If you live around here, you may have heard this piece of business advice: Do you know how make a small fortune in the Florida Panhandle? Start with a large one.
Over the last decade or so, as real estate prices and the cost of living have climbed, it’s become commonplace for people who have already done well financially to move here. Or buy a second home here. But there are still people who move here for the same reason most people migrate around the world and across the country: to make a better life for themselves, raise a family, or build a business.
Michael Carey had a 25 year career in law enforcement before opening a consignment furniture store, in Birmingham Alabama. He called his store Stock & Trade, and in 2012 he established the business’s corporate headquarters in Destin.
Michael Carey, Founder and CEO of Stock & Trade Design Co, a massively successful furniture design, manufacture and interior design company with a bonus cafe business headquartered on Highway 98 in Sanata Rosa Beach
Today, Stock & Trade has an outlet in Atlanta, showrooms in Birmingham and Nashville, and at their Santa Rosa location on Highway 98 they have 60 full time employees working on administration, logistics, an allied café business, and furniture design services – from new construction to turn-key for rentals or second homes.
It’s not all that unusual to meet someone who moved here, like Michael, from somewhere in the South. It’s a lot more unusual to meet someone who moved here from Russia. Like Eve Emilianova.
Eve Emilianova, Co-Founder of Honey Med, medicated Honey based on a Russian folk formula with influences from Ayurveda and Chinese herbal medicine. A dedicated and growing customer base’s laudatory online reviews attest to Honey Med’s efficacy
Now, everybody has to come from somewhere, so it’s not always relevant – or polite – to ask where someone is from. But in Eve’s case, her background has a direct bearing on her business. Eve is the founder of Honey Med. As the name suggests, Honey Med is honey as medicine. It’s a unique formula drawn from Eve’s Russian heritage and her grandmother’s honey-based cure-all known as “folk penicillin,” combined with Eve’s affinity for Native American, Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine.
Honey Med has anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. And it has a growing number of consumers who buy the product online, locally at stores from Panama City to Destin, and in retail stores in other states including Alabama and Tennessee.
Entrepreneur of the Week
Our Entrepreneur of the Week is Rachel Simmons, Founder and CEO of Yoga Balm,an all-natural anti-inflammatory cream that you apply to your skin for treating the muscle aches and pains that come with exercise, or pain that comes with age, like arthritis pain.
Rachel Simmons, Founder of Yoga Balm, an anti-inflamatory cream for treating muscle and joint aches and pains. Headquarted in Navarre, Yoga Balm has a devoted following across the country, is available online and at over 3,000 locations including healthcare clinics, spas, and yoga studios
Rachel started making Yoga Balm at her home in Navarre in 2004. Today, Yoga Balm has a devoted following across the country. Rachel has 6,000 direct to consumer clients. And 3,000 retail outlets across the country sell Yoga Balm – mostly health spas and yoga studios.
There’s a well-known saying in the world of working out: no pain no gain. And while it’s true that sometimes you have to push yourself a little beyond your limit, the goal for most of us is to live a life that’s primarily about the first half of the saying: no pain.
Eve and Rachel are focused on simple, direct, natural cures for decreasing pain and discomfort, and for Michael’s contribution, there’s no doubt that the peace that comes from comfortable surroundings is itself a form of beneficial meditation. These three local businesspeople are working every day to make life here on the Emerald Coast peaceful, happy, and pain free.
Rachel Simmons, Eve Emilianova, Michael Carey, Out to Lunch at Farm & Fire
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Farm & Fire restaurant on Highway 331, overlooking Choctawhatchee Bay. Farm & Fire is one of Chef Jim Shirley’s family of fine restaurants. It’s open from 4pm, 6 days a week, and from 11am for brunch on Sundays.
Photos by Brandan Babineaux.