How to make money on flowers - where to start and several implementation options

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How to make money growing indoor plants and selling them online? A selection of unusual business ideas and trending concepts in the field of home floriculture.

For home gardening, you almost certainly already have everything basic: some space, water, light. But you will still need a small capital, which is necessary, at a minimum, to purchase seeds, children and soil with fertilizers. It will also take time and, most importantly, patience. There is practically no quick money here.

There are also more global disadvantages to growing and selling flowers. One of the main ones is that indoor flowers are not an essential commodity. Therefore, when people’s incomes fall, they postpone the purchase until better times and, in the best case, place your page or ad on Avito in their “favorites”. But, on the other hand, right now, with the development of social networks and the emergence of many channels for selling products available to the average person, is perhaps the best time to try to launch your project.

Business on Japanese kokedama

Kokedama is a Japanese way of growing flowers without pots, a type of bonsai art. This name translates as “moss-covered globe.” According to the simplest scheme, the earthen ball under the plant is wrapped in moss or other moisture-absorbing material (including artificial). For example, kokedama with coconut fiber look very beautiful. For kokedama, unpretentious indoor herbaceous plants such as dracaena, fittonia, nephrolepis, ivy or spathiphyllum are suitable.

Due to the fact that such balls are usually hung from walls or ceilings, the result is a very unusual and environmentally friendly decorative element. And besides, it allows you to refuse plastic pots. Caring for a kokedama is not entirely ordinary. For example, when watering, it is better to use the immersion method so that the mound is saturated with water within 20-30 minutes. You can make kokedama either yourself or by purchasing a blank on the Internet. Since few people in Russia have heard about kokedama, the markup on plants can be high.

Dependence on holidays.

“Golden” days for flower gardeners are generally accepted holidays, such as February 14 (Valentine's Day) and March 8 (International Women's Day).
If the business is not built competently, then the flower shop survives solely on such celebrations and makes about 10% of its annual turnover on such days. This is especially felt in a small town with the presence of a stronger competitor store. The inseparability of flowers from holiday traditions is a big plus in favor of the flower business. Thus, a family can save on a new backpack for a child to go to school, but will not send it to the teacher on the first of September without flowers, and a bride can rent a wedding dress instead of buying, but will never refuse a wedding bouquet.

You should also not forget that the presence of a rush during the holidays also has several pitfalls: prices at wholesale bases increase in advance, deliveries of goods may be disrupted, and poor work of sellers and couriers distributing your goods can lead to dissatisfaction, negative reviews and subsequent customer outflow. Therefore, business owners should be especially on alert and keep everything under strict control, and novice businessmen should open from scratch not before the holiday itself, but a little in advance in order to establish a work pattern.

Sale of compositions with tillandsias

Atmospheric tillandsias are exotic plants that do not require soil to take root, absorbing everything they need from the air. In this regard, amazingly beautiful compositions are created with tillandsias on stones, wooden stands and driftwood. Such compositions are sometimes made hanging or placed in florariums - the result is a rather unusual decorative element that will not leave anyone indifferent.

For tillandsias, one of the most important factors is the level of air humidity, which can be 60-65% or more. After flowering, the children are attached to driftwood, branches, pieces of wood or felt, placed on a pad of moss or coconut fibers and secured with wire or an elastic band. Naturally, the material should not be processed in any way, for example, with varnish or paint, and the presence of bark on the wood is desirable.

Naturally, the more unique a composition with tillandsia looks, the more expensive it can be sold. You can complement your work with unusual stones, shells and shells, branches, a wooden frame, and so on.

What equipment is needed to grow flowers?

The business of growing flower seedlings always starts with a greenhouse. You can buy it ready-made or make it yourself from metal profiles and polycarbonate sheets.

You will also need:

• Heaters.

  A good option is infrared emitters.

• Lighting.

  Almost all flowers need a sufficient level of illumination. It is better to use halogen and fluorescent fluorescent lamps.

  Read also:  150+ photos of Zamioculcas in the interior (how to grow and care for the plant)
• Irrigation.

  An automated drip irrigation system will greatly simplify your life.

• Ventilation.

  Here you can do without expensive equipment; in most cases, ordinary windows for ventilation will be enough.

A set of gardening tools for a beginner should include a shovel, flowerpots and boxes, and watering cans. Some crops require special installations to saturate the air with carbon dioxide.

Levitating pots and flowers

One of the popular and profitable niches today is levitating pots with flowers and indoor plants. Such pots actually float a few centimeters above a special magnetic platform and at the same time slowly rotate. Such gadgets work from the network, and there are no difficulties in “launching” them. On sites like “Aliexpress”, at the time of writing, such levitating pots are sold at retail for 4.5-5 thousand rubles, and they are sold wholesale for 1.8-2.5 thousand rubles.

As an option for making money, you can limit yourself to resale, but if you are growing small plants, for example, succulents, you can try selling them immediately in such levitating flower pots, offering them as a new exclusive product, for example, “levitating succulents.”

Types of flower trade

• An ordinary tent with flowers - the approximate budget for opening is 50,000 rubles.
• From a car - budget from 10,000 rubles, if you own a car
• From the tray (seller and boxes of flowers) - budget from 5,000 rubles.
• Delivery to offices (walking around offices and offering flowers to employees) - budget from 5,000 rubles.
• Flowers in traffic jams (can be delivered by bicycle or scooter) - budget from 5,000 rubles.
• Some entrepreneurs, who “ate the dog” on the flowers for the holidays, put up 5–10 tents in used places and earn hundreds of thousands of rubles “net” in just a couple of days.

Products made from stabilized moss

One of the biggest trends in interior design is the use of stabilized moss. With it, so-called phytowalls and panels are created to order, living paintings and tabletop design compositions are made, and used to make watches and three-dimensional letters. For the client, stabilized or sleepy moss is convenient because it does not require watering and maintenance, and for the entrepreneur, it is possible to grow it with your own hands, because recipes for the composition of the mixture for growing are easy to find on the Internet.

As long as stabilized moss is treated as an amazing novelty and the “wow” effect is triggered, a high markup can be made for products made from it. It looks natural, feels soft and elastic to the touch, and in addition can have different colors, which expands the boundaries of creativity. Cladonia deer (that is the name of the moss used), in addition to natural green and gray shades, can be decorated with natural dyes and have pink, blue, orange and purple colors.

Stabilized moss can retain its appearance and aroma for 5 to 15 years. Deer Cladonia takes all its moisture from the air. Optimal humidity conditions are 40-60%. You can start a business using stabilized moss with simple paintings and small compositions, and over time move on to more complex and large-scale projects and wall graffiti and panels. What’s especially nice about this business is that even when competitors appear, you can always find your own trick.

How to open an online flower shop

When considering a flower shop as a business, it is worth considering the option of opening an outlet on the Internet. To create a full-fledged online salon, you will need to involve developers or do everything yourself using a website builder.

The online store is filled with texts, designed, product descriptions and information regarding delivery and payment methods are added. Further promotion is carried out by:

• compiling a semantic core (a list of queries by which potential buyers search for a site), creating additional pages and optimizing them;
• setting up targeted/contextual advertising that attracts customers through SMM;
• informing about the organization on map services;
• working with web analytics.

Cross-promotion is a great way to get your name out there. In this case, joint advertising will be required with bloggers who have a similar target audience. You can agree on cooperation with photographers, creating bouquets for them for photo shoots. They will, in turn, post pictures in their portfolio and provide the store’s contact information. Professionally shot photos can be added to the website, which is another advantage of profitable cooperation.

An equally effective way to express yourself would be to maintain social networks, attend exhibitions and seminars. By attending specialized events, you can meet representatives of various organizations and find clients.

Sale of carnivorous plants

An interesting direction for home gardening is growing carnivorous plants. Among the most popular predators are sundew, Venus flytrap, nepenthes, butterwort, and sarracenia. Each of these plants has its own characteristics and hunting methods. For example, the Venus flytrap uses a trap formed from the edges of leaves and waits for prey with the valves slightly open. As soon as an insect crawls inside and touches the sensitive hairs, the “cage” will immediately slam shut and the digestion process will begin, which can take several days, a week or even more. In Nepenthes, traps resemble jugs that attract insects by smell. But once inside, the victim can no longer get out.

Basically, carnivorous plants require high air humidity (it is better to grow them in florariums), regular watering and diffused light, without a lot of direct sunlight and shade. In indoor conditions it is difficult to do without additional artificial lighting. With it, predators will grow better, and seeds will germinate faster. The choice of lamps and lighting largely depends on the growing region and the amount of natural light. On average, if there is almost no natural light, they need to be illuminated for about 12 hours, in summer - about 3-6 hours. Growing carnivorous plants, as in many other cases, is good to do in parallel with blogging about plant growing, which increases the credibility of the seller. You can sell carnivorous plants through sites such as Avito, Yula and Yandex Ads and using social networks Instagram and Vkontakte.

Comments regarding online flower wholesalers

When opening your own flower business, you need to pay attention to finding suppliers. After all, your success will directly depend on the profitability of supplies, reliability and honesty of your partners.

There are a lot of companies on the market that are engaged in wholesale flower sales. Large and wholesale suppliers offer flowers mainly from Holland, Ecuador, and Colombia. There are also many local producers.

Based on the comments and reviews of existing entrepreneurs, we can highlight the following features of the quality of flowers purchased from suppliers.

Flowers from local producers are not inferior in price to imported ones, but they do not last long. Their quality is worse, many flowers are rejected and thrown away. But in its season, local goods still find their buyers, since such flowers look more alive, natural, and even differ from imported ones in smell.

The highest quality and most beautiful flowers are grown in Holland. They are also the most expensive. All kinds of “exotics” are brought from Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya and Israel.

There will not be any particular problems with finding flower suppliers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities of Russia. Delivery will be carried out around the clock to any point in the city, upon request. And it’s up to you to choose whether this supplier is suitable or should be changed.

If you live in a small town, then you will have to arrange flower delivery yourself from the nearest large city. You can hire transport and divide the costs between several flower shop owners.

Flower shops generate considerable income from the sale of indoor flowers in pots, as well as chrysanthemums, asters, tulips and other flowers. Therefore, relationships with suppliers must be established and reliable. After all, the profitability and profitability of your business depends on it.

The largest flower exchange is Flora Holland (Netherlands), it includes more than 5,000 manufacturing companies. Goods on the exchange are sold through auction centers; most large flower companies make transactions at these auctions and transport flowers around the world for further sale.

To participate in the auction, you must go through the accreditation procedure and provide conditions for sending flowers. For an entrepreneur selling goods to the final buyer, it is more expedient to make purchases through intermediaries - already accredited companies, paying them the appropriate percentage.

Rare plant cuttings

For those gardeners who have a large collection of plants at home, especially rare ones, it would be a sin not to sell rooted cuttings. For example, on ad sites you can sometimes find cuttings of rare species of philodendrons costing more than 100 thousand rubles! Of course, the sale of such options seems like a happy occasion, but there are a lot of mid-price plants, and some manage to make money on the most ordinary house flowers like tradescantia. Since Tradescantia takes root well and quickly produces new shoots, even by regularly selling cups with cuttings for 100 rubles, you can earn something.

Pitfalls of the flower business

1. The right choice of colors. Depending on the holiday, some flowers become popular, while others, on the contrary, are bought much less often. On Valentine's Day, roses and chrysanthemums are best, on Easter, carnations and tulips, on May 9 - tulips, on March 8, tulips, mimosas, roses (a little worse due to the high price).
2. Storing flowers. Roses, tulips, mimosas, etc., are known to be very capricious plants. If the temperature deviates from the norm, the flower quickly withers and loses its presentation. For this reason, you shouldn't buy flowers in advance if you don't have storage space. You might just be throwing money away. Most street vendors buy flowers on the morning of the sale in order to have time to sell the flowers while they are fresh.

Growing Succulents

Succulents are a good option for a small home-based business. Succulents are unpretentious, do not take up much space, and can easily do without water for a whole month, making them convenient to deliver by mail over long distances. You can start growing succulents at home by equipping a corner of the house or room as a greenhouse, and in the future, equipping a greenhouse.

Despite all the advantages, succulents grow for quite a long time, and for small sizes, even visually, the buyer is not willing to pay dearly. Therefore, the more teenage succulents you have, the better, and flower arrangements can help sell them at a higher price. You can sell through Instagram, filling your account with interesting content on the topic and using paid promotion methods offered by this social network. Succulents, like most indoor plants, sell best in the spring and fall; sales decline is observed in the summer during the holiday period.

Do I need a permit to sell flowers?

The most common question asked by novice flower traders is what trade permits are needed? According to the law, only a person or organization registered with the tax service can sell flowers. The only exceptions are cases when flowers are sold from personal plots, that is, grown personally by the flower seller. But, as you understand, this option is not suitable for us. In this case, the question arises: is it even worth registering an individual entrepreneur for just one day? Even if opening an individual entrepreneur costs only 800 rubles. state fees, but no one needs the extra hassle with paperwork. Despite the fact that then you will have to go and close the business (otherwise your pension contributions for the year will be calculated at 20 thousand rubles). What are we risking if we just stand with flowers near the metro or market? The worst thing that awaits you is an administrative fine of 2,500 rubles. (or a little more). Is this too much? I think a little, and there are real examples of how people managed to trade, pay a fine and still remain in the black. By the way, here is one example:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIL38Oxt4gM?rel=0&wmode=transparent]

In no way do I encourage you to conduct illegal business; on the contrary, I am for honest business conduct. But you must admit, for the sake of one day, you can take a risk. And if you go there, be sure to register. Some forums offer to try delivering flowers to offices on March 8th - that’s also an option, so you definitely won’t get caught.

Growing cacti

A special category of succulents that is familiar to everyone is cacti. Cacti are not just sticks and balls with needles, they are a huge variety of plant species, sometimes completely different from each other. Thanks to the hardiness and unpretentiousness of cacti, they are perfect for indoor plant growing: you can either sell the surplus from your own collection or grow for sale. Russian entrepreneurs have long learned to send cacti by mail in such a way that they do not spoil or rot along the way - you can see packaging techniques in blogs on YouTube.

It takes on average about six months to grow a cactus to an adult that can bloom. The cost will depend on the type, but usually it is 300-2000 rubles or more. Flowering cacti usually cost twice as much. The disadvantages of growing cacti are growing competition, the abundance of cheap products in large chains with garden centers such as Ikea, the great influence of the population’s ability to pay (people are in no hurry to please themselves with cacti during crises and pandemics), the difficulties of expansion in the Russian climate - if you plan to build greenhouses, then you will have to spend a lot on heating systems and utilities.

Growing Lithops

Succulents and cacti are large categories, so it may be a little easier for you to specialize in a narrower niche. For example, on lithops. Lithops is a genus of succulents from the Aizaceae family, with more than 30 species. Due to their appearance and mimicry abilities, they are called living or blooming stones. Since lithops come from arid regions of the planet, where there is less than 50 mm of precipitation per year, they are unpretentious in watering and care, so they are perfect for growing at home. The main thing they need is to provide enough light. In the first half of the day they need 4-5 hours of direct sunlight, and in the second half there will be light partial shade.

Lithops themselves look very Instagrammable, so to sell them well, you definitely need to pay attention to the quality of the photos. Macro photography and the ability to create unusual compositions are especially important here. Since these are collective plants, it is better to plant them together - individually they begin to wither. Lithops begin to bloom at the age of 3-5; this usually occurs no earlier than mid-August.

Growing indoor palm trees

Palm trees are a very popular home decor item. Typically, palm trees are distinguished by the shape of their leaves - into fan palms (for example, Washingtonia, Livistona and others) and feather palms (coconut, date, Howea, Hamedorea, etc.). Palm trees decorate not only apartments, but also offices, halls of business centers and shopping malls.

Due to their size and appearance, palm trees can be expensive, but don’t think that you can make money quickly and easily. Especially if you decide to buy seeds or several palm sprouts to grow in your apartment as a kind of contribution or “passive income”. Sometimes, even after 5 years, the height of a palm tree can only reach about a meter and a half. For example, such versions of date palms on ad sites are sold for only 500-2000 rubles, and larger specimens 10-15 years old will cost about 5-10 thousand rubles.

What you need to open a business

If you plan to engage in floriculture in a winter greenhouse, focus on a minimum amount of 450 thousand rubles. This money will be enough to build and equip a greenhouse on a plot of 120 square meters, purchase the most necessary equipment and seeding material.

The open cultivation method is less attractive. This way you can grow flowers exclusively in the warm season. In the absence of even that amount, you can organize a micro-business of growing flowers for sale in your own apartment. You will be surprised how many varieties of violets and types of succulents can be placed on one balcony or insulated loggia.

Bonsai trees

Bonsai is not a specific plant, flower or tree, bonsai is the art of growing an exact replica of a real tree in miniature. You can control the growth and shape of a miniature by limiting the size of the root system, using pinching, ligating, pruning and other techniques. When forming a tree, you can adhere to one of dozens of styles, controlling the shape of the trunk, crown, directions of branches, and so on.

You can grow bonsai at home: you need wide window sills on the western or eastern side, plenty of light, the ability to take the plants out into the fresh air (since in most cases bonsai are not indoor plants) in the warm season and arrange water baths. Plants with small leaves and dense branches are best suited, for example, ficus benjamina, hawthorn, bougainvillea, pomegranate, callamondin. If we are talking about bonsai from trees and shrubs, you can use pine, spruce, larch, juniper, apple, quince, elm, mackerel and others, including local tree species, naturally taking into account their wintering period. Since the work is painstaking, bonsai are sold expensively and individually. And to sell their works at a higher price, they use original compositions, unusual pots and florariums.

Opening checklist

If you don’t want to take risks and acquire a ready-made business, you should take steps to open your own salon. In order to get started, you will need to take care of:

• market research;
• determining which flowers will be in demand;
• choosing a location;
• searching for reliable suppliers;
• preparation of documents for opening;
• renting/purchasing premises;
• carrying out repairs/decoration of the store;
• arrangement of the nearby territory;
• creating a sign;
• purchase of equipment;
• purchasing a cash register;
• launching advertising;
• hiring staff and scheduling work;
• purchasing products;
• window dressing;
• opening a retail outlet.

Sale of compositions and florariums

One of the trends in sales in general is the sale of everything possible in boxes, sets, baskets, and so on (we gave 35 business ideas for sets here). Plants and flowers are no exception. Flower arrangements today are sold in florariums of unusual shapes - these are either geometric multifaceted florariums, or florariums in the form of vessels, balls, large jars, and so on.

But the choice of vessels is far from the most important thing when creating a florarium. Here we are talking about creating a sustainable ecosystem, so you need to master the “material parts”. The selected plants should be compatible with each other, unpretentious and grow slowly. The principle here is that in closed vessels the plants should develop independently, requiring virtually no attention from the owner. The main thing for future owners is not to place the system in direct sunlight and water it several times a month.

Selling flowers in florariums requires a special approach to their design, a sense of taste and high-quality photographs are required. But thanks to all the efforts made, you will have more freedom in assigning a markup. Florariums sell well through social networks as gifts and for holidays, so you should have a lot of forms, plants and materials in stock. Accordingly, investments in this business will be high.

Flower trade location

90% of success in street flower selling during the holidays is the choice of location. This is a whole science, so on forums you can often find examples of how one person literally raised money on flowers, while others went into a specific minus and became disillusioned with the matter. What can I recommend here? There are many options. Paradoxically, one of the best places is to stand near a popular flower shop. Not right under their porch, of course, but at least 30 - 50 meters away. What can work is that people go to a well-known store, see a long line or high prices, turn around and see your point. They buy flowers from you. But there is a danger here - if you trade illegally, the store owner will definitely inform the police, since he does not need “arrogant” competitors. Before Easter, it is customary to visit the cemetery and bring flowers to the graves of relatives and friends. If you place a tray near the entrance to the cemetery, revenue will be guaranteed. The main thing here is not to go wrong with flowers: carnations and artificial flowers are used (which, by the way, do not spoil). You should not stand in front of large hypermarkets, counting on high traffic - recently, before the holidays, federal chains themselves sell flowers at very low prices (actually at purchase prices).

Flower pots and stands made of stumps and driftwood

If you haven’t found yours among the ideas presented above, perhaps you should pay attention to related areas. For example, you can create unusual pots and flower stands. Since everything natural is in fashion today, flowerpots and various multi-level stands made of driftwood and stumps have become in demand. There are many ideas on this topic on the Internet, including not entirely obvious options. A lot depends on the shape of the tree itself. The more original it is, the better. But the idea itself is extremely important. Sometimes craftsmen combine wood and sea pebbles, or play with the shape of the pot, stretching it in size so that it resembles more of a totem pole.

In any case, it’s not worth using any snags and stumps right away. The tree must be dried, sanded (if you are not going to leave the bark on purpose), and adapted for planting flowers. Often somewhere you have to cut something down, or, on the contrary, attach a piece of wood. So, the process is creative. The craftsmen who create such pots post their work on the “Fair of Masters” site for handmade goods. We talked about how to sell on it here.

Mikhail Semynin

(c) www.openbusiness.ru - portal of business plans and guides for starting a small business
02/03/2022
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Pros and cons of such a business

Like any field, the flower business has its own nuances. Starting from the problem of finding suppliers, ending with storage and sale. Since this is a fairly competitive niche, you need to stand out from the rest. Also, success depends on many factors; take everything into account in your business plan. Starting from climatic conditions, ending with population density and infrastructure development.

The advantages of such a business:

• high profitability;
• several development paths;
• possibility of gradual scaling;
• the ability to expand the range without investment;
• many peak periods for sales;
• the opportunity to embody aesthetic creativity.

Disadvantages of such a business:

• high cost of logistics to remote regions;
• the problem of finding normal suppliers;
• safety of goods;
• dependence on the dollar exchange rate;
• dependence on weather conditions.