Expanding Your Wellness Business to an International Market

Do you find that the wellness market in your area or community has become saturated with the latest trends in holistic health such as massage therapy, yoni steam, womb wellness, EFT, vegan food chefs, and beauty products? Do you know that health and wellness is needed around the globe and many international communities are open markets for modern and traditional ways of establishing and maintaining good health? If you have every thought of living and working abroad, get out your note pad for these 6 tips on Expanding Your Business to an International Market.



Working abroad in Ghana, West Africa has been both relaxing and profitable for us. We get to stay home at our three acre ocean front compound and students of wellness come and spend a weekend or two with us learning different modalities of naturopathy and holistic health while enjoying a cool Gulf of Guinea breeze and dining on the best vegan foods in the country. Here's how we did it.

1 Market research. Whatever country you're thinking of expanding to the first step is to do your market research. What types of wellness businesses are operating in the area of the country you are considering. It would be good to call and check to see how they are doing. This will ensure that you are not getting into another saturated market. Also make sure the market has the customers you want reach. This type of research also includes the possibility of language barriers  and cultural challenges.

2 Develop networking relationships. The idea of who you know can also be beneficial when expanding to international markets. Most times setting up a business, acquiring land, and employing workers is slightly different than what you may be accustomed to in your home state. Therefore, have a network of local associates and other business owners who have already operating in your country of interest can make the journey so much more pleasant and easy.

3. Learn the language. To be able to communicate with your customers in both their official language and their cultural language is a big plus. You can usually learn another language fast by studying at least five days a week for nine months to a year.

4. Consider relocating even if it's only temporary. Like with any successful business the hands on experience of putting it all together and nurturing the growth and development of the business takes time. Because the health and wellness is still new in many places worldwide and foreign businesses are required to hire a certain percentage of local employees, it is going to take some time to train and gauge the effectiveness of your employees to run a profitable business.

5. Learn local business regulations. Foreign businesses always have to go through a registration process with the local government. Unfortunately that often comes with a hefty registration fee. ensure that your register your business the correct way to avoid having your business shut down by government officials.

6. Assess your ability for a long term commitment. Success in an international market will take a long term financial plan. Your start up should include at least a year of being able to operate abroad and market effectively to get the word about your business out there.As with any start up the three year point would be about the time that you can expect to turn a profit if all goes well.

In many places around the world there are communities in need of the knowledge and service of good health that complementary and alternative holistic wellness can provide. Not only can it be good for your business to be a source of healing for those you will serve who otherwise may not have access to these types of services, but it can be a healthy living experience for you too. Enjoy life, love and good health as you help others too.

Light and love,

Dr. Akua

June 13, 2018

Houston, TX

About the Author: Dr. Akua Gray, ND is the author of numerous books on wellness, naturopathy and vegan nutrition. Her latest series of education manuals include Naturopathic Reiki Volumes 1, 2 and 3 and Detox Therapy: Detoxing Should Feel Good Too are available through bojakazhealthnetwork.com or Amazon. She is currently the primary curriculum developer for A Life Of Peace Wellness Education Institute and teaches an annual series of Naturopathic courses online and in person. Visit www.alifeofpeace.org 

When the Healer Needs Help: Accessing Your Ability to Self-Heal

When I arrived in Ghana this past October, I received the news that one of the healers in the Cape Coast community had died at the age of 50. I heard the accounts of the events leading up to her death from several other colleagues in the wellness field who were close to the sister. As I listened to each person's story of what happened, it dawned on me that the issue of eating healthy and the idea of what people think of themselves based on what other people think of them is still a problem among those who are proclaiming to be holistic health professionals. I also gathered that this sister starved herself to death with a coconut water diet to lose weight.

The addictive and dysfunctional eating habits that American people have been afflicted with runs deep in the psyche. It is very few people, health conscious or not that develop a lifestyle of eating and caring for themselves that is completely holistic. Unfortunately, many wellness providers also struggle with this. Knowing what to eat, how much to eat, which variety of foods to consume can all be overwhelming and confusing. In this confusion, even healthy eaters who are not mentally, emotionally and spiritually sound in their attempts at a holistic lifestyle can make their food obsessions and weight problems a matter of life and death.

Changing to a healthy frame of mind about the body takes not only physical commitment, but mental restructuring, emotional healing and a certain level of spiritual elevation. If these things are missing, transformation can never be complete. I often ask healers that I meet who have issues plaguing them about their support systems, who their go to person or people when they need help with their journey, and I have found that too many professional holistic health providers solely rely on themselves in their times of need. If this is going to be the pattern that healers of our current generations take, then there must be a formula in place for this type of self-care to be effective. I propose the following:

1. Check your mental health for a completely peaceful disposition. If you are not at peace with absolutely everything in your life. Get some help.

2. Check your emotional health for mastery of the 3 second formula on emotional awareness. In Natural Health and Wellness I teach that if you hold on to any emotion positive or negative for longer than 3 seconds, it is considered a sign of emotional dysfunction. Get some help.

3. Check your spiritual health. If you have been unable to remain consistent in mastering a program of spiritual ascension for a minimum of 5 years and you are still experiencing mental and emotional turmoil with problem after problem piling up, it is time for you to rely on your community of healers for some assistance.

4. Finding the right help for you. Question: Does the person you are seeking to help you have all of the above working in their favor? Peace of mind and a love for life. Emotional balance with unconditional love. Spiritual balance that has them living a life of peace. There are many healers who have done the work and reached these levels of ascension. They are light workers here to help you. Ask the universe for what you need and it will come.

Take care of yourselves Beautiful Ones.
We need all of the healers we can get who are whole and healthy.

Light and love,

Dr. Akua

April 8, 2018

Houston, TX

About the Author: Dr. Akua Gray, ND is the author of numerous books on wellness, naturopathy and vegan nutrition. Her latest series of education manuals include Naturopathic Reiki Volumes 1, 2 and 3 and Detox Therapy: Detoxing Should Feel Good Too are available through bojakazhealthnetwork.com or Amazon. She is currently the primary curriculum developer for A Life Of Peace Wellness Education Institute and teaches an annual series of Naturopathic courses online and in person. Visit www.alifeofpeace.org 

When Service Becomes Sacrifice

When Service Becomes Sacrifice 
5 Tips to Maintain a Good Relationship with Your Clients

Recently I read a social media post by a community healer that spewed out a long complaint at her clients and potential clients by saying from this point forward she would no longer answer questions or provide any free services to anyone and that they should book an appointment for a paid consultation. Now this is just a summary of the content, but the rant went on and on about how she was tried of people always wanting something for free, etc. As I read this comment my heart went out to the young lady because she is a classic example of a healer on the verge of burning out. Most healers who think this way have never taken a business course or had any marketing training, otherwise they would know how to organize their pro bono work and see every client as a divine reflection of themselves with something to offer in the mission of their purpose.

I have seen many healers go this route of resentment and frustration because of financial strain in trying to maintain living expenses and run a successful holistic health business. It is possible to provide service to your clients and still make a comfortable living. In Holistic Health Business 101 a course offered by A Life Of Peace, healers are taught the art of doing their healing work with joy and learning to take care of Self and all clients. Here's how...

1. The first step in the learning process is developing a spiritual and financial vision for your business and your life as a business owner. You have to ask the universe for who you want to serve in your business. Call them and they will come based on the energy of loving receptivity.

2. Take a marketing class, read books on marketing or get a marketing consultant that understands the wellness business that way you learn how to develop a business avatar and you never have to be concerned about how walks through the door. I highly recommend Creating an Abundant Practice by Andrea Alder and as a marketing consultant, Better Marketing Mastery, Brother Ankh Akhu.

3. Learn and practice good money management skills which include budgeting, saving, giving and enjoying the fruits of your labor. My best reference for this is Secrets of a Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Ekher.

4. Tap into the metaphysics of business growth and progress by mastering the internal requirements of success: vision, repetition, clarity and self-healing first. If you are a healer who has truly worked on yourself and have taken your ideology into actual living, the negative emotions of frustration, lack, and feeling unappreciated will be nonexistent. Instead your primary emotion in all your business transactions paid or free will be GRATITUDE, but you have to do the work.

5. Always take a break from business to rejuvenate yourself. Once a month, once a week and once a day. Give yourself some loving free time to just be. It will work wonders in your ability to work with every client or potential client that comes your way.

Oh, one last note true healers don't air their business frustrations on social media, they take them into meditation or to wise council as a form of self healing and growth.

K. Akua Gray

February 4, 2018

Takoradi, Ghana

About the Author: Dr. Akua Gray, ND is the author of numerous books on wellness, naturopathy and vegan nutrition. Her latest series of education manuals include Naturopathic Reiki Volumes 1, 2 and 3 and Detox Therapy: Detoxing Should Feel Good Too are available through bojakazhealthnetwork.com or Amazon. She is currently the primary curriculum developer for A Life Of Peace Wellness Education Institute and teaches an annual series of Naturopathic courses online and in person. Visit www.alifeofpeace.org 

7 Ways to Improve Wellness in an Underserved Community

Is your community a wealth of information, resources and businesses that promote wellness and holistic health? Probably not. In fact, most communities in the world do not have adequate access to the systems of healthcare of any kind. If you look round the community you live in and it frustrates you that there are limited to no natural wellness providers, healthy eateries, no wellness therapy businesses, no natural pharmacies and no holistic health education centers, then it may be time for you to take the lead in beginning the process of change for your community. It only takes a critical mass to make an extraordinary difference.

Do you have a desire to make a difference in the world through wellness? Do you possess the creativity to address multiple issues with limited resources? Can you make the commitment too serve a specific group or community? Serving the underserved requires an advocate for your interest group.

An underserved community is defined as areas of populations that have too few care providers, high poverty and a high older adult population which face cultural, economic or linguistic barriers to health care. However, in holistic health the underserved are not always those in poverty, the majority of the underserved in wellness is due to a lack of education in the laws of nature to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

First, decide who you want to help by choosing an interest group. This may be the youth, either boys or girls, women, men or the older population. Second, assess the skills you have o assist this group consistently. Third, do a field study to determine if there are others working in the community with your chosen group and what is being offered and can a collaboration be established to benefit the group more.

As you move with confidence in your divinity to provide a service to your community, use any or all of these 7 proven offerings that will ensure you reach those who are destined to receive the gifts of health and wellness.

1.       Create a day of service monthly or quarterly.

2.       Offer free education events.

3.       Mentor a leader of the interest group.

4.       Provide sample health products.

5.       Obtain a community grant or sponsorship to launch a seasonal wellness program.

6.       Join with an organization that has access to your interest group and serve diligently.

7.       Emphasize attainable lifestyle changes and prevention to you interest group.

All of these wellness endeavors can also be translated over to business models that prove successful in the initial launches within the community. For example, a monthly day of service can also include the sale of affordable wellness products. Offering free education classes can include low cost advanced classes on the subject of the initial free class. Mentoring a leader of the interest group can spawn into a community training program for others who wish to teach. Providing sample health products can be the beginning of nurturing interest in a community coop health foods market. The possibilities are numerous with the creativity and consistency to nurture growth of your vision.

K. Akua Gray

January 4, 2018

Central Region, Ghana

About the Author: Dr. Akua Gray, ND is the author of numerous books on wellness, naturopathy and vegan nutrition. Her latest series of education manuals include Naturopathic Reiki Volumes 1, 2 and 3 and Detox Therapy: Detoxing Should Feel Good Too are available through bojakazhealthnetwork.com or Amazon. She is currently the primary curriculum developer for A Life Of Peace Wellness Education Institute and teaches an annual series of Naturopathic courses online and in person. Visit www.alifeofpeace.org