Aromatherapy is a popular form of alternative medicine and healing.  It uses the volatile plant materials known as essential oils together with other aromatic parts of a plant in order to positively affect a person.  It is quite a generic term as it applies to any of many traditions that use these essential oils and compounds for medical, emotional or spiritual benefits.  It can be difficult for someone to start an aromatherapy practice as the costs of the many essential oils can be prohibitive, especially at the beginning.  Whether a person wants to run their aromatherapy practice as a profitable business or as a non-profit co-operative type system, one thing is for certain, they are going to need to do some fundraising to get the money required.

Aromatherapy requires the practitioner to have many different materials at their disposal, because if you don’t know what a client is going to need you have to be ready for any situation that arises.  Essential oils are the number one material a practitioner will need, these are often very expensive and need to be used together with other products.  Some of these products include Absolutes, which are other oils extracted from plants using ethanol.  Phytoncides which kill microbes and Herbal distillates and Carrier oils that are typically mixed with the essential oils so that they can be used effectively.  All of these products vary in price depending on a number of issues, but the organic and wild harvested essential oils tend to be the most expensive.

The purchase of all of these products can seem like quite a challenge for an aspiring aromatherapy practitioner.  In order to raise the necessary funds you have a number of options at your disposal.  There are many alternative health centres around the world that may include an aromatherapy practice as a feature.  A lot of these are run as community co-operative organisations with no specific owner but a group of like minded individuals who share costs and responsibilities.  If it is your goal to open up a non-profit aromatherapy studio then your solution may be simple.  Communities are generally very happy to help non-profit groups who are doing something worthwhile for the wider population.  You just need to find an effective way to ask the local people in your area for help.  This can be easier said than done though and there are little things you can do to make your efforts more successful.  There are a number of great books out there that list the secret methods of running a successful fundraising campaign and include one great fundraising idea after another.

If you are starting an aromatherapy business then you will need even more money as you need to pay for staff as well as for materials.  When trying to raise funds for a future profitable business you are really looking for investors rather than donations, as people generally won’t want to help you out as much.  Banks are the obvious choice when looking to meet initial expenses, if a bank can see some potential in your business they may wish to help with a loan.  Friends and family members are often overlooked and although it may be awkward asking, they may be more than happy to give you a loan.  Some local government bodies provide loans to start up businesses as well, but this depends on your area and the amount of investment you need.  All in all, if you are prepared to look hard, there are a lot of ways to generate the funds you need for a successful aromatherapy studio.