Cactus-Seeds.com (Arizona Cactus Garden)

The End of Arizona Cactus Garden

The end of Arizona Cactus Garden.  (Uploaded August 2003)

Yes, this 19 years old business is now for sale. I started selling cactus seeds in 1990/91. In 6 years I had the largest cactus seeds list in Australia. In 2001, with almost 3700 cactus species on my list, I had the biggest cactus seeds list in the world, though others were offering a much larger selection of succulent seeds. Since 2004 my lists have the biggest selection of cactus AND succulents seeds, hovering at about 7,000 names. Last season I had a staggering 8,300 items, while the second largest list has around 6,000 species. The business is growing every year and it could be MUCH bigger with a bit of extra marketing effort. This business is perfect for a retired person or for somebody with some physical disabilities. In the 19 years I had a dispute with just two of my customers. The business can be run from your kitchen table, or a corner in your lounge room. Basic computer and Internet skills are necessary. My accountant told me that I could sell it for the retail value of the stock, but I won’t be expecting that much - the price is negotiable. Even the form of payment is open to negotiation - barter is possible for other assets, such as car, boat, caravan, mobile home, land, house, etc. I was planning to continue with this business in my retirement, but life has many unexpected turns and twists.

Last season I suffered two serious setbacks - one in business life and one in private life. Also, there were two bad mishaps with computer files. Immediately after all those events I felt utterly disheartened and crushed. But then I remembered Robert Ringer’s closing words in one of his newsletters: The greatest opportunities lie in the eye of the storm - at the very centre of our worst problems. Use your will to detach yourself from your impossible situation and instead spend your time cultivating the opportunities it has brought into your life - keeping in mind that such opportunities may be heavily camouflaged. On 7th of August 2008 the Therapeutic Goods Administration raided my house, because I was dealing with some health foods without proper permits and documents. They confiscated $70,000 worth of products and equipment and I was ordered not to trade with the health foods until they come back to me with a decision about me. They said that the decision would be made within one week. Now, 11 months later I am still waiting for their decision. With the closure of the health food business I lost an average $800/week income. Luckily, cactus seeds sales were the best ever and the income kept me afloat. I was also getting more work from my old plastering customers. It felt like God was looking after me. I had many set backs in my life, and I always said - I might be down, but I am not out. I got up, brushed off the dust and kept going.

Then on 18th of October, while I was bush walking in Grampians with my children, my house was damaged by fire. A faulty old computer monitor was left on standby, got overheated and caused the fire. Fortunately by that time the seeds sales were already slowing down and I was getting ready to go on an overseas holiday, so I took the chest of drawers with the seeds and all the other items needed to run the business to my ex-wife who used to process lots of orders when we were married. Thus only a relatively small quantity of seeds was destroyed in the fire - they were the ones that I had greater quantities then I needed in my “shop” drawers. And she had one of my old computers that had just about all my work files on it. Thus my seeds business was almost untouched by the house fire.

There was an awful lot of arguing with the insurance company about the pay out for the contents of the house and the settlement was dragging on until the first week of May. It was a nightmare, but in the end the pay out was much better then I was expecting. (If you will ever have to deal with an insurance company after a house fire, watch out for the cleaning company. The bill for their work swallowed 40% of my contents insurance payout.) After the final settlement I went to Bali for 31 days. I was in a dire need of a holiday. But there was another thing on my mind as well. I was planning to teach blind people in Bali the basics of Ah Shi massage, which would give them better life. I think I was in the right place at the right time. Things progressed better then I was expecting and I feel I’ve done a good job there in Bali. See www.riverhouse.com.au Ah Shi massage page for more details.

Next year in October I will reach my retirement age and I will move overseas - most likely to Bali. There are some 30,000 blind people in Bali (out of about 50 million worldwide), so I will have no shortage of students. I will never charge any blind persons for teaching them my skills - that will be my “Thank you” to God for giving me so many gifts in my life. Living in Bali is inexpensive. My pension will be more then enough to take care of the living expenses there and the work with the blind is spiritually so incredibly rewarding - money isn’t everything. If I will find a buyer for Arizona Cactus Garden, the money will be spent on establishing a massage spa in Bali where only blind people will do the massages.

What I already did in Bali and what I intend to do there in future can be done anywhere. Once the massage spa in Bali is going smoothly, I intend to repeat the whole thing in other parts of Indonesia, or any 3rd world country. I feel confident it will be successful. I plan to train other seeing people in Ah Shi massage and hopefully some of them will be interested in helping the blind to have a better life. If you are interested to learn more about it go to www.riverhouse.com.au. If you’d like to experience the massage, call me for an appointment and you can have a choice of having it done either by me or by my daughter, who is also a fully qualified myotherapist. We learnt the Ah Shi massage together.

I feel I can do much more good in the world teaching blind how to do Ah Shi massage then selling cactus seeds. God willing, there will be another cactus enthusiast interested in taking over the seeds business.

If, in the previous years, you read the web pages “The End of Arizona Cactus Garden” and “Saving Hoodia gordonii”, then you know that I had plans to help the less fortunate. This time it will actually happen.