THE NATURAL By: Casey Gillis As you enter the warehouse that is the Well-in-Hand Center, the first thing you see is the main store, Earth Munchies. Testimonials from happy customers hang from the ceiling all around you; it's like looking up at a baby's mobile. The store looks like a standard beauty salon shop, with brightly labeled products displayed on wicker shelves. Earth Munchies also offers all-natural snacks, including soy tortilla chips, Stonewalls Jerquee, seaweed ramen noodles, organic fruit gummy bears and low-carbohydrate chocolate truffles. Go further into the building, past the swinging double doors, and you're where the magic happens. There are shelves full of products, packaged and sealed, just waiting to be shipped out; drums brimming with castile soap; empty bottles; a Virginia license plate that reads "Herbals" hanging on the wall, and, strangely, a purple low-rider bicycle, complete with a horn and velvet seat (we'll get to that later). Having all this space is new to Linda Doby, founder and CEO of Well-in-Hand Epic Herbal Care. She started the business out of her Lynchburg, Virginia, basement in 1994 with only one product, the prize-winning Therapy Oil. Ten years later, Well-in-Hand has 50 different products and counting, all formulated by Doby using all-natural herbs and oils. There are products for aiding sleep, relieving pain, healing cuts and moisturizing skin. Other products address such taboo problems as acne, warts, herpes, yeast infections and lice. Well-in-Hand's income has at least doubled every year since its inception, and does enough business on its website alone to pay all four employees' salaries. The company is now run out of a 13,000 square foot building - quite an upgrade from Doby's 1,200 square foot basement. Venture into Doby's office and you'll get some insight into what's important to her. The wall opposite her desk is wallpapered with her kids' drawings. A huge decorative herb and ailment cross-referencing chart hangs behind her desk, next to name tags from various trade shows she's attended over the years. Her collection of books runs the gamut - she has everything from The Prince and the Pauper to Life Strategies for Teens to Big Vision, Small Business. Oh, and the purple bicycle? It belongs to her youngest son George, 12, who plans to install exhaust pipes onto it. Growing up in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Doby wasn't the strict vegan she is today. "It was liver and onions, baby," she says. "After all these years, my mom still thinks I'm just going through a phase." Doby attended Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, earning an undergraduate degree in special education and a master's in education of the deaf. After Doby graduated, healthy living became her next great study, and she gradually went from being a vegetarian to a vegan. She and her husband, George, moved to Alaska in 1977, where Doby juggled two jobs: one at a camp for people with multiple handicaps and another at a health food store. There she crossed paths with master herbalists, prompting her to seriously study herbs and natural healing. Doby continued reading about herbs after she and George moved to Virginia in 1981, and she gave birth to daughter Allyson, now 21, a year later. She put her degree in special education to use and tutored handicapped children in the area while raising her family, which also includes Liz, 18, and Mark, 15. It was in trying to protect her children that Doby realized she had a knack for this herb stuff. Her husband pulled down their old barn, leaving Lincoln logs full of rusty nails scattered around the yard. Doby yanked the nails out one by one and developed tendonitis in her wrist, making even a simple household task like cutting a lemon painful. Pulling from her knowledge of herbs, Doby concocted a remedy to heal her wrist. "I just gathered all the herbs that I thought would be anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic," she says. "Then I decided to make it smell good." She applied some of it whenever her wrist hurt and the pain eventually disappeared. She handed out the remedy to friends and family, watching as it healed their bruises and sore joints. This gave her the confidence to bring it to the 1994 International Herb Symposium in Boston, where Doby found herself rubbing elbows with industry bigwigs and master herbalists from five continents. "That was the coolest thing," she says. "I felt like I was in the in-crowd." Up against products from experienced herbalists, Go for the Glory Sports Repertory, today known as Well-in-Hand Therapy Oil, won the grand prize at the Symposium. Afterwards, Doby and her product were all the rage; people approached her wanting to buy gallons of it at a time. "I had goose bumps for 10 months every time I thought about it," she says. She called a few stores that were interested, and eventually stopped tutoring to pursue her entrepreneurial side full-time. Well-in-Hand is quite the family affair for Doby. Her four children all help out with the business, mostly when it comes to shipping products to customers. Doby sees a remarkable difference in maturity between her children and their peers. "They are treated as adults when they're on the clock," she says. "They get so much confidence from having their own job." Doby's oldest daughter Allyson will graduate from James Madison University in May and says working at Well-in-Hand has prepared her for the real world. "I have gained invaluable people skills because of my contact with customers," she says. "I appreciate the hard work that is involved in starting a business." With product names like Zero Zitz!, New Mama Tush Soothing Bath, Nit Kit and Power Prism Crystal Deodorant, some might wonder where Doby comes up with these names. "That's the easy part," she says. "You have to keep a sense of humor about it." When it comes to creating new products, she keeps an eye and ear out for what customers need. "A study we did found we were averaging one and a half calls a day for nail fungus," she says. "So, we made a product for it." Doby also finds inspiration in little things. "You'll see a very pretty bottle, like this bottle right here," she says, holding up a blue, purple and pink striped bottle. "Isn't it beautiful? I just say, 'What can I make in this?' Ideas are the easy part. It's following through that matters." It seems as if Doby has mastered the art of the follow-through. Not content with running Well-in-Hand, Doby wants to help other aspiring entrepreneurs in the area with her newest venture, StartupMentor.com. She's often been asked how to start and run a successful business, and decided it was time to take advantage of the extra space in the new building. She will meet with clients on an hourly basis, answer their questions and give them a plan to get their business off the ground. If you're looking to explore your entrepreneurial side, Doby says to be prepared to make some sacrifices. And don't be short on energy. "Every day is a challenge in a business," she says. "You have to be able to think for everyone all the time and see everything through, and do your job too." Doby looks forward what the future holds for her company. "This building is so huge for us at this point," she says. "But we're going to grow into it." Page Top Relief is Well-in-Hand!