DALLAS -- Unoma Okorafor’s childhood home was known for its flowers. In Asaba, Nigeria, the garden produced bright roses and vegetables, and goats and chickens roamed around. It was tended by her mother’s green, nearly golden, hands.

Okorafor believes the garden is where she inherited her mother’s love of plants and her belief that they can supply people with a healthy life.

“The universe has given us everything that we need,” Okorafor said. “I’m trying to introduce people to the connection to plants.”

That belief is fundamental to why Okorafor started Herbal Goodness, a McKinney, Texas-based superfood company that’s grown to a seven-figure business over the last decade.

The brand selling papaya leaf tea, sea moss and a variety of herbal tinctures opened a storefront off U.S. 75 and ElDorado Parkway last year, and is working to get the proper licenses to transform the shop into a cafe, selling smoothies and teas. Online, Herbal Goodness fills more than 5,000 orders a month and multiple of their supplements are recognized as Amazon’s Choice, or a product that many other shoppers choose frequently.

Okorafor, 49, began selling on Amazon back in 2013, before the online marketplace was the giant it is today. Her brother, who worked in Silicon Valley, nagged her to list her teas and herbs on the platform. As a final form of encouragement, he fronted her the $40 subscription cost.

“That has been one of the big things that we did right,” Okorafor said. “Because as Amazon was growing, we grew with Amazon.”

By the third year of listing Herbal Goodness products on Amazon, sales had overtaken those coming directly from their website. Last year, the company’s sales grew by 70% on Amazon, Okorafor said and the brand added more than 60 new products.

“It’s opened up a whole world,” she said about listing products on Amazon.”They’ve given us a spotlight and a platform, so it’s just been amazing.”

Black-owned businesses make up 3% of U.S. firms in 2021. There were more than 160,000 Black-owned businesses, up from 124,000 in 2017, according to the latest estimates from the Annual Business Survey. The group’s gross revenue grew by 43% during the timespan, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, from an estimated $127.9 billion in 2017 to $183.3 billion in 2021.

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