The entrepreneurs behind a North Okanagan-Shuswap-based product are looking to kick things up through Kickstarter.

Sisters Janice Ishizaka and Cilla Watkins are the founders of The Canadian Barley Tea Company, through which they've been selling their mo'mugi barley tea (with barley sourced from Armstrong's Fieldstone Organics) . The product has earned the sisters features in numerous publications and led to a deal with the . 

For their next adventure and in celebration of their first five years in business, the sisters plan to launch a new product, mo'mugi mint. To help get it going, the Cilla and Janice are looking for backers through their recently launched

"The deep earthy smoothness of mo'mugi pairs perfectly with our amazing local mint, delivering a refreshing cool burst of minty flavour you won't believe," reads the Kickstarter page. "It will WOW you and tastes nothing like the dull, weak imported mint tea you might be used to. Join us and be part of our exciting authentic and local flavour expansion."

The Canadian Barley Tea Company operates out of Salmon Arm's Zest Commercial Food Hub, where they received marketing advice from , an administrative supervisor at Zest who also provides free consultations to the food hub's tenants.

Having used Kickstarter to launch a couple of his own products, the website for Miller was easy to recommend to Cilla and Janice. 

"If your product is already shipping nationwide and, with them, internationally, there91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s no better way to get an audience than to go to the place where the most people are sharing new and big ideas 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ“  and there91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s only so many people in Salmon Arm who are going to be excited about barley tea," said Miller. "It91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s a great product, I drink it every day. But it91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s definitely one of those things where your audience is very limited in a small community91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ¦

"We have this kind of very niche product and a lot of people don91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t know about barley tea in North America and Kickstarter gets regularly, two-to-six million viewers every week, just on their website alone."

With their Kickstarter campaign, Miller continued, Janice and Cilla can say, "'Hey, we want to launch a new product and, if you like the product and the new product, then give us a little bit of money and you'll get that product in exchange,' and it91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s a great way to sell a product."

Just as, if not more, important explained Miller, is the marketing and the brand awareness that comes with a Kickstarter campaign. 

"Even if the Kickstarter doesn91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t work, you91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™re getting potentially a million eyes per day on your product which is 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ“you couldn91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t pay for that kind of advertising," said Miller. "That91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s Super Bowl-level advertising."

Miller cautioned a lot of work has to go into a campaign, that the "amount of effort you have to put in to generate money on Kickstarter is quite high." However, he said it's also a good avenue through which big ideas can become a reality. 

"It91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s kind of what Salmon Arm believes in: Small Cities, Big Ideas," said Miller. "If  you91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™re from a small town and you91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™ve got a big idea, Kicksterter, Indiegogo, BackerKit are the way to go to get that out to an audience really big, really fast, without having to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising."