When Tom Stewart, owner of
Truckee Meadow Herbs in Reno,
opened his retail store in 1982, he manifested
his passion to help people improve
their health through herbal supplements
and other nutritional resources.
But his passion came at a price. To
stay in business, he worked as many as
three outside jobs at once.
He began selling herbal products as a
multi-level Nature Sunshine distributor.
He quickly realized he was losing all his
friends whenever he invited them to
become distributors, and he didn't like
getting calls at odd hours to deliver
products. So, he decided to open a store.
"I was a janitor for the City of Reno
for the first two years of my business,"
he said, "and my schedule there allowed
me to operate my store in the daytime."
He quit his janitorial job to put more
time and effort into the fledgling
Truckee Meadow Herbs, thinking he
could earn a living from his business.
After all, he had saved $3,000 as his initial
capital investment.
He was wrong. Soon, he was shining
J. C. Penney's floors with a power buffer
in the morning before his store opened
at 10 a.m., plus contracting out janitorial
services in the evening after his store
closed. And he painted houses on the
weekend.
Stewart quickly realized there was
more to building a business than simply
having extensive knowledge of the
medicinal herbs he had studied for several
years before opening the store.
"I started with no knowledge of cash
flow, inventory control, bookkeeping,
advertising or customer service," he
explained, "and, at that time, Reno was
really too small for my type of specialized
store."
He said he didn't show a profit for
the first five years. But about the time
the store moved to its present location at
1170 S.Wells Ave., business grew as
more people took an interest in controlling
their own health, and Stewart
learned what strategies worked.
Undaunted by the banks' fifth refusal
to lend him money because he had no
collateral, he focused instead on developing
strong relationships with national
vendors of herbal products. Many gave
him a small line of credit.
"Once I learned how to level off my
inventory and set stock levels, I
started making a profit," he said,
adding that when he established a
schedule for ordering products,
instead of ordering just certain
products every time they sold out,
his cash flow problems stopped.
Stewart learned the importance of
managing product turnover,
which included calculating that about 80
percent of his profit was generated by
only 20 percent of his product line. Still,
as a specialty shop, Truckee Meadow
Herbs needs to keep some slower-selling
products on the shelf to assure some customers
that Stewart had the product
when they needed it.
Stewart credits an introduction to
business class he took at Truckee
Meadows Community College with
teaching him how to create a business
plan and the importance of a regional sounding
name such as Truckee Meadow
Herbs.
Stewart also completed a correspondence
course from the Emerson College
of Herbology,Willowdale, Ontario,
Canada and studied and interned
for a month at the Herb Pharm in
Williams, Ore., where he learned
how to plant, grow, harvest and
package many herbs. Stewart added
that attending trade shows has also
helped his business. And he added
that he has learned substantially
from his customers, many of whom are
seniors who have used herbs for over 30
years.
More growth came as foreign-born
immigrants in northern Nevada found
Truckee Meadow Herbs carried the
herbs they used in their homelands, and
Stewart's shop was the only store where
they could buy bulk herbs. He said during
the 1980s the store experienced 45
percent growth.
Today, customers can buy as little as a
half ounce of any of the more than 200
bulk herbs he sells. In addition, the
store sells a wide variety of herb- and
health-related magazines and books.
Stewart said publication sales increased
because he doubled the display space
without doubling the publication inventory.
Stewart's customer base is about 60
percent women, 40 percent men. The
average age of the women customers is
55; the average age of the men is 60. He
said two main groups of customers are
nurses and teachers, who seem to be
curious about new ways of preventing
illnesses and living healthier lives.
He gains much of his customer
demographic data by mailing postcard
questionnaires periodically to about
3,500 customers. He said the last survey
showed that most customers liked the
variety of products available in his store
and the service they received.
Teaching an evening class on the
introduction to medicinal herbs at
TMCC for the past 10 years has also
helped his business. Many of his former
students are now customers.
The store's two part-time employees,
Sandy Atcheson and Linda Vegazo, have
extensive knowledge of the products.
Atcheson has been with him for 10
years.
One of Stewart's biggest fears came
when he learned that Wild Oats Market
was coming to Reno, because he knew
Wild Oats sold herbs. But several management
folks from Wild Oats met with
to assure him they wanted to work with
him, not against him. Now they send
customers to his store whenever he has
an item they don't carry - and vice versa.
Today, Stewart is becoming anxious
about the city's plans to begin widening
South Wells Avenue in 2004. He said it
could hurt his business if customers can't
get into his store.
In addition to running his store,
Stewart served as chairman of the board
from 1988 to 1990 of the now-defunct
Washoe Zephyr Natural Foods
Cooperative. He serves on the five-person
Nevada State Board of Oriental
Medicine, which licenses acupuncturists.
Gov. Kenny Guinn appointed him to the
board in 1999.
