On this episode we chat with Scott & Abby Noroozi, owners of The Green Nursery.

The Green Nursery is an herb shop with a brick and mortar shop in downtown Bloomington, Indiana and a national renowned online store.

What began as a baby products store with a cult following of cloth diaper aficionados has morphed into a natural herb remedy shop that helps mommas and dads alike fix what ails them.  Theirs is the story that every entrepreneur wants to tell.  A good idea, turned into a fledgling business, turned into a great idea, that exploded into a healthy profitable mature business.

Here are some highlights:

How did The Green Nursery start?

Scott & Abby started how so many great entrepreneurs do.  They jumped in with the idea they had, offering herbal remedies and tinctures.  But very quickly they made another great business decision, they followed a path that presented itself and tried that as well, selling organic baby product and cloth diapers.  For years they offered high quality ecofriendly slings, diapers, toys, and all things baby.  But there was one more big pivot in store.  As large corporations gobbled up the eco baby world, Scott & Abby decided they wanted to return to their roots, back to herbal remedies and tinctures.  This evolution brought us to The Green Nursery of today, a virtual apothecary of hemp and CBD based products for soothing your body and soul.

Was there a single moment that they knew The Green Nursery was getting big?

Black Friday is what did it, that super consumer day when America says CONSUME, buy like your life depends on it.  That year they had switched the name of the business to The Green Nursery, Optimized their online marketplace, and offered sales and giveaways in line with what other businesses were doing.  The sales almost broke their site and overwhelmed their process.  They were perfectly happy to have those problems.

What are some lessons Scott & Abby learned while building The Green Nursery?

1. Focus

Lesson 1 for Scott and Abby is to stay focused.  To remember what’s working and what brought them the success they enjoy.  For TGN, that was cloth diapers until it became CBD.  They always offer a variety of satellite products but focusing on one thing has always been a key.

2. Use Awesome Customer Service to Compete with Retail Giants

Since the 1990’s huge box stores like Wal Mart have offered large arrays of products at bargain basement prices.  In their wake, small businesses of all kinds have struggled to gain market share and thousands have ultimately had to close their doors.  The online world has it’s own giants.  The most formidable is Amazon.  Like other big box stores, Amazon offers ease of purchase in a way that smaller retailers just can’t.  So the Green Nursery focuses on what they can do­­­.  Creating the experience of a local boutique in their online space.  That experience starts with actually understanding their customers.

3. Employees

• Do you hire talent or the right people?

For Scott and Abby there’s no perfect answer  but it their experience, the right people generally work better than the right skills.

• When do you hire?

Every new business owner goes through an evolution of when is the right time to hire.  First, you think that the money will just be there and you’ll know when the time to hire is right.  Then you feel like you’re drowning and just have to take the leap.  Now that they’ve gone through that experience a few times, Scott & Abby have learned when and how to hire, before they’re drowning.

Listen Here:

Special thanks to Scott & Abby Noroozi for taking the time to share their story with us.

You can find them on the web: HOME PAGE  –  BLOG

• Editing & Production by Jeremy & McKenzie Goodrich
• Music by Ulrich Schnass

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