What is holding you back from starting a plant nursery business?

Thinking of why or why not to start a plant business is like many other decisions in life. There are many things that can hold someone back from starting something new. Some of the top reasons for not moving forward with an idea is a lack of knowledge, fear of the unknown. A lack of funds or a fear of being unsuccessful hold many back. General lack of motivation or a belief in yourself can also slow you down.

Top fears of starting a business

According to a LinkedIn Article these are the Top 7 Reasons Why People are Scared To Start a Business The reasons are:

1. Lack of Money.
2. Concerns About Failing.
3. Lack of knowledge.
4. Uncertainty
5. Feeling Overwhelmed by Responsibility.
6. Work and Personal Life Balance
7. Facing Competition.

Let’s break these all down and apply them to starting a backyard plant nursery.

Lack of Money

Money should not be holding you back in the plant nursery business! Fortunately this is not much of a concern if you are just looking to start small and make a supplementary income. You don’t need to commit to paying rent, hiring anyone or buying expensive equipment. Our experience is you can start with a very small amount of money, $500 to 1,000 can easily get you well started. It is even possible to start with much less but your ramp up time may be slower. See our article on How to start a plant nursery which includes tips on how to keep your investment way down. Don’t delay starting a plant business for a lack of money, you can make it work with no concerns about overhead or uncontrollable expenses.

What is holding you back, do you have concerns about failing?

Many are afraid to commit to a goal for fear they won’t be successful or be embarrassed if they are not successful. In the plant growing business there is no failure, just learning. If for some reason your cuttings don’t root, try again! Keep learning and trying, you will get the hang of it. You only fail if you stop trying! Make sure to set some goals that are attainable and then crush them! Success is motivating but start as small as you want, this isn’t a race.

Lack of knowledge.

A lack of knowledge or the belief that you lack knowledge is a common reason holding people back in many areas of life. People tell themselves all types of things and get locked up in a circular thought pattern that can become their reality. The truth is there has never been more available information and most of it is entirely free. You can read websites and watch YouTube videos to learn about plants, propagating them, growing them and selling them. You can read and watch free information straight for weeks and not run out. Anyone can grow plants, and no special skills or green thumb is required. A little knowledge that you can gain and some real experience is all you need. If you put the time in you can gain knowledge very rapidly. If you can remember to just keep trying, you just can’t fail.

Uncertainty holding you back?

Worrying about uncertainty is a good trait and what tends to protect us. Letting it hold us back from reasonable goals is not the final aim. Turn your worries into a plan with more than one way to recover if the worst case happens to occur. For example if you plan to propagate Dogwood trees but never seem to get them to root, what should you do? Certainly you should keep trying and perhaps plan B is to buy rooted Dogwood plants from a grower. If you want to grow Dogwood trees find a way to do it. Uncertainty will always exist. Your secret weapon is to have a plan B or even C.

People worry that they won’t have enough space or be up to the physical part of tending to plants. Do your best to just address issues like this up front and then adapt. You don’t really need all that much space to grow hundreds of plants. You will also get used to doing more physical work over time. Keep going and don’t get caught up in unnecessary overthinking and analysis. Get your facts, make a plan, and GO! Beware of Analysis Paralysis!

Feeling overwhelmed by responsibility

Starting a plant nursery does come with some responsibility! It is however not overwhelming or a tremendous responsibility unless you are growing 10’s of thousands of plants.

What are the responsibilities, we see them as the following:

• Starting! The longest part of any journey is the first step.
• Getting some cuttings rooted or bare root plants ordered.
• Making sure you can keep your plants watered.
• Weeding, it never ends!
• Selling plants

Perhaps the worst thing is to get started with a few dozen plants and then give up your goal of growing plants you can sell. We are still testing just how many plants we can be growing at one time. Initially we had that number at about 1,000 to 2,000. We sailed right past than number and now have around 10,000 plants in production. You won’t know what you can handle until you try. Start with a goal and see if you can’t eventually do even more. Once you get started and seeing that you can literally grow money in your backyard, you will be hooked. Don’t give up early or worse, before you even start!

Work and Personal Life Balance

Not wanting to disrupt your personal life can be a good reason not to over extend yourself. However providing more for yourself and or your family is also a great reason to stretch your goals. We find running a plant nursery is something we can do as a family and couple. It can provide a lot of time together along with good conversation and a sense of accomplishment! It is your business so you can make it into what you want.

Concerns About Competition Holding You Back?

We have not found competition to be a real issue with plant sales. While there are many in our area who sell plants including other growers, big box stores, and garden centers, there are also many customers. You can develop an offering that people like. This includes good pricing, plant size, and variety. You can test what you think what people want and hone in on some of your own specialties.

Look around and see what the big box stores sell as they only sell what people buy. Visit smaller and larger garden centers and see what they sell. Keep your costs down and offer plants at a very good value. Early on we found people buy 10, 20 and even more border plants at a time. If we could offer some for a little less, we could make a good sale. You can also sell smaller plants at a really good price, this is a good market. Find a specialty and work it. Letting a fear of competition slow you down would be a mistake, find your niche!

Overcoming fear

Many people are just fearful of the unknown, this is natural and part of the way we protect ourselves from danger. The way to overcome fear is to be more deliberate. Write a written plan of how you want to start your plant nursery so you have a guide to follow. Moving in small steps and confirm to yourself that you can reach a goal. You must also set some goals for yourself, and then prove to yourself you can meet them. A small goal might be to propagate and sell just 50 small plants. Once you have done this successfully, there’s really no difference between propagating 50 plants and 500 plants. Don’t let fear hold you back. Once you prove something to yourself, you can do almost anything.

What is Holding You Back, Motivation?

Lack of motivation is very common as people often do not want to commit to a large amount of work or taking on extra responsibilities. This is may be a form of fear and lack of self belief that you can actually accomplish a goal. Dream Big! To overcome this just start! Take a step! All you may need to do is wake up one Saturday morning and begin to start playing with plants. You have probably read and watched a lot of information about growing plants, but have never taken the first step. This is perfectly fine and your big step toward your goal is to just get started.

Here are some things you can do to commit yourself to starting.

To end what is holding you back, take a step forward! Proclaim a goal to someone and then live up to it!

• Order some pots today. Get yourself 50 to 100 trade gallon pots, spend a little money and make that first step. See our Backyard Nursery Resources Guide for ideas about what to order. Now go fill those pots.
• Find a wholesaler/grower that sells the type of plants you want to grow. Make an order and buy 100 to 500 plants to be delivered in the coming spring or fall. Now you are committed!
• Try taking some softwood or hardwood cuttings. Go ahead and fail miserably, then go do it again.
• Make a plan! Write it out, this very helpful!
• Get information and get doing. Part of the 10,000 hours needed to become proficient in something is learning, the bigger part is doing. There is no substitute for experience and a trail of results!

We wish you every success and as people who overthink, don’t like to fail, and wanted to be successful in a plant business we say. Ready, set, GO! Huge emphasis on the GO!