt

    • ACTION ITEMS: Website Planning
  • 13

    GMP Part 1 - Labels and Website

    • It's not hard, it's just detailed

      FREE PREVIEW

    • GMP rules are subject to change

    • Product labels & website product descriptions

    • Do i need a "Supplement Facts" box on my label?

    • Other GMP labeling law resources

    • AHPA report on Common Allergen Labeling guidance

    • AHPA Herbal Supplement Labeling Guidance

    • Product Label Checklist

    • ACTION ITEMS: GMP part 1
  • 14

    Packaging & Labels

  • 15

    Your Website: Execution

    • Just do it!

      FREE PREVIEW

    • You should do it yourself, and, It's all a game

    • Always keep a spare...

    • Does your SquareSpace say "expired"?

    • Understanding the SquareSpace menu

    • Pages: it's like a table of contents

    • Design: making it look great

    • What if i want to change templates?

    • Commerce: adding products

    • Commerce: taking payments

    • Commerce: shipping options

    • Marketing tab options

    • Settings options

    • There are other options...

    • Editing Pages

    • Don't forget to play!

    • Setting up your professional email account

    • ACTION ITEMS: Website Execution
  • 16

    GMP Part 2 - All the Documentation

    • Making it a habit

      FREE PREVIEW

    • A detailed process

    • The Actual Documents

    • What's the point of GMP?

    • 10 Reasons to LOVE GMP

    • The parts of GMP

    • More on Marketing + GMP

    • GMP Documents List

    • GMP Documentation List [printable]

    • Documenting your Plant ID

    • AHPA report on Common Allergen Labeling guidance

    • AHPA Herbal Supplement Labeling Guidance

    • How to report an adverse event

    • Understanding GMP documentation

    • Complying with GMP guidelines

    • Important: The Actual Guidelines & Continuing Education

    • An example warning letter

    • A GMP glitch

    • Alternative approaches

    • What if you get inspected?

    • What can you learn from other people getting inspected?

    • ACTION ITEMS: GMP part 2
  • 17

    Midpoint Assessment

  • 18

    How are you feeling?

    • Negative Self Talk

    • The work beside the work
  • 19

    Are you charging enough for your products or services?

    • Money can be Uncomfortable!

    • What is "fair"?

    • Sliding Scale and Low Cost work

    • What do you think?
  • 20

    Newsletter & Mailing List

    • Keep in touch

      FREE PREVIEW

    • We love newsletters!

    • Convertkit overview

    • Getting your mailing list started

    • Targeting your audience

    • Sending emails

    • Write it now, send it later

    • Give your emails a second chance

    • Connecting ConvertKit to your website

    • Connecting ConvertKit and Squarespace

    • What will you write about?

    • ACTION ITEMS: Newsletters
  • 21

    GMP Part 3: Marketing

    • Why does the FDA regulate marketing?

    • Marketing and GMP

    • Read all the FDA citations

    • Learning from FDA warning letters

    • Be Conservative: some examples to avoid

    • How can we educate about our products?

    • But there are seventeen studies that say...

    • More GMP Marketing Resources
  • 22

    Social Media - Don't Panic!

    • It's better than a billboard?

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Learning to Love Marketing

    • Learning how to use Social Media

    • Why Social Media?

    • Don't hire a service

    • Helpful Habits

    • Digital tools that you might like

    • 4 Golden Rules

    • Choosing Platforms

    • How to name your social media accounts

    • But everyone has already posted everything...

    • Facebook

    • Instagram

    • YouTube

    • Twitter

    • TikTok

    • Other platforms

    • ACTION ITEMS: Social Media
  • 23

    "Free" & Organic Marketing

    • There's no such thing as a free...

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Word of Mouth in the 21st century

    • Interacting efficiently on social media

    • Social media give-aways to get followers

    • (Automated Email Sequences)

    • Social media give-aways to get email addresses

    • Your newsletter as a marketing tool

    • Social media & newsletter signups in person

    • Writing as marketing

    • Free Workshops

    • Facebook Live

    • Instagram Live

    • YouTube Live

    • Uploading pre-recorded videos

    • Tricks for keeping "free" from taking over your business

    • ACTION ITEMS: Free & Organic Marketing
  • 24

    "Slow" Media

  • 25

    Paid Marketing

    • Everyone wants dollars

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Where should you pay for marketing?

    • Getting the best bang for your bucks

    • More Bang for your Buck - checklist

    • Setting up an ad in Facebook/Instagram

    • Creating ads within Instagram

    • Tips for making the video/photo part of your ads [examples inside!]

    • Writing your ad copy (the text part)

    • "It's all about them" - that can be difficult!

    • Avoiding ad rejection

    • Keep Data!!

    • Ad tracking spreadsheet [downloadable]

    • Action Items: Paid Marketing
  • 26

    Refining Your Ads & Targeting

    • Practice, Practice, Practice

      FREE PREVIEW

    • How to make better Creative - with PHOTO examples!

    • How to make better Creative - with VIDEO examples!

    • Targeting with your Creative

    • Targeting with your Copy

    • What are Funnels and why are they Good?

    • What do you need in order to implement Funnels?

    • The Technical Details

    • An example Funnel i ran over the past month - including my creative and targeting!

    • Setting up the Facebook Pixel

    • Using the Ads Manager

    • This is a skill.

    • Action Items: Refining Your Marketing
  • 27

    New Material is Uploaded on Fridays!

    • Every Friday!
  • 28

    Coordinated Marketing Campaigns

  • 29

    Outsourcing & Hiring Help

  • 30

    Planning Year Two

  • 31

    Showcase!

Tuition Options

You can choose 9 payments of $150

or one payment of $1200 - saves you $150!


Either way, you get full access to all of the material FOR LIFE, and all updates are automatically added to your account!


Your business expenses are not covered: you should plan funding to cover the cost of your materials (ie, herbs, containers, labels, etc) and other fees (ie, rent for your office space or the cost of your insurance). Keeping things simple, your starting business expenses might range from a couple hundred dollars to about a thousand dollars, depending on what you're building. You don't need to have it all at once, we'll be working on each startup task one at a time.


Our philosophy is that if you don't need a business loan and you grow at a pace you can afford, you're always ahead of the game: so we teach strategies to keep your costs down!


This course does not guarantee that your business will succeed, and it's important to point out that being self-employed is a lot of work. But you won't ever know what you can do until you try - and you don't have to try alone! 

You can be more successful if you have the right support!


And if you want even more support...

Every single thing you need to start your business is laid out, step-by-step, in this course, and you can ask questions any time!

But sometimes the best way to work is with someone sitting right beside you from start to finish.

No problem! If you want even more mentorship, you can join the Live Business Mentorship program that starts every January. 

We meet for two hours every other week, in small groups, to blow through your roadblocks, creatively solve problems, and work with accountability so that literally nothing can stop you!

You are welcome to work on the material in this course between now and January!

Build a career that makes a difference!

I'm ready!

Achieving my Goals

Brooke of Sovereignty Herbs

This program challenged my previous belief that setting goals and sticking to them would limit my ideas and creativity. For the first time in my adult life I’ve been able to list out realistic goals and break them down into do-able tasks, and as a result I have achieved way more than I thought possible. It also allowed me to focus, and let go of the items that did not match my vision, and didn’t let me jump into something without fully thinking it through.

Zero-Risk Return Policy

Teaching isn't just about conveying information - there's also an aspect of being someone's "cup of tea".

So we want you to take the first 14 days to really decide if you love it or not. If for any reason you feel like this program isn’t right for you - if we're just not your cup of tea - we’ll give you a full refund. You don't even need a reason - just please let us know within 14 days of purchase.

A Note about CBD

This mentorship is not intended as a thorough guide through the legal issues surrounding Cannabis/CBD products. 

Many of our students have incorporated Cannabis products into their businesses, and we are happy to help you plan your way through navigating the specific legal requirements in your state/for online sales, but we want to be clear that CBD legalities are not the primary focus of this mentorship.

For example...

Here are businesses that some of our students have built

Steph studied for two years with us and then created Herbstalk, Boston's own local herb conference. It's grown to a twice-a-year event that provides high-quality herbal education as well as a popular herbal marketplace!

Kinsey studied with us in 2015 and then opened CroseNest Apothecary with a brick & mortar store here in MA and a beautiful online shop too!

Emma O'Brien of Lavandoula is a very talented Doula and Herbalist. She trained with us from her very first herb courses and now is offering her own training to the Birth-worker community.

Cara had just started selling herbal products at her local farmer's market when she took the Herbal Business Program, and now Bear Wallow Herbs supports her and her young son - and she is home to pick him up from school every day!

Brooke was already an herbalist and needed help navigating the starting-a-business part of the process. During the Herbal Business Program, she and her partner transformed Sovereignty Herbs from an idea with occasional workshops to a full clinical practice and herbal learning program.

Brighid took the Herbal Business Program in 2019 to transition from helping her friends and doing some local workshops to launching an Solidago Herb School, an herbal educational center with everything from online programs to herbal escapes.

Ray at Sovereign Birch Herbal took the Family, Community, and Clinical Herbalist programs with us, and completed the Clinical Mentorship and Herbal Business Program in 2019. They are a talented clinical herbalist with a practice here in Boston!

Heather studied with us in 2015 and started Plant Soak to share herbal bath teas for folks who don't love to drink tea.

Pushing past my fear

Johanna, in clinical practice on Cape Cod

Katja offered so much needed advice, support and love while pushing me through my own fears, to make structure out of 30 plus years of dreaming and study. With her help I was able to organize and plan out exactly what I wanted to create.

Build your dream job

You supply the dream, together we'll make it a reality

I'm ready!