Salus Natural Body Care was founded in 2007 by Elissa and Jerell Klaver. In 2012, they opened their second store right here in Northern Colorado, where they had met and attended Colorado State University.

Q: Tell me about your path to becoming an entrepreneur.

I was a program manager at IBM working long hours and spending very little time with my family. Then our second son passed away right after his birth. My wife Elissa and I took a deep look at our life and how we wanted to put our family first, and what we wanted to do. We read a lot, and in our basement covered every inch of the walls with butcher paper and wrote down our dreams, thoughts, likes, dislikes and more. The original concept for Salus evolved from months of brainstorming about what we wanted to do, and didn’t want to do with our lives. During this process I worked in the corporate world by day, and Elissa and I worked on Salus every night.

Q: What’s the meaning behind the name Salus?

Various translations from Latin have it as meaning health, prosperity, wellbeing and vitality. It is our registered trademark.

Q: You were featured in Entrepreneur magazine a few years