Grow Your Own Business With Plants

Grow Your Own Business With Plants 30-3-7 Looking for a profitable sideline? Don't look beyond your back porch, back yard or "back 40", suggests Craig Wallin, author of several start-up guides to running profitable plant businesses. Whether flowers or mushrooms, ginseng or Christmas trees, grasses or roses, Wallin says there are plenty of opportunities if you know where to start. "The hardest thing for most people is finding the information they need to get going," says Wallin. "There is some information at university extension offices, but it's often outdated or too academic." He suggests starting with something you are already interested in and gather as much information as possible. To gather information for his Start-Up Guides and their periodic updating, he talks to people who are operating successful and profitable plant businesses. In each guide he gives examples, such as a rose grower who sells 3,000 plants a year at $12 each, all out of her backyard. In Greenhouse Plans, two greenhouse owners describe how they out-compete Wal-Mart by doing a superior job producing potted plants from seed. In Profitable Culinary Herbs, one grower describes how her part-time business became full-time and how she and her husband grow five acres of herbs with only the aid of an old Troy-Bilt Tiller. Over a 20-year process of studying and writing about plant-based businesses, a couple of common factors stand out in Wallin's mind. "I have noticed that women seem more successful at turning a hobby into a profitable business," says Wallin. The second thing he has noticed is that growing plants for landscaping is one of the most dependable revenue sources. He credits the fact that they are not perishable, so if not sold today, they can still be sold tomorrow. They are also less likely to be subject to consumer whims or fads. "The main thing is to start now and don't put it off," says Wallin. "The second thing is to start small. There's always a learning curve with any new venture, and if the lessons learned are not so expensive, it's easier to go on to bigger and better things." Wallin's Start-Up Guides cover how to grow and market a crop, how to decide on the best plants for you, how to sell all you can grow, how to make value-added products from plants for more income, how to get professional help, and how to tap hard-to-find wholesale sources for seeds and plants. Each guide also includes an informational resource section listing specialized newsletters, books and sources for commercial growing supplies. Most of Wallin's 10 booklets sell for $9.95 with the exception of Greenhouse Plans at $14.95 and Hydroponic Gardening at $19.95. He is in the process of assembling all ten specialty books for sale in an electronic or e-book format, priced at $27. "Electronic publishing eliminates the cost of printing and mailing," explains Wallin concerning the low price. "It will be called Profitable Plants." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Profitable Plants, P.O.Box 2010, Port Townsend, Wash. 98368 (ph 360 385-9983; fax 360 385-9983; craig@homestead design.com; www.profitableplants.com).

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