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Hi, plant parents! Your house is full of houseplants, you love plants, and you want to grow new plants. However, growing houseplants means increasing costs. You may not have enough money, but you definitely have the desire to grow a new plant.
We will share our personal experience in this article on how you can earn extra money by selling tree seedlings.
Sit down with your favorite cup of coffee; the article is going to be long. Let’s begin.
Who doesn’t need money? We need money at every level, starting from livelihood. Yes, there are some people who are born rich and don’t need it, but everyone needs more or less money. Since you are reading our article, I am assuming that you are in need of money, so you came to read our article. However, we have no idea how to sell tree seedlings.
Before we discuss in depth what is the difference between local sellers and commercial sellers, we have covered the Total Local Seller process in eRegistration. I will talk about commercial business in another article.
Plant Local Business Vs Commercial Business
If you are looking for a source of income in addition to your job or part-time job, consider building a local plant business in your area. You may have to invest a small amount in the local plant-selling business. You can sell your extra seedlings to area gardeners. You don’t have to worry about delivery or courier; you can do your business in a relaxed manner.
A commercial plant business is where you sell plants through plant stores and online websites. In this business, you have to think about more investment, manpower, space, a delivery team, and a support team, etc. The ratio of sales and profit is 10/20/30 times higher than local plant sellers. Advanced-level marketing is done here. Also, you need to work with a license in your commercial business.
If you want to go ahead with trees in the long term, you should create a commercial business. And like me, if you want to sell extra seedlings and want to earn extra money at the end of the month, become a local seller.
In any business or investment, I like to keep clear accounts so that I can see if the money or time I am putting into the project is actually profitable.
I don’t think anything extra or big about it; I look for free sources. I manually keep accounts in an Excel sheet, which helps me a lot in calculating my work. And you don’t have to spend money on this.
Seedling Production
In order to sell trees, you first need to grow seedlings at home.
Cut the excess parts of large and bushy trees in your house. Everything you need for cutting:
- Pruner or scissors
- Propagate Pot (Optional)
- Pot
- Soil
- Propagate Container Box / Shelf
- Growing light
You will first need to produce a small number of seedlings. You can propagate indoor plants from leaves, rhizomes, bulbs, and branches. You will have to wait a few weeks for the seedlings. You can buy soil, pots, and grow lights online.
Pro Tips: When you buy pots, consider buying in bulk to save money. If you buy a minimum of 100-200 pots, then your cost per pot will come down. For planting pots, buy square pots so that when you put them on the shelf, you can keep the pots side by side, which allows you to keep twice as many pots on your shelf. Square pots are space-friendly.
If you have no prior experience with grafting, first cut the plant you want to graft from the cuttings with a pruner.
Pro Tips: Cut from the leaf area with nodes as this allows the branch to root faster and increases the success rate of the cutting’s seedling.
Now, after cutting, you take a propagate pot or any pot so that you can fill it with water and immerse the cuttings (node part) of the plant in water. It is best to use a transparent pot so that you can see the roots emerging from the cuttings. After about a few weeks of rooting, you set the cutting up with the roots in your potting mix and potting soil.
I am sharing a video for you to understand. Please watch it. By watching the video, you can easily go through the process of sowing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Saqy0EEvCk4Once the cuttings are rooted and set up in a pot with potting soil, place them in a growing shelf under a grow light.
If you think there is no need for grow lights or shelves, then you are wrong. Never be concerned about growing seedlings in the absence of light. Please don’t worry about growing seedlings without light. To make money, you have to invest.
When do You Know When The Plants Are Suitable for Sale?
Plants will continue to grow well under your grow lights. Plants will be potted in 1-3 weeks and will produce new buds, leaves and branches. Then you will realize that the plants are set in a container. Check several factors to select a perfect plant:
1. There are no spots on the leaves.
2. Leaves are not pale or colorless.
3. The tree has perfect sap (cut off excess).
4. The roots of the tree are not rotten.
5. The plant does not dehydrate.
6. There are no pests on the tree.
7. There is no mould or bacteria in the plant soil.
8. There is no smell coming from the soil of the tree.
These eight steps will help you choose your healthy plants with ease. Remember that you are giving the tree to your customer in exchange for money so that the customer is not unsatisfied after receiving the tree. An unhealthy plant cannot be given to customers in any way.
After tending to your unwell plants, prepare them for sale. We have selected the tree, and now we will shoot the photo.
Plant Photoshoot
To reach customers online, you need to follow the activities included in online marketing. Do a photo shoot of your plants and make sure you get a neat and clear picture of the plant. But remember that there is not much difference between the picture and the actual tree.
Pro tip: You can adjust the colours of the images, but don’t over-edit them.
Place the plant suitable for selling on a background that has a solid colour. For example, you can take a white background. You can capture stunning, organic photos with this. A perfect photo will increase your sales several times. You can place scales next to the plant. The height and size of the plants in the image may then be understood. You take 3-4 pictures of a tree at different angles.
- Take a picture of the entire plant with the pot from a distance.
- Take another close-up photo.
- Take a picture from a medium distance.
- Capture another photo from above the plants.
That way, you’ve photographed the tree from every angle. Your photo capture process is complete. Now you need to determine the price of your plant seedlings.
Pricing
There are a few things you need to research to determine pricing. Since you are growing plants indoors, you don’t have to rent your space. Since you are managing this small business yourself, you do not have any staff or employees, which increases the cost several times. This is a positive aspect of this business. You are selling the production seedlings from the extra branches of your tree. Here you don’t need any money to buy your seedlings, it’s free, so how do we do the pricing?
First, find out the cost of the materials you are using for the plant.
- You have to buy your soil.
- You have to buy your pot.
- Your monthly electricity bill for using growing lights.
You determine the price of a tree (single pot) first. Determine how much soil your pot holds and add the cost of the pot (single pot) and you will get the cost of a single pot.
Determining the value of your tree requires a little trickery. Research the plant you are growing online. Check how much people are selling it for in your area and check customer responses (in the comments section). This will give you an idea. Also, check online stores (plant selling websites). Then you will easily get an idea about the price. You should price your tree based on your research and determine the average price. If possible, try to keep a low price as this will give you a better chance of selling your tree quickly.
Note: To sell your tree, you should not set too low a price according to the market, otherwise your sale will be tough and the market will be destroyed. You should never do that as a seller.
Once pricing is determined, you can focus on listing and marketing.
Listing and Marketing
Now it’s time to focus on selling trees. Since you are not thinking about advanced-level marketing, I would suggest you try selling on free sources. For example: eBay, Etsy, Facebook groups, and Instagram profiles—you can generate a good amount of sales. Since you can use these for free, you are saving extra money to run your marketing ad.
You open an account online and list according to the rules with your recently taken photos. A description is required for your listing. You can list the plant name and scientific name, plant care rules, whether the plant is pet-friendly, whether the plant can be taken by beginners, pot size of the plant, the number of leaves, detailed price, your pickup location, delivery point, home address, and phone number.
Note: Don’t forget to add delivery charges. You can contact the courier agency to get an idea about the charges.
Monitor your post after listing. Contact customers when they leave a message. Answer calls when they call. You have to manage almost everything. List your plants and wait for sales. If there is no sale, list again after a few days, deleting the previous one. You can sell actively on Facebook groups and Instagram profiles. But you have to maintain regular posts and content. Once the deal with your customer is final, follow the digital payment system to receive your payment. PayPal can make receiving your payments easy. Also, you can receive payment through a banking method. Deliver the plant to the customer’s pickup location or, if the customer’s location is in a remote area, send it by courier for delivery.
Packaging
You may have to spend a little bit on tree packaging. You have to purchase the packaging materials. You can add this cost to the tree while pricing or not charge it entirely, depending on your preference. I have no packaging cost from customers in my plant business, which does not increase the price of the plant and increases the customer’s rate of purchasing the plant. I then add this to the monthly or annual cost.
Check out the video on how to pack for delivery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wHeQy1pAa8Customer Satisfaction
I sometimes give my customers small discounts, gifts, and free delivery (in the local area). As a result, customers are much more satisfied by purchasing plants from me. Remember to focus on customer satisfaction when you sell seedlings. In my business, I have seen 70%+ repeat customers who are our most loyal and trusting. Always try to make the customer happy and reasonable. Stay connected with the customer and visit the plant now and then to build up your relationship with the customer, which will help generate more sales later on.
To make money by producing seedlings from tree cuttings, one should be clear about some things.
Who can manage this side project or small business?
- Student, part-time job, unemployed
- The house has indoor plants
- Have a clear understanding and experience with trees
- Loves and spends time with plants
- Will get support from family
- Desire to purchase a new plant and sell the existing one
- Has plans for trees
- Housewife with indoor plants
- Want to operate a tiny home-based business
How Much Money Can be Earned?
When everyone gets money after working hard, tiredness can be forgotten. We also want to earn money by selling plants. But you should know that this will not make you rich overnight. You have to move forward with your time and maximum effort. If you think that today I brought the tree, tomorrow I sold it and got money, then it would be good to drop such thoughts. It is easy to earn $1000+ per month by selling trees, but you need to put in a lot of time and talent. You may not generate that many sales early on, but you can earn a lot of money with persistence and hard work. But the precise number is unknown to everyone.
Which Plants Should I Sell?
Houseplants are also called trendy plants. There are some trees that are in abundance for a few months and are then sold in the market in abundance. You need to do your research on this. What I do is follow various Instagram profiles (plant-related) and observe what they post regularly. In their videos, they give updates on new plants, which I note in a notebook that later helps me select my trending plants.
I also search Facebook groups and Reddit groups. People who buy new plants post what plant they picked today to learn about how to care for it. I check the comments section of those posts for details and try to find out where they got it and how much it cost, and make notes on it. The tree is easy to pick.
You can search these groups with the search option “I Need Monstera Plant. Anyone Can Sell This?” I have taken the Monstera plant as an example. You can search the groups to find out which plants gardeners are interested in buying.
You can also visit Store Box and research to see which trees are in their collection. You can check the online plant sale stores (websites) to get an idea of the plants that are out of stock and are in high demand. You will get the idea yourself when you visit 5-10 sites.
From my own experience, plants that enhance the beauty of your room and add a natural environment to your living room are in high demand. Because people who don’t buy trees regularly buy these trees to decorate their houses. This is how I research and select trees.
For some customers who may be new to the world of indoor plants, keep your collection of common and beginner-friendly plants.
Once you have done your research and bought and sold the plants, you will know which plants are selling fast, which are slow, and which are staying. Accordingly, you can produce or purchase tree seedlings again.
Is Selling a Profitable Business?
Yes, you can make a good profit margin by selling plants. If you are thinking of doing commercial business, then you will need a huge amount of investment to import the plant from another country. Whether you are a local business or a commercial plant business, you can make the business profitable by doing proper research.
My Opinion
You should invest a small amount first and see if you can succeed in the tree world. We are motivated to work for the sake of profit, but in reality, when it is our turn to work hard, we get frustrated and give up if we don’t achieve success with maximum effort. In my opinion, there is no substitute for doing your research on the business to take your profit. You may take a few weeks, but do proper research and try to move forward. Even if you are able to invest a lot, start with a small amount at first, and if you are successful, think of investing more later. If you are passionate about the tree, you will enjoy working with your tree, and your money will be earned. When you are not passionate about the tree, you will not find satisfaction in your work and you will reduce your maximum effort. Gardening is fun and you can think of it as a fun and systematic way of earning. But don’t forget to keep in mind that this doesn’t cause you any trouble.
FAQ
Can growing houseplants be a profitable hobby?
If you can earn money from the work you love, it is great. But you need to proceed by checking the market since many others are selling plants before you venture into the market. Depending on your community and marketing, you can lead to profits. You should plan to grow and sell your rare plants.
Where can I sell plants?
Online, you can sell from Facebook groups, Reddit groups, and Instagram profiles. Also, you will find dozens of other sites online, including websites like Amazon and Etsy.
Do you have the guts to cut branches and sell them?
No, there is nothing to worry about. But do not overdo it so as to damage the leaves of the plant.
