We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lily Kunning. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lily below.

Lily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Haven Herbs and Lily Kunning, Community Herbalist were born from the ashes of Boline Apothecary, a brick-and-mortar herb shop in Columbus, Ohio (that closed November 2017). I was the sole proprietor of the shop, and if you don’t know- running a small independent shop is HARD. Hug an entrepreneur today, because they surely need it.

Haven Herbs was borne out of my desire to have a team and be collaborative. It is a worker run and owned business, no one is more important than another. We all have realms of responsibility, we all have equal say in the direction of the business. This is much more “my jam” than being the one with whom the buck stops.

Lily Kunning, Community Herbalist was created to still offer all the classes that Boline Apothecary had. Because much of my job (even while selling products) was educational, and I wanted to empower people to make healthy educated choices. So I created two businesses, each specializing in their string suits: Haven Herbs is an herbal apothecary creating and selling herbal remedies, tonics, and body care; LKCH is a private clinical practice and school to teach herbalism and other folkways.

Now I have two businesses instead of one, a team on the goods, and I am flying solo on the services. There is still too much to do, but it feels more manageable. I love my herb students, Haven is thriving, and my clinical practice helps people (mainly with auto-imune diseases and cancer). I am able to offer free classes each month at the Cancer Support Community and write and do educational videos- something I barely had time for at Boline.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I trained as a clinical herbalist in California in the early 2000’s. When I moved to Columbus, Ohio in 2012, there was no place for me to get “my stuff”. Always acting as a catalyst, I decided to open up shop and doggedly pursued a small business loan and location. Boline Apothecary was around for 4 years and made a big impact. People still tell me that they miss the shop.

The things I am most proud of are:

1. Building a business that practices democracy at work, all the while meeting the mission of wellness-for-all.
2. Engaging in mutual aid on a daily basis (we have a round up for reparations feature on the website that donates to black and indigenous causes; I teach free classes at Cancer Support Community each month; and I offer lots of other educational materials to teach people how to take their health into their own hands.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The pivot from Boline Apothecary (a sole proprietor LLC) to Haven Herbs (a worker owned partnership LLC) has not been easy. Finding the right candidates to take over not just a job, but ownership and ultimate responsibility has been a difficult one. Many people never make it through the “discovery” process, where we suss one another out.

Poeple have been conditioned to “clock in, clock out” and not have a bootstrappy, small business mentality, or they are used to following orders and not offering advice, opinions, and assistance. Someone coming in has a lot to unlearn as they take on the mantle of leadership and responsibility. Training the right people has become a priority over looking for a resumé with a specific skillset.

We are now 5 years into Haven Herbs, and still have a staff under 5 people. And we make it work through teamwork, technology, and communication!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My businesses have ALWAYS been based on reputation and trust. I make herbal supplements and body care, and I seek to be transparent on sourcing, ingredient quality, packaging, costs, and how we operate. Much more transparency than other businesses usually offer. I think it makes our customers trust us a lot more than some random company selling a similar product on the internet.

I have always prided myself on direct communication with customers, and even though the vast majority of our business is online, that still holds true. We recently installed an integration on the website so we can get back to people much more easily from all places: social media, email, web inquiries. This pairing of technology and customer service was never designed to be a wall between people in the company and customers (and I am sure you all have experienced that coming from other companies- chat with a robot for far too long before getting a human who can actually help!), but rather, a way for no one to slip between the cracks- a way to get everyone’s needs met in a timely way.

When we installed a subscription integration, we wanted the customer to be in total control: to get notices of pending billing, have time to edit, pause, or even cancel their boxes. We did not want people upset that they were billed and shipped a package that they intended to change in some way. Keeping customer happiness in mind as the ultimate goal has led to trust and satisfaction at a level most companies do not achieve.

Our email open rate is about 25%- pretty gosh darn high. People WANT to hear from us! Our reviews are stellar. We work hard to make folks happy, and it shows.

Our motto for customer experience is that we want to hear from our customers, frequently. We want them to be over-the-moon with us: the products, the website, the order fulfillment, the packaging, everything! We hold regular customer experience sessions where we assess every step where customers interact with the company and work to improve it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lilykunning.com; https://havenherbs.com
• Instagram: @lilykunningcommunityherbalist; @havenherbs
• Facebook: @lilykunningcommunityherbalist; @havenherbs
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilykunning/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDTaozrPcqyreCCJyLf5svQ; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZY_Te9s9i3Rtl9FqEdTKA
• Other: posted two handles links for both businesses. LKCH is first, Haven is second in all fields (separated by semi colons)