Selling houseplants

[Aintisntaword]

Just wondering what people think of the following idea for my new business/side hustle while I'm on maternity leave.

I was thinking of selling houseplants, propagated and grown from my own rather large supply! And sold with nice ceramic pots that I can buy wholesale.

There are a few shops and fancy market stalls near me selling similar. Mine would be cheaper and just as nice. I would advertise on Instagram and offer free local delivery which I think would be popular.

Is there anything I haven't thought of?
Thanks!

Sounds good in principle, but it may be worth consider why you think you're able to sell them cheaper than the other sellers around you. They're probably also buying pots wholesale and will likely have similar overheads to you. Houseplants will always sell, though, and I'm sure you have a better idea of your market than I do!

The first place to start would be to work out what the likely market for houseplants is, in the area where you can provide local delivery.

Work out the market for house plants in a year - how many people might buy a houseplant each year.

Then consider your competition. Who else will supply houseplants in that area, why would they buy from you rather than the competing. Will you do plants as presents or just for households? Adjust the total sales by how many of those you expect to win.

This gives you your annual sales.

Now work out your profit (Subtract the costs from the price you expect to charge) per unit and and multiply by your estimated number of sales to get your projected profit over a year

Note You may need to charge differently for different plant but I'm sure you get the idea. And allow for some plants which do not thrive

Don't forget to factor in your own time in the costs because that is time you could otherwise do something else.

That is a high level business case.

How does it stack up as a business or maybe as a hobby which covers your costs ? Good luck

How many plants and how long do they take to grow? Are you selling very young plants or more mature and how much would someone pay? Do you have a greenhouse? A quick google and an online shop is
selling houseplants from £10-30 with a pot extra, free delivery over £50. But your local B&Q or even Tesco sell houseplants and you won't beat them on price - not if you are being realistic about your expenses. You're going to have a USP.
How long is your maternity leave? Is it just to do over those months (a year)? Frankly it might take a year to get any sales at all other than friends and family.
I think many people think a side hustle is something they can do a few hours a week, when to make any money at all it takes hours every day - the making/growing, marketing, sourcing the basics, then eventually delivering - and if keeping it local that's quite a small market base.
If you are just looking to make pocket change ok, if you want to make it something with potential you have to do a lot of research to figure out your market and demand as @FinallyHere says.

If you have a monstera dubia, I’m in!

And Etsy may be your friend here.

Propagated cuttings from rare plants like variegated monstera, pink princess or wizard philodendron etc go for big money but Etsy seems flooded with wet sticks from Sri Lanka that seem to be fake.

I was looking for a monster albo recently and wouldn’t find a legit cutting online so ended up paying £140 for a small pant from a nursery.

I think if you had rate plants and could ship across the UK, you’d do well online.

I am a plant enthusiast. I think there’s a market for this.

If you are selling either very cheaply or very rare plants. I think there’s a market. But rare plants, obviously cost a lot for outlay. Unless you already have rare plants.

Most people looking for house plants will buy as an impulse at a garden centre. Enthusiasts will go online for rarer options. Common house plants can be bought anywhere, Even in b&q you can find a good range of house plants. Fairly cheap. Even cheaper if they look a bit sad and then you bring them back.

My aloe cost me £4 and it had 6 babies in it. A bit of care and it came back. That was from b&q and bought because it looked sad and I felt sorry for it.

Most people wanting your props will expect them in nursery pots. Not fancy ones.

Think about postage and packaging. Unless you live in an area with a huge houseplant community, just delivering local won’t provide a steady income.

Are you professionally experienced? If you do have a large houseplant community and have alot of experience or professional experienced, then maybe offer repotting and general house plant care?

I love my houseplants and actually follow a woman on Instagram who has this as a business, but, she's more expensive then everywhere. Which I understand but she can't compete with chain stores. B&Q/Wilkos are reasonable prices for plants, even Lidl I bought a huge monstera for £12. My local one stop even has mini succulents for £2.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and advice. I will definitely take them all on board. Especially looking into rare plants, I hadn't thought of that. I'm absolutely not an expert but I can keep most things alive!

It's more of a hobby for now, but I already have maybe 20 plants I could sell. It certainly wouldn't be large amounts. I have another 6 months left of maternity leave before returning to work.

I see what people are saying about cheap plants in shops. I was just thinking about the 'Artisan' market near me where my friend bought an Aloe Vera for £25 and a fairly average pot for £20 on top! But I suppose they have a bit of a captive audience there. I wonder if I'm better off just selling on Facebook Marketplace rather than bothering with Instagram.

I went to B&Q this week and2/3 of their outdoors plants looked dried and dead. I thought it was SUCH a shame to let these plants go without water, probably because it doesn't matter financially if they lose them. I'm not a plant buff but it looked quite disturbing 😥. To think that a business that has probably even some kind of green agenda in its policy lets their own plants die of thirst.

All my plants, indoor and outdoor come the sad section.

I know what you mean. It is very sad. I am no experts but I wonder if they would claim they decided not to water due to low levels in some areas and/or that not watering was part of a green agenda?

I did this during the pandemic, on top of my full time job (I've always been wfh). I sold up before my second child was born. Paid off my student loans and bolstered savings though.

The market is kind of dead atm for rare plants due to tissue culturing. Plants I was selling a fresh cutting of for £250, you can now buy established plants for £50 or so at regular online plant shops.

If you're considering shipping - you can't ship during heatwaves (even 24 hour post), you can't ship with less than 24 hour shipping when winter starts, even with heat packs. And the packaging times...

Don't forget bugs. Thrips are rife in the UK in summer - it's when, not if, you get an outbreak. Ditto every single delivery. You'll destroy your reputation if you ship plants with bugs, the online community is immense and opinionated... You can no longer import easily from the EU.

If you have a local captive audience then that sounds better. But this kind of endeavour (I mainly propagated too) is ridiculously time consuming, especially with a new baby.

Feel free to pm :)

i saw someone at Farmers market doing this but her usp wasnt so much the plants but the pots they were in. She was picking up plant pots at charity shops and local social media.