Feel Good Norfolk founder Sarah Grove believes the county should be the Wellness Capital of the UK

Feel Good Norfolk aims to improve the health of people in Norfolk by connecting them with wellbeing businesses.

Norwich-based Sarah already had a decade as a part-time wellness practitioner under her belt when she took the plunge and went full time in 2019.

A fertility and maternity trained reflexologist, specialising in maternal health, Sarah felt confident in her day-to-day job but there was a problem.

“I was very aware of needing to connect with other wellbeing practitioners to find out what other services and products were available to my clients,” explains Sarah.

“There wasn’t a resource in Norfolk where people could easily find us. There are individual resources such as governing bodies and associations where you can be added to their website.

"For example, if someone’s specifically looking for reflexology, they could go to the AOR website, search Norwich and find me.”

The challenge for Sarah was that there was nowhere that brought together all the wellness practitioners in the county – from physios, yoga and pilates instructors, to hypnotherapy, herbs and crystals.

She also wasn’t sure where to turn when it came to marketing, or taking care of her accounts.

This realisation was the inspiration for Sarah to create Feel Good Norfolk a not-for-profit designed with the dual aim of providing free and reliable resources for the people of Norfolk to improve their health. 

And, an incubator-style programme to give Norfolk wellness professionals the boost they need to make running their business sustainable and enjoyable.

Incubator programmes are designed to provide small independent businesses with the support and resources that they might find difficult to access on their own.

This often includes advice on accessing funding, mentoring, and expert guidance to help businesses grow.

Steering away from conventional business incubators, which often demand equity shares, Feel Good Norfolk offers a Business Nurturing Programme and Membership at an affordable £25 per month.

Any profits are funnelled back into community projects as part of Feel Good Norfolk’s wider mission to make wellbeing more accessible and affordable. 

The Feel Good Norfolk programme offers Norfolk wellness businesses access to a panel of experts who deliver tailored monthly workshops on anything from marketing and public relations, to accountancy, business strategy, social media, and design.

More importantly it offers a community of like-minded individuals who can share expertise and support one another.

“In a workshop I attended, led by Tad Hargrave from Marketing for Hippies, I learnt that we need to make it easy for people to find us, and also make it easy for those that love us to promote us.

"Because that is so much more effective, comfortable and encouraging than us promoting ourselves. That's what I am working to create - a space where people can easily find the wellbeing businesses of Norfolk, and to build a community where we start to make connections and conversations,” said Sarah. 

With more than 50 members, and a panel of eight local business experts, Feel Good Norfolk is going from strength to strength with a big focus on less competition and more collaboration.

The next step is to launch a public directory to help people in Norfolk access all kinds of wellbeing products and services for their physical, mental and emotional health.

“We have such a thriving wellness community in Norfolk and it’s something we should be shouting about” says Sarah.

“When you combine the wonderful range of wellness businesses available to both residents and visitors, with our beautiful countryside and coastline, we want people to think of Norfolk as the wellness capital of the UK.”

The Feel Good Norfolk Directory launches later this month.

Website: feelgoodnorfolk.co.uk.