Going green is on-trend in the era of climate change, and more and more people are joining hands in green activities and campaigns. They desire to protect the environment via their daily activities. Growing plants is one of the most popular activities in the list of going-green activities. And, if you love the greenery and know how to flourish plants, opening a plant shop will be where you can pursue your dream.
In this article, eComStart will provide a complete guide on how to start a plant business. Discover now!!!
Contents
1. Pros and Cons of Starting a Plant Business
Starting a plant selling business can be both rewarding and challenging. Before making an informed decision, here are the pros and cons of starting a plant business:
1.1 Pros
- Good profit margin
In general, the profit margin range of a typical plant business is between 20% to 40%.
- Enjoyable working environment
You are passionate about greenery, and working with plants can be creative.
1.2 Cons
- Seasonal fluctuations
Plant business experiences fluctuations in demand, in which spring is the industry’s busiest season. Therefore, having a consistent sale for this business is pretty challenging.
- Pest control
We can not avoid the appearance of pests such as aphids, whiteflies, mealybugs, etc in our plants. So, you need to have a plan to prevent it step-by-step in the long term.
By taking advantage of the pros and carefully preparing to deal with the cons mentioned above, eComStart believes that it’s time for you to know thoroughly how to start a plant business.
2. How To Start Your Own Plant Business: What You Need To Know
So, what should you do with your plant business ideas? How to start a plant nursery? How do we attract customers? There are many things for you to discover.
In this part, eComStart will give you a recommended procedure for practicing how to start your own business from the very first steps.
2.1 Step 1: Build up your entrepreneurial spirit
Your first step in discovering how to start a plant business is to build up an entrepreneurial spirit. Building up your entrepreneurial mindset requires you to have such traits like being positive, accepting failure, being a life-long learner, ability to solve problems,… By having these skills and characteristics, you can build up your business and lead your team to success.
2.2 Step 2: Research your business idea
Before jumping into a business, it is vital to research your business idea. An article in Hartford states that only 79,4% of companies can survive after one year of operation. Which mean you need a proper startup strategy to succeed in the beginning.
As an entrepreneur, you should look at the local market to decide the type of business you will participate in. In general, there are three kinds of plant business that a starter can think of:
| No | Type | Business size | Who are they? |
| 1 | Retail nursery | Small/ medium business | Home gardeners |
| 2 | Wholesale nursery | Large business | Retail outletsLandscape contractorsDistributors |
| 3 | Plant nursery | Large business | Plant/ Manufacturer |
Interestingly, organic farming is an emerging trend, although organic cultivation is expensive. It is a potential niche that you should definitel consider to start in 2024.
After doing research, you could decide on the business type size. You should aim to deeply understand the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities in your chosen niche.
Additionally, discovering the research gap helps you cover the shortage of existing competitors, thus becoming unique in the market.
2.3 Step 3: Create a business plan for the plant business
A business plan is essential for a startup to deeply understand all necessary aspects: operation, finance, marketing, etc. With a business plan, you can outlines your current and future actions. It can be considered a resource to organize the direction of your business.
A thorough plan should include:
- Finance strategy:
To start a plant business, you should remember to consider financial factors. Here are some expenses that you need to consider before opening a business:
- Set up company
- Business license or/ and business permission (depends on your living state)
- Online platform
- Rental
- Electricity, Wifi connection
- Employee
- Buying plant
- Marketing
- Required tool and instrument
- …
- Marketing strategy:
You should identify your customers and focus on marketing trends to attract customers to buy products from you
- Competitor analysis:
With other businesses that provide the same products and services as your business, you should analyze their strengths and weaknesses to compete with them in the same sector.
- Sourcing and purchasing strategy
You need a sourcing plan to choose the suppliers for your business. It depends on your supplier’s criteria selection: price, quality, delivery time… Generally, companies seek reliable suppliers with quality products and suitable costs for long-term purposes.
After choosing a supplier, you need a purchasing plan to decide the quantity and type of product you will buy from them.
As listed above, these are the main strategies a start-up should consider. Besides, you also need to consider business insurance, product description, page content, renting, hiring employees and timeline.
2.4 Step 4: Launch your business
After discovering your idea, you can officially launch your business. In this step, you will need to:
- Register your business
To comply with legal requirement, you must register your business’s brand name with local authorities in your working area by asking for a license or permission.
- Get a tax number
Your company will need a federal tax ID number, which is required to pay tax to the local government.
- Create a bank account
Via your bank account, your local authorities can track your transactions.
By doing these activities, you can protect your brand name from fake brands and scams. And with an established brand name, you can move to the next step of how to start an online plant business – start marketing your venture.
2.5 Step 5: Implement marketing strategies
Whether you are a small or large company, a start-up, or a well-established company, one of the essential steps that decide the success of a plant start-up is to spend time and money on implementing marketing strategies. This step aims to build brand recognition and reputation, attract new customers to buy your products, and stand out from competitors.
Here are some marketing strategies that plant business ventures usually pay attention to:
- Creating memorable business cards and flyers
- Building a website to post blog sharing about plants, care techniques, and a sale-off campaign
- Taking photos and videos of your plants
- Providing free samples
- Participating in volunteer events
2.6 Step 6: Build your customer base.
Building a customer base is the long-term plan for any business. By having loyal customers, you can:
- Improve revenue as they will be your customers in the long term
- Introduce relatives, family, friends, etc to buy your product
How do you attract new customers and maintain good relationships with old customers? It boils down to customer retention strategies. In general, there are some ways that you can consider:
- Provide good customer service
- Understand and care about your customers
- Give rewards and discounts to loyal customers
- Communicate consistently and build trust by sending messages on vacations, holidays, etc
- Ask for feedback
These steps will help you establish long term relationship with your customers and get a sustainable source of revenue.
2.7 Step 7: Build a plan to change
With the dramatic changes in the market, businesses need to adapt to any shifts and access new trends to survive. A plant business is no exception.
Continuous improvement (Kaizen) is a Japanese business philosophy that every start-up should research. It reflects that the key to success is to adapt and improve your business model to the market.
For example, you can keep your plant business fresh by actively listen to your custmer feedback and analyze new trends from social media.
It takes time to become a strong business. But remember that your evolution to reach higher customer satisfaction will help your enterprise move forward.
3. Successful plant business examples
We have collected some successful plant business stories inspire you. Let’s take a look!
3.1 Story of Maa Basant Kuanri Krushak Sangha – commercial vegetable cultivation
In Keonjhar district, the Self Help Group, named Maa Basant Kuanri Krushak Sangha, pioneered a commercial nursery for vegetable crops. With the support of the project manager, they were trained and instructed professionally.
The group can meet the needs of their village and nearby villages. They have earned an income of around Rs 15700 per month. Until now, their revenue has improved season by season. Therefore, this group is an example of success in the region.
3.2 Story of Jojo and Bindu – sample of horticultural nursery
In 1998, Jojo attended a training program on nursery techniques of horticultural plants in Kerala. It was the turning point in his life, motivating him to start a plant nursery on his farm. The nursery started with a few plants valued at 36 cents of land around his house. The total annual income from the land valued at 36 cents is nearly Rs. 25 lakhs.
3.3 An eCommerce plant nursery of Kantor
After many disappointing conversations with his father, who usually rolled his eyes at technology, Kantor quietly posted the information related to his family’s 40-year-old plant nursery called Perfect Plants Nursery on social media in 2015.
Today, it is known as a fast-growing e-commerce plant business, recently ranked No. 39 in the Inc. Regionals Southeast in 2023. This company is located in Monticello, Florida; it sells more than 300 types of plants, such as shrubs, rosebushes, houseplants, and fruit and other trees, to consumers all over the U.S. It recorded an annual revenue of $12 million in 2021.
In summary, you can succeed with sound research and detailed strategies for understanding how to start a plant business. As the plant industry keeps growing, plant business will become a profitable field in which more start-ups join.
Take action simultaneously and start your business now with eComStart. With a professional team, we will support you to make your business idea accurate. If you need guidance of other business niches, take inspiration from our business starting guide
FAQs
