What do you do when you can’t easily find healthy food and a family member desperately needs to change his diet to stay alive?
One answer is to start a dot-com company.
That’s exactly what Tamara Doherty did three years ago, founding WellBaskets.com, a Newtown, CT firm which offers gift baskets of healthful food and other products.
Doherty, a former webmaster at an online toy company, got the idea in 2003 after her father had a heart attack and had to follow a restricted diet. He began complaining about the lack of suitable food available in supermarkets, she says.
“Nobody was offering healthy food as gift baskets,” says Doherty.
The Wellbaskets.com site went active on April 1, 2004.
The $300,000 firm, which showed a modest profit last year, markets itself primarily through search engines like Yahoo and Google and through pay-per-click arrangements with gift Web sites like Findgift.com, says Doherty.
So far, WellBaskets.com has amassed an e-mail list of about 6,000 names but Doherty cautions this may not mean much because the site’s customers aren’t necessarily prone to buying again.
Wellbaskets.com had 800,000 page views last year, says, Doherty, who has written articles about the benefits of healthy eating for such publications as Better Homes and Gardens.
Doherty, who runs the 11-person firm with her brother Jason Prestuccia, says she does all the research for what constitutes healthy foods. The company does not work steadily with any nutritionists, although it does regularly consult with them.
WellBaskets offers gift baskets targeted for patients suffering from illnesses including heart disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes. What’s more, it tailors them for occasions ranging from anniversaries, weddings and holidays. The baskets range in price from less than $30 to more than $75.
The company also markets compact discs promoting guided imagery, relaxation and concentration as well as ones with baby music. The site has informational links with such organizations as the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association.
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