Sell Plants From Home - A Craft Business Idea (Picture Post)

Like To Grow Plants?

Whether you grow plants as a hobby or it’s something you do to de-stress, there is one more benefit to your pastime. Plant growing is a fulfilling craft that can make you an income. Even a full-time one. There are many small businesses that are doing just this.

And don’t worry if you love plants but worry about your unpredictable green thumb. You do not have to grow your own plants in order to start and run a successful plant selling business.
(We will talk about that later in the post as well.)

Most small businesses start with sales to family and friends.

That is how many people discover that what they are doing for fun is actually something that others want. And will be ready to pay for.

Use eco-friendly materials to grow your plants and to package them for selling. There are many ways to use ‘green’ plant starters that do not have to be discarded during re-potting. Even more, these natural plant starters also act as nutrition support for the growing young plant.

Potting is a very big part of selling plants, especially the small ones meant for indoor use like on window sills and table tops.

The succulents come in a very large variety. they are easy to grow and what’s more is that they are very popular plants to sell. people love the no-frills, low maintenance that these plants come with.

Word By Mouth Publicity.

Do not discount the power of this simple medium. I know many people who have built a successful business only with the aid of a good word from one customer to their family and friends. They have never used formal marketing or spent money on advertisement. In fact this model works very well when selling locally from a small home based business.

Give The Pots A Great Deal Of Attention.

Spend a good amount of research into figuring out your resource for getting good quality, and different kinds of pots for your plants. You know what would be great? If you could find a local potter and work together. Not only will you be giving business to another crafter but can create original pots, just the kind you want. You will add a special touch to your plant brand, raise the perceived value and get higher returns for your plant selling business.

It’s best to plan out what you are going to sell a little bit in advance, specially if you are also growing your own plans. There can be an immense variety in a single species of a plant. This approach helps if you are selling Online as well as in accounting for seasonal trends.

Flowers are wonderfully popular with mostly all. But they need lots of sunlight to cultivate. Seasonal flowers are best sellers every year since people have to replant. So try and add these to your plant inventory.

Try and develop some marketing spin on your sales. After all, plants are plants and the ones you sell might be just a tad bit more expensive and the ones a person can get in the local market. So what is it that makes buying from you different? This is known as branding. You somehow enhance the buying experience of a person through various things like using specific materials, beautiful packaging, promise of quality, benefits as well as some story or message around your product.

Get Online.

Do not ignore this aspect of your business. Find a way and a product that you can sell online. It doesn’t matter how innocuous that item might seen. The power of getting online lies in the extended reach. Even if you think the demand is limited, when you are capable of supplying to the entire country, that small figure changes radically. In case of a plant business, if you think selling and shipping plants online will be cumbersome, sell seeds. Seeds of all kinds of plants from flowers to fruits & vegetables.

Here is a shop on Etsy selling flower seeds. Have a look. They have over 200k reviews and counting. https://www.etsy.com/listing/957523899/. This speaks of the volume figures that I spoke about just now.

The way you pot your plants is a very big part of creating a brand image around your product. This is specially true for small indoor plants that people buy to enhance the living space. A few ways to stand out with the plants you sell is to find interesting species, create plant combinations and to beautify the whole natural affair even more by selling the plants in great looking pots. There can be so many designs to pots catering to so many themes.

If you do something that you love, then you do not have to work a single day in your life. Thats how this very popular quote goes. If you love gardening and growing plants, it is a great calling to try and develop this hobby into a business model as well.

Start small. Startup friendly. Thats a major attraction of a home based plant business. You can start at any level whatsoever, with whatever little you are already doing. The only thing is that you have to figure out how to make your first sales. Usually with informal businesses from home, this starts with friends and family and their extended circuit of acquaintances. I know several craters who still run their home based craft businesses on word of mouth publicity alone.

Social Media Is Your Friend.

One of the earliest ways to reach a multitude of people without spending too. much on advertising is to leverage the power of social media. It’s great to spread the word around your family and friends. You can even start by not posting sales pitches at all.

Post posting pictures and updates of the stuff you are doing, the new plants you grow, the new pots you get, the care you take of the plants, the kinds of flowers you grow. In case you are not growing yourself, start buying and posting pictures. Or take permission to take pictures from whatever your plant source is.

You are not limited to selling just plants.

When it comes to running a plant business, you are not limited to selling plants alone. first of all you can sell all kinds of plants. Not just seasonal or flowering ones but also veggies and fruit plants. And then it becomes a simple matter to offer other supplementary products that growers will want to buy from you, starting with seeds. Seeds are extremely convenient to sell online. The shipping usually involves sending out a thick envelope.

Sell All Plants & Gardening Related Stuff.

The other periphery businesses that make natural sense to get into are plant food and equipment. If someone buys a plant from you then the odds are very high that they will also buy some ‘care’ material from you as well. This could be plant food supplements or tools. The great things about selling this is that you will make recurring customers.

You have to consider selling online. It makes total sense to extend your reach far and beyond EVEN if you are selling very few things. Increased exposure and demand will encourage and even force you to grow.

Selling online means you decide how you are going to do it. It could be your Facebook or Instagram page to begin with.
Social media is your friend. So is word by mouth publicity.

Grow and sell plants for small fruits like lime tree. Many people are not aware of this but you can actually grow fruit trees in big pots. The bigger the better.
Many fruit trees like guava, lime, pomegranate and more with actually give very edible and tasty fruit harvest.

How to start selling on 3rd party marketplaces like Etsy.

Check out the Selling on Etsy section on the blog for learning the best practises on selling there. In a nutshell, these places are a great place to start selling online and getting some learning under your belt about selling online. You will get valuable feedback about what is popular as well as how well equipped you are to handle the online business model.

But definitely do figure out a few things first. Plan the inventory. Have a good supply whether it’s your own cultivation or you are sourcing it. Know perfectly how are you are going to package what you sell and how you are going to ship it. There are people selling things on 3rd party marketplaces as well. Etsy, too, has people selling seeds and equipment.

Give special attention to promoting indoor plants. You can sell for plants for premium prices in this segment because it comes under the indoor landscaping and space designing category. People who buy large indoor plants are mostly looking to create a particular living space. In fact you can learn more about indoor landscaping yourself and create plant product ideas yourself.

Indoor plants are very appealing to buyers. There are so many great ways to market in this segment because of all the natural benefits that plants have for us.

How to generate your first sales online.

Here’s the thing. Whichever marketplace you list your plants or seeds on, be it your own online shop that you use creating a service like Shopify, which is great by the way, you will have to take measures to ensure that you get interested buyers on it. Here is what I recommend.

As I said earlier, the first sales for any home business mostly starts with family and friends. So even if you are selling locally to the people you know, convince them to buy it from your online listing. Direct as many people as you can to your online listing. That will give it traction and with some sales under your belt it will start showing up better in the search results of that platform, such as Etsy.

Sell food plans and encourage people to grow their own natural food at home. Learn more about growing food in small spaces and educate your buyers about it. In fact a guide to growing home veggies and fruits can be a supplementary product you sell.

Grow seasonal flowers if you have enough outdoor space. Others sell the seeds.

Never run out of variety.

You should realise that one of the great things about the business of selling plants is that, with a little creativity, you are never going to run out of new things to sell. Is there any limit to the number of plants species out there? Then what about the combinations you can create with different combinations & presentations?

This is something important for any business. Your line of products never gets stale and customers keep coming back for more.

**Sell Other Gear and Tools As Well**
Work with the right grading equipment for protection as well as efficiency. And don’t just use it. You can also sell gardening gear, tools and stuff that people are likely to buy if they do a bit of planting. Just like you. -:) As you business expands and you get more confident and streamlined with sourcing things, add to your inventory. Before you know it, you might have a budding and growing gardening business on your hands!

**Never Run Out Of Varieties and Options**
Succulents again. Because they just are a high selling all year plant. It’s amazing how many varieties you can get in just this one specie of plant. In fact that is one the great things about the plant selling business. If you are resourceful, you are never going to run out of product variety and will alway have something new to offer to your customers. That’s just an amazing things for an online website. People will love to keep coming back to discover new things you keep adding.

Get your branding in order

At the very outset get your brand image in order. This will allow you to stand out from the completion and also to compete online.

In order to sell regular plants different, use your creativity to make different combinations and arrangement. Plants can really compliment each other beautifully. Much like how they do in the wilderness. Just make sure that the plants you combine need the same type of conditions to grow, such as water and light.

An example of a plant arrangement of small colorful succulents in a small pot.

You do not have to grow your own plants to sell. Connect to the local growers and plant nurseries. Most towns and cities have them. Including plant markets.

Do post your comments and queries below. We love hearing from you. All the best.

Sell Plants From Home – A Craft Business Idea (Picture Post)