George and Janet Esser sitting at Detroit Airport
We are off to Europe for 25 days on a business trip. We sell magnesium supplements under the brand name of TrüMag. These products are the same as the US version Natural Calm. We had to change the name as the EU regulations do not allow any claims and they considered “Natural Calm” a claim. We started this business in the UK in August 2008, right around the time that the Lehman Brothers triggered a major global recession. We decided to move ahead and figured that if we could make it in “these hard times”, we would have a sustainable business. Our business is called Calm Natural Limited. We have two incorporated companies by that name; one in the USA and one in the United Kingdom.
Natural Calm is the best selling magnesium supplement in the US, for more than 6 years running and has been on the market for more than 30 years. To find out if you need it, or why magnesium is so important, please check out this page. So we feel really privileged to be able to distribute it. Even though the product works so well, the biggest problem we are running into is store owners. Once they realise how well it works and they see the repeat business, they sell a lot of it. Most stores owners, though, are just barely surviving in this economy and are focusing on the bottom line. It is easier to sell a product for under €10 than one for €21.50 which ours is. Ours also will last more than 6 weeks but it is that initial outlay. So we are having a hard time getting it into the stores.
Our goal on this trip is to get our product into many more stores and into the hands of consumers. There are two shows we plan on attending; the Rude Health Show in Dublin Ireland September 15-16th and the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham UK September 30th – October 1st. We also have a new person that is in Holland that we are going to see and work with to get our products launched there. So we are doing that in-between the two shows.
France is our next country of target and we are planning to meet a new potential distributor in Paris after the Birmingham show. We will be in France from October 2-4 and then fly out October 4, back to Dublin so we can fly back home on October 5. We have a total of 8 flights.
We finally left two hours later than we wanted and I am now sitting at the Detroit airport.