2024 was an epic year for Prairie Star Botanicals. Former owner, Lisa Grabenbauer, made Prairie Star a success, and in March handed the business keys over to new owners, Aaron and Paige Hill. For years they had worked for Lisa at PSB, Aaron as the Sales Account Manager, and Paige as the Lab Manager before branching out on her own as an Herbal Practitioner under the business name Oak Leaf Herbal. As new business owners of PSB now, their roles quickly morphed and became much more significant. There were new leadership skills to dive into, tasks to learn, assignments to delegate, employees to hire, new equipment to purchase, spaces to reorganize, not to mention changes to their personal life, like expanding their young family. So much to do! Becoming owners of this small-but-mighty, growing company requires a huge responsibility and a wearing of many hats.
After running PSB for many months, Aaron graciously sat down to answer a few questions I put to him about the changes PSB is experiencing, all good changes, of course. Read along as he shares about the life-changing experience of business ownership.
What has running a business been like for you both so far?
"The first thought that comes to mind is "trialing". However, that's not all that is behind my response - it has been a learning process, but there is so much worth and value that comes from learning how to become a boss to employees, as well as how to run an entire business. Not only are we managing our employees by answering questions, problem solving, and training them with new tasks, but we are also supporting our employees by changing processes so we may be more efficient, working side-by-side with our employees, and growing our goals to expand the business. By becoming owners of PSB, we have grown together as a husband and wife "super-duo" and we have grown closer with our employees. Needing to work with one another and having opportunities for all of us to express our desires for change and different perspectives on situations has allowed us (as owners) to understand the unique qualities that each employee can bring to the table. So yes, there is a learning curve with becoming owners that is trialing, but it is also an opportunity that is filled with rewarding change, heartfelt bonding moments, and growth beyond thoughts imaginable."
How have you streamlined or increased the efficiency of the business?
"Part of business change has been looking at specific roles from employees. For some time, it was important to have multiple employees trained and cross-trained on almost every task needed to have a normal day run smoothly. As a small business, this made sense because at any given moment, someone may need to answer a phone, greet and check out a customer, or jump into the lab to fill an order. As the business grew and we hired on more employees with different needs, our work-schedules started to change. At this point, we implemented split-shifts and more specified employee roles to break up the work schedule so we could have "on and off" days. 3 days of the week are utilized for order fulfillment, order preparations, and product restock, while the other 2 are focused on lab procedures such as bulk restock, QAQC tasks, and herb intake. Along with procedural and employee schedule changes, we’ve also invested efforts into new equipment such as blenders, larger volumes of solvents, scales, and larger volumes of herbs. We have faced inconsistent stock-out issues in years past and we are now purchasing 1.5-2 years-worth of herb, salves, dried herbs/teas, etc. to help ensure our herbs are in stock for our customers. One of the worst tasks we have is to tell customers that we are out of something, especially if it won’t be restocked for 3+ months."
What are the challenges?
"The biggest challenge has been keeping product in stock. We have experienced a large increase in sales and while that is great in one hand, on the other hand it means we sell out of our herbs that much faster. Working with fresh plant materials for making our liquid extracts is something that sets our business apart from other herbal manufacturers. Fresh herbs give us specific windows throughout the seasons where all of our efforts, budget, and intentions go into processing these fresh plants. These fresh plant seasons also create a window where we need to purchase/process dried herbs and produce other products (such as salves) during the “off season”. When our sales fluctuate (dramatically sometimes), we can quickly sell out of an herb and be out of stock until that plant’s window for processing comes up again. Even if we had the budget and maceration jars to purchase dried herbs during a fresh herb season, we would not have the labor, physical space, and mental capacity available for restocking dried and fresh herbs at the same time. This being said, we are able to occasionally process a really important herb during its off season if absolutely necessary to restock a formula or if that particular herb is in high-demand. In addition to improving efficiency of the lab, one of our main goals for the lab is to produce more and a more accurate, volume of herbal products so we may have our beloved remedies in stock."
Learning curves?
"One of my personal learning curves has been understanding how to delegate and prioritize important tasks amongst employees to satisfy the needs of the business without overextending my reach as a manager and keeping everything within reason. I am so often the personality type to try and achieve everything all at once with all tasks having the same level of importance. Unfortunately, this personality type puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on me and those around me. This pressure may make the tasks complete, but there is no joy in fulfilling these tasks, especially because there will always be a list of “to-dos” for the business."
Joys?
"Joy has come in a form less than expected; it has been watching myself, my fellow employees, and even the business to grow and change. PSB has a very interesting nature about itself – whenever a person starts working here, they are always put through a series of personal challenges. These challenges are often what the employee needs to face in order to heal from, work through, or move past a traumatic trigger in their life. PSB has a healing energy, in more ways than one and it is reflected in its employees, customers, and even the business itself. We like to think of Prairie Star Botanicals as one big entity and we are all working together to achieve a similar goal, we cohabitate with our business and support it through its healing journey too! We are all capable of change, but in order to achieve true transformation, we must be willing to listen for opportunities and accept our duties for this plane of life."
What is your goal for PSB in 2025?
"Something New. 2025 is the year where we want to implement new product ideas as well as new marketing and advertising opportunities. We want to be out in the public more, doing more events, and really start putting ourselves out there!! We want our presence to be known and we want to push our efforts into reaching more of the community, both business to business and to our retail customers. We will be prototyping/launching new products that have been digesting for some time now as well as satisfying more needs within our local market. Having herbs and products in stock, new equipment, and new processes in place, we will be ready to focus on something new for the year 2025. We are all eager and hungry for evolution!"
Please note the new clinic hours beginning in January: Paige Hill of Oak Leaf Herbal will be available to see clients onsite at PSB from 9:00 - 5:00 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Friday. To schedule your appointment, please see her website, www.OakLeafHealingCenter.com or call (402) 278-0418. She has been on maternity leave and will be available for appointments again in January.
We hope you have enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look into the people mechanics of Prairie Star Botanicals. In his parting words, Aaron would like to add: "Thank you to everyone who has supported us on our journey. This community is so full of amazing and generous people who have helped us grow Prairie Star. We would like to give special thanks to our families for their encouragement, fellow herbalists who work with PSB, Lisa, the previous owner, who built this business from its infancy, our staff who has stuck with us through this transition time, our local growers for their flexibility as our demands grow and change, and to our customers for their support despite our growing pains." And thank you, Aaron and Paige, for keeping the dream alive, and for being so integral to our beloved, collective herbal community.
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