I was really excited to finally sit down and write a blog to say thank you for helping me create this business that I am so incredibly proud of. After re-starting this blog about five different times, I finally decided the best way to say thank you would be to first share a bit about who I am and what this company means to me.

So who am I? My name is Zach Regehr and I am 28 years old. I grew up on the south edge of Birds Hill Park about 15 minutes outside of Winnipeg, MB. Both of my parents ran businesses and from a very early age all I wanted to do was have a business of my own! I saw opportunity in everything and the older I got, the more ideas I had. I must have “started” 5 businesses before exiting high school, without having any of them gain real traction. For those of you who may not understand this, It felt like starting a band and having the only people show up to your first 5 gigs be your mom and dad, solely because they had to drive you there. 

I remember so many days feeling confused as to why my ideas were not working and wondering why other people couldn’t see what I could. There were days that I felt lonely, wanted to give up, and times where I felt crazy. In the end I learned a lot from those early days of entrepreneurship and looking back I feel so grateful for the failures that taught me valuable lessons about relationships, healthy boundaries, and living a life that you are truly excited about. 

With none of my early business ideas working out I ended up working several different jobs throughout the end of high school and  into my early 20’s. These included selling cars, working in the maintenance department at a large factory and serving at a few different restaurants. 

While all this was going on I still had plenty of business ideas flowing through my mind and the end goal was still to work for myself and create something I could be proud of. This led me back to school where I ended up in the Red River Business program. Safe to say school was never my favourite thing. Halfway through my first year I realized that the lessons I was learning in school were not what I needed to move forward with what I ultimately wanted to do with my life. 

Instead of focusing on classes and assignments, I began to write a business plan and seek funding for an idea I was really excited about. This was the start of Vehicle Protective Solutions (VPS) where I got my first taste of success in entrepreneurship. Two years into the business I sold my half to my business partner to pursue new ideas. I had a huge idea and quickly got to work on what I believed then would be my next business. It's funny how things work out and I quickly realized I would not have the funds to make that business a reality without some other form of income. This is really where Plant Vitamins began!

So now that you have read this totally unnecessary back story of who I am and how I got to where I am now, let’s get to why you are all here, Plant Vitamins! As you already know I was looking for a secondary business to help me fund my other project I was working on. At this point, I had been working from home for roughly a year and had started a collection of house plants; somewhere from 30-40 plants filling our little home in Osborne Village. One day when thinking of what my business would be I opened our junk drawer and at the very back of the drawer was a big 1L bottle of fertilizer I had purchased months ago, used once and ended up totally forgetting about it. The bottle was basically full and I wondered how I would ever finish using it all, especially when it was tucked away in the drawer. Right there in that moment the light bulb above my head started to flicker; what if I created a fertilizer that was both easy to use and hard to forget! 

This was and still today is the core of what Plant Vitamins is all about. An easy to use, hard to forget product that makes taking care of your plants almost effortless and way more enjoyable. Now that I had this idea, I dove into how I could make this possible and over the next 6 months I basically paid people to try the product (which as you know, isn’t exactly how running a product based business works). With very little sales coming through at this point, the idea felt like it might never work but the thought of getting a job after being self-employed for over three years was just not an option for me. 

I continued to look for new ways to show the product and spent hundreds of hours reaching out to people who could share my product with their family, friends and social media followers. Eventually, we caught on and in March of 2020 we finally had our breakthrough. We partnered with some amazing influencers who shared our products with their communities, and we finally had a business that was growing! Since then I have been blown away by the support and love we have received from you and all of the people who interact with Plant Vitamins. Never when I started this venture did I think it would get even close to this size and become my main business and focus!

Since 2020 I have been so blessed to have found an amazing team to help continue to grow the company as I could not do this alone! Our Operations Manager Madi was my first hire and if you have interacted with us over the past year and a half most likely you have had the pleasure of chatting with her. She is an incredible addition to Plant Vitamins and we all have her to thank for keeping this business running as smoothly as it does! Next, we found Megan who has helped us refine our branding, create beautiful content, and overall has brightened up our office and business. She is incredibly talented in design and brings all our ideas to life so if you love seeing our posts, stories and blogs, Megan is the one who deserves the credit! Finally, our most recent team member, Zach. We may share the same name and a lot of the same passions, but Zach has skills that I can’t even dream of mastering. You will continue to see his influence grow in the business as we produce more videos and get to share so many things we have wanted to create for a long time but never had the skills to do. It brings me so much joy to go into the office and know that we are all there to continue to grow this business as we all truly enjoy the process. 

Now finally I want to thank YOU! Thank you for being here, for supporting us, for trusting us, for continuing to use our products, and overall, for just being you! We value our community so much and I am so proud of the connections and joy Plant Vitamins has created in my life and I hope yours as well! We are truly here to serve you in any way we can and right now that happens to be through houseplants but who knows what the future holds, all I know is you have helped me create a life that I once dreamed about and for that I am eternally grateful. Thank you for taking the time to read a bit of my story and if you ever need anything please reach out to me or the team and we will surely make sure to help you in any way we can! 

I am so excited for what this year holds in store for all of us and can’t wait to interact with you again soon! 

Sincerely,

Zach Regehr