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Until a few years back, herbal product markets in India had just two names to reckon for, <keyword id="6842" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Baidyanath">Baidyanath</keyword> and <keyword id="2057176" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vicco">Vicco</keyword>. However, in 2006, a new company entered the market and in just 10 years, it has left behind both these companies. 
 
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved has set on a wave of Ayurveda love in the country, which has resulted in it being a successful business model using traditional products and the ancient system of medicine. 
 
This wave has also inspired the other two companies to pull up their socks and cash on to the increading popularity of Ayurvedic products. 
 The reason why some of these companies dealing in Ayurvedic products, like Vicco, Sandu, <keyword id="277948" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amrutanjan">Amrutanjan</keyword> and <keyword id="589160" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="charak">Charak</keyword>, were not able to attract Indians to them was their limited portfolio, which never went beyond the traditional products. However, Patanjali sells products ranging from detergents and toothpaste to ghee, atta and noodles in an FMCG market, thereby making Ayurvedic products a big deal in India. 
 
This success of Patanjali Ayurved has inspired other gurus like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Ram Rahim as well as Aurobindo Ashram to enter the consumer segment with Ayurveda-centric products. 
 However, Kolkata-based Baidyanath is of the opinion that they don’t need to rival Patanjali, <keyword id="62997" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dabur">Dabur</keyword> or <keyword id="26169" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="himalaya">Himalaya</keyword> in the core FMCG segments. "We have been here for 100 years and want to survive another century in a sustainable way. No point getting into all FMCG segments and be a fringe player," Ameve Sharma, its third-generation scion, told ET. 
 
Coming back to Patanjali, why a company the originated in 1997 as a small pharmacy has reached these heights? The reason is the nonconventional approach of catering to categories like noodles, oats and detergents. 
 "What we have done is consistently focused on quality and pricing. Ask consumers about our product quality. Why are repeat purchases coming? It's because of the quality we are offering consumers," said SK Tijarawala, spokesperson of <keyword id="700471" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Patanjali-Ayurveda">Patanjali Ayurveda</keyword>. "As far as pricing is concerned, we are trying to give consumers the best possible prices. 
 
<a href="http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/73116827.jpg">Image source</a>

Patanjali is taking over the entire Ayurveda industry

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medical practice dating back 5,000 years.</li><li>Ayurveda is growing in popularity among American <keyword id="12046488" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="wellness" source="Orion">wellness</keyword> celebrities, and demand for its services could reach $6 billion by 2026.</li></ul>The wellness industry is becoming inundated with products marketed as having roots in Ayurveda, a traditional medical practice originated and established in Indian.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/kourtney-kardashian-recently-tried-a-sex-fast-and-said-it-felt-crazy-to-forego-orgasms-but-it-made-everything-better-in-the-long-run/articleshow/89978695.cms">Kourtney Kardashian</a> and <a href="https://www.insider.com/gwyneth-paltrow-shares-lockdown-wellness-routine-gemstone-mat-sex-oil-2020-7">Gwyneth Paltrow</a> have said they practiced certain Ayurvedic treatments, including a multi-day cleanse and eating foods meant to restore the body's imbalances. The two sell products linked to Ayurvedic <keyword id="12037532" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="medicine" source="Orion">medicine</keyword> — including a <a href="https://shop.poosh.com/products/sustainable-ayurvedic-oral-care-set">tongue scraper</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reviews/out?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgoop.com%2Fwellness%2Fhealth%2Fmetabolism-boosting-superpowder%2F">basil supplements</a> — on their respective wellness sites, Poosh and Goop.American celebrities bringing the practice to their audiences depicts the growing demand for Ayurvedic treatments and services. French market research firm <a href="https://www.reportlinker.com/p06208015/Global-Ayurveda-Market.html?utm_source=GNW">ReportLinker</a> estimates the global Ayurveda market <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/global-ayurveda-market-expected-grow-110300562.html">could grow by $6.81 billion</a> between 2022 and 2026. The World <keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">Health</keyword> Organization announced in 2020 plans for a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/who-to-set-up-centre-for-traditional-medicine-in-india/article33091388.ece">global center</a> dedicated to studying and teaching Ayurveda in <keyword id="11892747" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>.According to two practitioners who obtained Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degrees from schools in India, interest in Ayurveda has ballooned in the last decade, but misconceptions about the practice remain widespread in the US.Here's what you need to know about the practice:<h2>The two words that underpin Ayurvedic principles, and what they mean</h2>Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medicine practice that dates back 5,000 years. The main principle of Ayurveda is restoring a person's prakruti, or their body's original state at the time of birth, said <a href="https://www.coloradoayurveda.org/bharat-vaidya.html">Dr. Bharat Vaidya</a>, a Colorado-based practitioner with both a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degree from India and a medical degree from Catholic University in Belgium. Vaidya said a person's prakruti can become unbalanced by unhealthy diet and <keyword id="11893304" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="lifestyle" source="Orion">lifestyle</keyword> choices. The Ayurvedic doctor's job is to locate where the imbalances lie and offer treatments bring the body back to its original state.Ayurveda views human beings as a microcosm of the universe, said <a href="https://ayurvedaforhealing.com/aboutus/">Ashlesha Raut</a>, an Illinois-based practitioner with a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery who has served as an executive on the <a href="https://www.aapna.org/">Association of Ayurvedic Practitioners of North America</a>.Raut said the framework of viewing humans as part of the universe means the elements we use to analyze the outside environment — fire, wind, and water — should be applied internally to humans. The "bioenergies," or the elements of fire, wind, and water that exist within the body, are called doshas.In Ayurveda, doshas comprise a person's entire physiology. "As you move, whatever happens to your body is because of these three doshas, and that is the whole basis of Ayurveda," Raut said.An Ayurvedic doctor's job is to study their patient's doshas and determine which ones are out of alignment, causing an imbalanced prakruti. The Ayurvedic doctor restores the balance by prescribing herbal remedies and changes to diet and lifestyle.Vaidya said modern medicine has added context to Ayurvedic's reliance on diet and lifestyle treatments. For example, evidence that eating poorly disrupts the <a href="https://www.insider.com/microbiome-based-drugs-in-development-seres-second-genome-2018-2">microbiome</a>, or the assortment of microorganisms that live in our gut, contributes to our understand of balance in the body. <keyword id="12602488" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gut-bacteria" source="Orion">Gut bacteria</keyword> manufactures most of the body's <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-to-increase-serotonin">serotonin</a>, a chemical that aids in motor skills, cognition, mood, healing, and a variety of other functions. He also pointed to the fact that studies have repeatedly shown eating more vegetables and exercising can <a href="https://www.insider.com/plant-based-diet">prevent against diseases</a> and <a href="https://www.insider.com/less-exercise-linked-to-higher-risk-of-depression-anxiety-study-2020-11">improve mental wellbeing</a>."Restoration of the balance of mind and body is the key line of treatment in Ayurveda," Vaidya said.<h2>Ayurvedic doctors have adapted to work within Western medicine</h2>Raut said she assess a patient by observing their body and emotions by interviewing them during an initial consultation. She then runs physical tests to check a patient's pulse, tongue, nails, skin, facial expressions to determine the body's imbalances.After getting an assessment from the patient, Ayurvedic doctors will suggest changes to their diet, lifestyle, and "thought process," Vaidya said. Many vaidyas, or Ayurvedic doctors, practicing in the US work within allopathic medicine, meaning they do not ask patients discontinue using pharmaceutical drugs and other modern treatments, Vaidya said. He said he makes recommendations within Western diets and does not tell his patients to stop eating meat, even though traditional Ayurveda suggests following a <keyword id="13368749" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vegetarian-diet" source="Orion">vegetarian diet</keyword>.<h2>Ayurveda is not religious</h2>Furthermore, Vaidya said Ayurveda is not bound to any religion, and he treats clients of many different faiths.Raut said a common misconception about Ayurveda is that it's a "folk medicine," which implies something passed on by word of mouth. Ayurvedic doctors have documented their practices for centuries, she said, and written their findings in reference books.Raut said people who have obtained a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery from an accredited school in South Asia must spend eight to 10 years after graduating high school to learn the entire curriculum. After graduating, Raut then spent years in residency learning from other Ayurvedic doctors."One has to understand that this is a complete, defined science," Raut said. "People many times just think, 'Oh, it's some folk medicine from India.' It is really not like that."

Ayurvedic medicine is taking the wellness industry by storm. Here's what you need to know about the traditional Indian practice.

India is fast emerging as an attractive destination for medical value travellers from across the globe. The drivers of medical tourism in India include a substantially lower cost of treatment, short waiting times and delivery of high-quality services. A cardiovascular surgery in the country can <a href="https://www.traveltrendstoday.in/news/india-tourism/item/5439-medical-tourism-emerging-as-a-next-growth-driver">cost</a> as little as Rs. 4-5 lakh compared to Rs. 80 lakhs in the U.S. Similarly, the <a href="https://www.tforg.com/how-we-think/sweetspot-blog/2016/08/30/healthcare-markets-india-pharmaceuticals-medical-devices-health-tourism/">waiting time</a> for a knee graft operation in India could be as short as five days compared to nearly 18 months in the U. K’s National Health Service. The <a href="http://bureaucracytoday.com/global_bureaucracy.aspx?id=135512">number of medical visitors</a> to India has been increasing steadily, up from 1,84,298 in 2014 to 3,61,060 in 2016. Future projections also seem promising, with the industry expected to touch <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/india-among-fastest-growing-medical-tourism-destinations-official/articleshow/61056202.cms">$9 billion by 2020</a>. Some key challenges, however, persist. While the government has taken several progressive steps concerning medical visas, more can be done to ease the travel of medical tourists to India. Additionally, the market continues to be largely unregulated, with several informal agents and intermediaries connecting prospective patients to health facilities. Domestic or international accreditation has been acquired by a relatively small number of health facilities, primarily hospitals. Most importantly perhaps, there is considerable lack of awareness in target markets about India’s capabilities, infrastructure and cost advantage in the health and wellness space. In many countries, there are misconceptions about India’s traditional systems of medicine such as Yoga and <keyword id="48379" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ayurveda">Ayurveda</keyword> which are often perceived to be exclusive to Indian culture or even related to religion, instead of means for promoting healthy living. This is perhaps why India currently accounts for only 2% of the global wellness market. The Way Forward While a comprehensive medical tourism policy is in the works, some concrete and implementable measures in the short-term can go a long way in helping India realise its full potential in medical tourism. First, it may be worthwhile to revisit some of the medical visa norms. For instance, the process of registering at the <keyword id="6413540" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Foreigner">Foreigner</keyword> Regional Registration Offices could be made easier for patients by setting up helpdesks at major airports and hospitals across the country. The procedure for visitors who come on a tourist visa to switch to a medical visa should also be streamlined. Further, medical visa on arrival could be piloted for patients from countries like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, UAE, UK, UK and <keyword id="6356687" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword>. Second, the need for and importance of acquiring an accreditation should be widely publicised among all types of health and wellness providers, including dental clinics, Ayurveda and Yoga centres as well as medical tourism companies. As per the <a href="https://www.jointcommissioninternational.org/about-jci/jci-accredited-organizations/?c=India">Joint Commission International</a> (JCI) website, 36 Indian providers have been accredited by JCI compared to 61 in <keyword id="3739" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Thailand">Thailand</keyword>. A JCI accreditation is considered to be the gold standard in global health care. Third, to enable better regulation of the market, a system should be put in place for registering agents and intermediaries. They should also be accredited according to the framework developed by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers and listed on all websites about medical tourism. Fourth, for promoting India as a medical and wellness tourism destination, intensive awareness campaigns should be undertaken in high potential markets (e.g. <keyword id="366595" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="South-East-Asia">South-East Asia</keyword> for medical treatments, <keyword id="6355055" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="USA">USA</keyword> and UK for wellness tourism), in addition to traditionally lucrative markets (e.g. SAARC, Middle East and Africa). The launch of the <keyword id="6019965" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="india-healthcare-tourism">India Healthcare Tourism</keyword> website by the government is an important step. There is an opportunity to make the website even more comprehensive by adding information on local travel and accommodation. The website also needs to be actively promoted through social media channels, in partnership with domestic and international medical tourism companies as well as leading hospital chains. By learning from the experiences of countries like <keyword id="8695" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Malaysia">Malaysia</keyword> and Thailand, a welcome lounge could be set up at airports where large numbers of medical tourists land as well as a dedicated call centre for international patients. The <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=134430">National Medical &amp; Wellness Tourism Promotion Board</a> can serve as the anchor point for the implementation of these measures. In the longer term, state-level boards should also be established to align with the board at the national level. The time is ripe to inject greater vitality into India’s already strong medical tourism industry and overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of the country becoming a global leader in the space. (Disclaimer: The author of this article is <keyword id="3110109" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Urvashi-Prasad">Urvashi Prasad</keyword>, who is a Public Policy Specialist in the Office of the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, the Indian Government’s Premier Think Tank. The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India.)

Harnessing the True Potential of India’s Medical Tourism Industry

There has been a significant ‘change of guard’ in the country. The new government is in place and anticipations are high that new economic policies will roll out sooner than later. After a long period of below-par performance, the ever-depreciating rupee has picked up pace and this may provide a major boost to trade ties with other countries. However, there are several other sectors that will greatly benefit from the rupee being on a positive spree, especially segments like leisure travel and medical tourism. The reason for this is obvious. In both cases, the visiting traffic is availing services within the country, thus giving a boost to both hospitality and <keyword id="6354525" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Healthcare">healthcare</keyword> industries. 
 But right now, the focus is on the new <keyword id="6356374" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Health-Minister">Health Minister</keyword>, a medical professional himself. Dr <keyword id="196226" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Harsh-Vardhan">Harsh Vardhan</keyword>, who was responsible for the most popular pulse polio drive that he had undertaken when he was the health minister in Delhi government, has reaped rich benefits for a country that battled the dangerous disease and got rid of it. More progressive policies are expected to roll out, thanks to the new government’s initiatives. 
 
However, one cannot deny that rural health initiatives in India have been patchy, with the urban populace grabbing the largest chunk of the healthcare pie. For instance, 28% of the urban Indians have access to nearly 66% of healthcare initiatives while the rural majority struggles to access the remaining 34% benefits. 
 
India’s spending on healthcare is also dismal. It is just $43 (per capita) a year, compared to $85 in Sri Lanka, $240 in China and $265 in Thailand. In other words, India has been spending just 1.2% of its GDP over the past decade although it is now high time to increase the spending to at least 2.5%. 
 
But due to its urban approach, India has grown into a coveted healthcare destination, with liberal economic policies helping the healthcare sector grow better and faster. As specialty hospitals gun for private investments and corporatisation, the entire system tends to grow more hi-tech, efficient and professionally oriented – ensuring state-of-the-art facilities, speedy recovery and great hospital stay experience. In other words, India has been working towards a complete healthcare transformation for some time now. 
 
Over the past decade, even policy level changes have re-emphasized the vision of creating access to a minimum set of healthcare services for all. As for medical tourists seeking healthcare support in India and boosting several other industries in the process, the country offers some of the best facilities available in the world. 
 
The Indian healthcare system has seen a two-pronged growth strategy in the recent past. As the country is well known for its alternative and holistic healthcare systems like the Ayurveda, it has tried to tap the potential of both modern and traditional medicines to put in place a comprehensive healthcare system. 
 
 
Among the nations that are gaining popularity as the most coveted destinations for medical tourism, India is vying with countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Mexico. A patient who visits India to seek medical treatment is also an important customer who will boost the local hospitality industry. In fact, when a person arrives here to avail of healthcare facilities, the average stay is 30 days and above, according to the data available. 
 
Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) also notes that about 150,000 medical tourists preferred India over other countries in 2005 although the sector enjoyed least support from the government. At that time, hospitals were not into branding in a big way and the recommendations or testimonies were few and far between. 
 
However, analysts who are following the trends in the healthcare sector are confident that the numbers will climb up to 3,200,000 by 2015, with major surgeries being carried out in areas such as bone marrow transplant; ocular disorders; liver, kidney and heart surgeries, and hip and knee replacement. 
 
At this juncture, it is critical to note that things had looked bright for India at the outset, but last year was not as growth-oriented as one would expect it to be. For one, private equity took a beating in terms of investments flowing into various industrial sectors. And the depreciating rupee brought PE investments in the healthcare sector down by 18.5% from the previous year. 
 
Recently, InternationalLiving.com conducted a global survey on retirement index and identified the countries with best healthcare systems in the world. Good policies, people-friendly facilities and affordability of healthcare services served as the parameters for this survey. France, Uruguay, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Mexico were rated among the best countries that provided the most evolved healthcare systems to their citizens. 
 
With healthcare and life sciences emerging as the major focus areas of investment and growth in the coming years, it is now imperative for the governments to take a huge leap in this direction. 
And the focus needs to shift from the urban-centred approach to rural areas which are lacking basic access to modern healthcare facilities till date.

Will India Witness A Boom In Healthcare
Sector?

<ul><li>What goes around comes around, especially when it comes to fashion and clothing.</li><li>According to PwC and Assocham, landfills are brimming with so much urban waste that by 2050, India is reportedly going to need a landfill that's the size of its capital New Delhi.</li><li>Before World Environment Day, we talk to Myntra about its new e-store, <keyword id="11376339" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="myntra-for-earth">Myntra for Earth</keyword>, that is targeting environment-conscious shoppers and aiming to focus more on sustainability as it moves forward.</li><li>Ayyappan Rajagopal, Chief Business Officer, Myntra tells us about the kind of response Myntra for Earth has seen so far, what kind of sustainable choices do consumers have, changing fashion trends in the future and Myntra for Earth’s goals for this quarter.</li></ul>The future of fashion is upcycling, recycling and sustainable clothing. Brands in India have already started taking baby steps towards converting fashion into a sustainable choice for consumers. More and more consumers are becoming aware of their fashion choices and realising that a worn-out piece of cloth they decide to throw, even as simple as a plain t-shirt, never really goes ‘away.’ It all ends up in a landfill. According to an Assocham and PwC report, landfills are brimming with so much urban waste that by 2050, India is reportedly going to need a landfill that's the size of its capital, New Delhi. At the same time, fast fashion is becoming a trend, which offers consumers the opportunity to buy more clothes at a lower price and that has taken a toll on the environment. It offers consumers an option to swiftly discard their clothes and buy new ‘trendy’ dresses. Consumers and brands aren’t ignoring these horrifying numbers anymore. This World Environment Day, many fashion brands have sworn to make a difference and be cognizant of the harmful effects their products can have on the environment. E-commerce giant Myntra has also stepped up. It has officially launched a sustainable e-store called ‘Myntra for Earth’ that only features eco-friendly fashion choices for all genders and age groups. It has already onboarded 70 leading fashion and lifestyle brands over the last 6 months to offer over 5500 styles to customers on its sustainable store. The store includes handloom and handcrafted, organic, natural-dyed, recyclable and eco-friendly, vegan, and cruelty-free options. The products ordered through this store are delivered in packets made from 100% recycled paper. It is now working towards scaling the number of brands in the store to ~2X by the upcoming quarter while adding another 4000 styles to the existing assortment. We caught up with Ayyappan Rajagopal, Chief Business Officer, Myntra to discuss the challenges of launching a new e-store during a global pandemic, its sustainability roadmap, a few trends that we can expect to see in sustainable fashion and platform’s goals to grow the store this quarter. Excerpts: Q. Tell us more about the 'Myntra for Earth’ store. When was it launched? What kind of response have you seen from the consumers? Launched in October 2020, "Myntra for Earth" is Myntra's sustainable store showcasing a more conscious choice to fashion and lifestyle shoppers. About 70 leading fashion and lifestyle brands have partnered with Myntra over the last 6 months to offer over 5500 styles to customers on its sustainable store. The store offers an immersive and engaging shopping experience for truly ‘sustainability-inclined’ conscious shoppers. As of now, we have seen increased growth in store visits and an uptick in revenue since its launch. The specially-curated store recognises the fashion industry’s sustainability efforts and also aims at augmenting the income opportunities of artisans and NGOs involved. Since its launch, Myntra For Earth store has received a phenomenal response. We are working towards scaling the number of brands in the store to ~2X by the upcoming quarter while adding another 4000 styles to the existing assortment. Q. How are you planning to market this store? Is there a larger campaign-in-the-making to raise awareness? Currently, we are focussing on having the right assortment of brands and products for the consumers in the store as the topmost priority. We have already received phenomenal response from consumers for the products of the store. Nearly 62% of the visitors to the ‘Myntra For Earth’ store are women, with metro cities contributing about 40% of the overall visits to the store. People of all age groups are seemingly conscious about their fashion choices and their impact on the environment in varying degrees. However, those in the age group of 21 to 35 are contributing the highest to the growth of the ‘Myntra For Earth’ store. Q. You have 70 brand partners on Myntra For Earth already. Can you mention a few names? Which are the most loved brands so far? Key names among many include H&amp;M, Mango, Unnati Silks, Bharatsthali, Pothys, Metro Kids Company, Kama Ayurveda, Forest Essentials and Fab India among others. <keyword id="2712840" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Myntra-Fashion">Myntra Fashion</keyword> Brands featured on the platform for their conscious collection include Taavi, Roadster and Ether. Q. So far, we have only seen a few start-ups that are completely sustainable. Are Indian legacy brands following suit? The MFE store has a combination of both home-grown brands like Taavi, Taniera and global brands like Levi, Mango &amp; H&amp;M that give importance to sustainability. Most of the legacy brands have a dedicated charter of well-defined goals on sustainability to educate consumers on organic fashion. Q. Is the packaging for Myntra Earth products different from others? Considering it aims to have a minimal effect on the environment? The majority of the orders are delivered using paper packaging at Myntra. We are gradually moving towards a complete eco-friendly paper for delivery purposes.

Myntra for Earth is working towards scaling the number of brands in the store to ~2X by the upcoming quarter while adding another 4000 styles to the existing assortment: Ayyappan Rajagopal of Myntra

Areefa MohammadAreefa Mohammad.<ul class="summary-list"><li>Areefa Mohammed knew her calling was to be a masseuse and doula, or birthing coach, and followed in her grandmother's footsteps, who was the town healer in Guyana.</li><li>Mohammad has about 40 active massage clients at any given time and has cared for dozens of children, some beginning when they were still in the womb with prenatal massage and birth coaching for mom and baby.</li><li>She built her business in New York City entirely on word of mouth by offering exceptional services, checking in on how clients were doing, and recently offering incentives like discounted fees or a free extra 15 minutes in a session.</li><li>To keep clients, she is empathetic, caring, and not pushy when asking for referrals.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime">Click here for more BI Prime stories.</a></li></ul>Word-of-mouth advertising is the holy grail of what all marketers and business owners are seeking to achieve when they put paid dollars behind their content. They want people to share their Facebook post or mention the cool thing they saw on Instagram. They want existing customers to recommend their brand to their friends and family, to endorse it to their own audiences. The desire to grow word-of-mouth advertising is the reason why <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-2019-benchmark-report/">influencer marketing is a $6 billion business.</a>Areefa Mohammed is one businesswoman who has mastered it.Mohammed's calling was inspired at a very young age. She spent the first eight years of her life in Guyana, raised by her father's mother alongside her cousins while their parents worked to set up a life in America, before joining her parents in Virginia. Her uncles had all been fishermen and her grandmother was the salesperson who coordinated the business of selling the fish along with harvested vegetables and spices to local merchants in Guyana. Her grandmother also ran a side hustle as the town healer and baby masseuse.Mohammed's grandma didn't have a degree or a business card or any official training, but she was known as a trusted provider where frustrated parents could bring their colicky, whiny babies with neck pain or digestive problems. She would sit flat on the floor with her legs out and dangle the tiny humans by one foot, stretching them out and then massaging them, taking zero measures to treat them delicately."What she was doing without any knowledge of the human body was absolutely OK because babies have 300 bones that are nearly all cartilage, so it was effective to work on them in that way," Mohammed relayed of her grandmother's untrained infant bodywork.Fast forward three decades and her grandmother lives on in her granddaughter, who has essentially modernized and professionalized her grandmother's reputation in Guyana and created a successful, almost-six-figure business for herself thousands of miles away in New York City. Most astonishing, she has architected her whole business by referrals alone.<h2>The path to self-employed doula</h2>Mohammed, now 33, has successfully and seamlessly married the two things her grandmother did best - caring for children as a guardian and masseuse - and built her own business, on her own schedule. In addition to her childcare and massage expertise, Areefa is also a certified doula. The connective tissue between the different services she provides comes from her desire to "merge my appreciation for nannying and massage therapy," she shared. "Through a continuing ed course, I found that I could further apply what I love by 'mothering the mother' as a professional labor and birth assistant," she said.Before becoming self-employed, she was a nanny for many years. Many of those connections stay with her, though, which is part of her success in word-of-mouth marketing, as former employers seek her out to utilize her other services.Her path to becoming a doula started with school at the Swedish Institute, where she helped with five live births as part of her externship. At least one of those turned into a long-term friendship, which has led to other work. Additionally, some of her first nanny clients came to her or recommended her to friends for massage or doula help. Competition in New York City is fierce, no matter what industry you're in, though for doulas like Mohammed, the curve isn't as steep. "Awareness is still on the rise for doulas," said Mohammed.She generally does massages and doula duties five days a week, with Mondays and Tuesdays off. Evenings and Sundays are her busiest times, with clients seeking massages before they return to the Monday grind. Mohammad has about 40 active massage clients at any given time and has cared for dozens of children, some beginning when they were still in the womb with prenatal massage and birth coaching for mom and baby. She charges market rates for her services, coming in just below the on-demand pricing for massages, and is on the lower end of the scale for her doula services, which can cost upwards of $3,500 or more for three months of service (she charges $1,500). She has raised her rates only once to make pricing uniform across geographies, after initially charging more for Manhattan clients but realizing her own overhead cost more to travel to the outskirts of the city. Her clients include the full range of diversity in New York, from CEOs of startups, tech companies, and Fortune 500s, including an owner of the largest retail business in Europe, to a single mom who came to give birth without anyone by her side or any resource to pay for Mohammad's doula skills, which she provided pro bono. Mohammad travels all over the city - from the Upper West Side to the Rockaways, and everywhere in between - to deliver her sought-after services.<h2>Growing a business by word-of-mouth referrals alone </h2>According to her clients, Mohammad is the best masseuse they've ever had. "And honestly, I have had a lot of massages," one long-time client Bash Doran, who lives in Manhattan's Upper West Side, told Business Insider. "I trusted her essentially with my life - my child. I never had a moment of regret," Doran added.Mohammad credits her natural inclination toward the healing arts, childcare, and body work as intrinsic to her Indian cultural background. Massage, Ayurveda, and touch therapy ties deeply into her family and culture's traditions, which have roots that date back to the fourth century BCE. Personal connections are what Mohammad has built her business on.In fact, don't bother looking for her website, because you won't find one. Social channels that highlight her services and drive engagement? Nope, there aren't any. Her SEO-optimized digital presence? Non-existent. Yelp profile with customer reviews? Negative. Paid sponsored search? Zilch."My work has been effective and the trail of a friend telling a friend telling a friend who is pregnant or looking for support is initiated," she said.She offered her best tips for reaching the same level of success with zero marketing budget. <h2>Diversify your offerings</h2>Part of Mohammad's secret sauce is that her services are often overlapping, growing with clients and their own bodies as families morph and grow. It may seem counterintuitive to focus business offerings on more than one thing, which risks feeling fractious or diluted to potential customers, but related services can serve as ripe opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to existing customers who have already come to know and trust you."Diversifying services has confused, but also helped me," Mohammad explained. "I don't know what it is I'm going to be doing at the end of it all, but complementary alternative medicine and touch therapy is what I want to do."She had one client on Manhattan's Upper West Side whom she was first a doula for, helping her navigate pregnancy and childbirth. She ended up stepping in as a substitute nanny and then went on to massage the mom and the kids. She also worked with the client, who was a speech pathologist, to serve some of the kids who had speech issues. That experience led to word-of-mouth referrals for Mohammad to work with families that had children with disabilities.<h2>Build trust</h2>It doesn't matter whether you're massaging someone's chronically sore lower back or selling them t-shirts - you have to build trust with your customers in order for them to want to fork over their money for your products or services.Areefa MohammadMohammad with baby.Mohammad just happens to be dealing with people's most precious parts - their bodies, their children, and their overall well-being. She has helped her clients in their most intimate and vulnerable moments - lying naked on a massage bed, in labor in a birthing room, working on a latch with a screaming newborn - and helped families after the death of a close family member.Trust is built over time and through education and great care, said Mohammed."I present myself in a professional manner and am constantly educating myself and trying to help them through my knowledge of the body," she said. She doesn't just provide services, but also makes it a point to leave clients with knowledge to help them understand their own bodies better. <h2>Tap into your empathy</h2>Good marketing, no matter what industry you're in, is about intuiting what people care about and delivering on those needs and emotions. For Mohammad, that intuition comes very naturally, but it's a skill that anyone can develop with enough attention paid to existing or new audiences."I'm able to read the energy in certain situations," Mohammad said. "I know when I walk out [of] a session or a night of nannying whether it was good or not. I can tell if a client is scared about their pregnancy or a client who has never been massaged before and doesn't know what to expect. I try to make them feel secure and comfortable through my professionalism and education." <h2>Care deeply</h2>"I have a big heart toward caring for others - I'm just genuine. I want to care for others and want to walk away from them knowing I've made a difference - made them happier, their situation less stressful," Mohammad explained.The passion she feels for her work is palpable. Her clients can feel that and it's what keeps them coming back. She works hard to prove it by delivering excellence in service. Like any entrepreneur or anyone trying to get their business off the ground or even searching for the day job that is going to bring you fulfillment, if that fire isn't in you, it's less likely to work.<h2>Strike the right tone </h2>Mohammad is careful not to be pushy. She doesn't tell her clients to help spread the word about her services, nor does she ask clients to like her on social media or leave her a review. The quality of the services she delivers speaks on its own. She is, however, starting to implement some word-of-mouth referral incentives like discounted fees or an extra 15 minutes in a massage session for free."I don't push clients to rebook, but I do try to check in with them and ask how they're doing," she added. Following up with her clients has led to repeat business.In some ways, the lack of direct or even subtle solicitation makes you feel like you're her only and most-valued client, like she is in it truly to help people. Her easy authenticity is the very thing brands sweat to strive for.When asked what her approach is that encourages people to refer her, she said, "When I think about it, it seems that I talk a lot! Like a lot! I'm always looking for ways to share with others what I do. I'm passionate about it. I'm excited about it. I also always want to be of help some way or the other."She added, "Always love what you do. Be passionate about it. You will talk and want to share. Always push yourself to learn new things. Add to your practice. And share. I don't think I've ever pushed anyone to take in my business. But I share what I think." <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/veterinarians-debunk-13-common-myths-about-raising-cats-2020-3">Veterinarians debunk 13 cat myths</a></h3>

You Searched For "indian ayurveda industry" and got 6 results

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