Order some business cards with your name and company logo. Print a few mission statements with the logo and include your mission statement. These will be incredibly helpful when you’re starting out as you try to network and appeal to customers. Most nurseries work with a few different varieties of plants. If you’re absolutely certain that you want to focus on a specific species or style of plant, emphasize it in your statement and logo. For example, a business statement might start, “Peach Orchard Nursery is a local Nebraskan plant nursery that focuses on succulents and cactus plants. Our goal at Peach Orchard is to bring the absolutely highest-quality plants to the public using eco-friendly growing practices. ”
If you’re trying to appeal to investors or a bank for a loan, they’ll want to see an estimate of your costs. Retail stores need to pay rent or a mortgage. Calculate this cost based on averages for available commercial properties in your area. Every business needs general liability insurance. If you plan on hiring employees, you’ll need to buy insurance for your workers as well.
Business licenses always have a fee attached to them. This can range from $25-1,000 based on where you are. Make sure that you’re getting a home-business license if you’re going to operate a backyard nursery.
Botany tends to be a more scientific field, while horticulture focuses more on practical growing methods. Horticulture may be more helpful, but they’ll both be useful fields to learn more about. If you’re enrolling at a college or university, consider double-majoring in business. The business degree will provide you with a ton of useful information on how to run a business.
A high-end sprinkler system can cost quite a bit of money, but it can save you quite a bit of time and effort when it comes to watering your plants. You’ll probably need shears, sprayers, punnets, and pots. Most backyard nurseries don’t sell ceramic pots, so only purchase the materials that you need to grow the plants. Purchase your seeds from a reputable dealer and keep the receipts. Some states and countries regulate nurseries, and they may want to know where you got your seeds.
Succulents are an excellent focus if you’re in an area with a lot of younger people or college students. They’re easy to take care of and they’re relatively cheap, so they’re a good choice for a younger market. Flowers, like roses and orchids, are always a safe bet. Just check to make sure that there aren’t already a bunch of flower shops in your area. Track your growing cycles so that it’s easy to figure out when your plants are going to be ready. This will make it easier to figure out when you need to host some sales.
A sample ad might say, “Next Saturday, from 10 am to 4 pm, there will be a flower sale at Happy Hyacinth Plant Nursery!” Include your address in the posts so that people know where to go. Include photos of your plants in your adverts and posts! Showcase a few beautiful flowers or plants to show people what you’re selling. If you think your area has a lot of potential buyers, consider taking out some ads in the local newspaper or on your local radio stations.
Host your sales as often as you have enough inventory to sell. For some nursery owners, this is once a month. For other owners, this may be once a week. It all depends on how often you have plants for sale. Succulents usually cost somewhere between $10-20. Flower prices can vary wildly from species to species. Usually they fetch $5-20. Snake plants, spider plants, money trees, and jades range from $10-100 based on their size. The bigger the plant, the more expensive it usually is.
A lot of nurseries save some time and energy by giving each species of plant the same price. For example, if you’re selling a smaller succulent and a larger succulent, it may be easier to simply list all small succulents as $5 and all larger succulents as $8. Keep some change on you. You’ll need to give out change if people show up with bigger bills.
Look for shops with big windows, and good natural ventilation. If you can, try to get a shop that will let you use the roof. A roof can provide you with space to grow plants on location! Most retail shops rent their spaces. Unless it’s a large corporation, it’s rare for a business to own their building.
You’ll need soil, shears, wheelbarrows, and spades to run your off-site nursery. Set it up in a nutrient-rich yard or lot near your home to make it easy to monitor and transport them.
Retail shops rarely specialize in certain types of plants unless they’re in major cities, and there’s a lot of competition. A majority of retail nurseries grow most of their plants. Some of them grow all of them, but it can be hard to grow the variety of plants necessary to appeal to everyone. A lot of nurseries make up for this by buying the plants they’re missing and marking the prices up. You can purchase from backyard nurseries and then mark the price up to make a profit.
Buy reclaimed and upcycled furniture if you can. Some plant-buying customers care deeply about sustainability, and it’s good to be environmentally-conscious. Many nurseries grow in a different location and bring the plants they want to sell to the store every week or so.
It’s perfectly reasonable to run a nursery on your own—especially if you’ve got a smaller space that can only accommodate 5-15 customers at a time.
If business is slowing down after the opening rush, start doing some local marketing. Post ads in the local paper, and put out signs on the sidewalk in front of your store. Retail nurseries in temperate climates often shut down in the winter. Some owners sublease their space to rent it out in the off-months as a concert hall or reception space.
If you can, sign some contracts to sell to a store or vendor before you begin planting. This will take a lot of the pressure off early and will lock in the type of plant that you’re growing.
The type of soil that you use is dependent upon the plant, flower, or tree that you’re growing. Monitor the soil closely by getting it tested regularly by an environmental engineer. Consider hiring aerial seeding contractors once every 6 month to coat your field with growing nutrients and seed preservatives. For example, if you’re growing snake plants and a store expects a shipment of 20 plants once every month, plant 3 different sites of 30-35 seeds in intervals where you’ll have a new set of mature plants once every 30 days or so. Depending on what you’re growing, you’ll probably need a massive water supply. Contact your local utility company to see what the rules are regarding large water usage in your area. Cover crops and plants with awnings during dry spells if your plants are getting too much sun.
Wholesale nurseries rarely sell plants directly to the public, but you can certainly take your excess inventory to a street fair, farmer’s market, or garden show to sell it off.
