# Selling plants and starting a business...



## andusbeckus (11 Oct 2017)

Thought this the best place to put this.

I’m one of load of people on here that day dream about owning my own shop one day and it may never happen but....

I’m thinking of starting by selling a few plants  online and locally then seeing how it goes and possibly build it up and see how I get on in a few years. 

So to start with what’s the best way to get started and are there any small hydroponic systems I could use? 

Thinking just small at first as more of a hobby and then possibly to make a little money. 

Any help advice or tips would be much appreciated.


----------



## Edvet (11 Oct 2017)

Just have a beautiful tank and sell some clippings. Never expect to make any real money because you'll never have the volume (especially factoring in the costs if you would want to make a living from it). We have Tropica and some dutch firms doing that already.


----------



## andusbeckus (11 Oct 2017)

I’m not wanting to compete with Tropica and selling clippings isn’t going to give me much. I was thinking maybe something a little more than seliing clippings but not huge volumes. 

Maybe sell some on ebay and buy them in from somewhere?


----------



## dw1305 (11 Oct 2017)

Hi all, 





andusbeckus said:


> Maybe sell some on ebay and buy them in from somewhere?


I think this is probably fraught with dangers. Have a look at <"Wipe Out">. 





andusbeckus said:


> I’m not wanting to compete with Tropica


I don't think you can compete with any of the commercial plant producers in Europe, or the Far East, and I would be very very surprised if you could make a living, but you could specialise in plants that can only be grown submersed, because there don't fit in with the production methods of the big producers, and they don't tend to travel very well from SE Asia. 

cheers Darrel


----------



## mort (11 Oct 2017)

Or added to Darrels reply, find uncommon or hard to find species. I've seen people selling rarer floating plants for £20 and that makes it more profitable.


----------



## foxfish (11 Oct 2017)

I would aim at selling something that is not readily available, target a niche market.
The main issue with most plant that are sold is that they have been grown out of water.
When we re plant them they have to adjust to complete different circumstances, low light & low Co2.
So offering plants that have been grow underwater would certainly have some appeal.
They key to achieving this would be offering the highest amount of C02 you can get into the water = obviously no fish.  
Tom Barr, mentions several times in his amazing https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/dutch-something-or-the-other-120-gal.17797/page-33 thread, that he finances the tank with plant sales!


----------



## Edvet (11 Oct 2017)

foxfish said:


> he finances the tank with plant sales!


1) plant market in USA is different then Europe, less producers, higher prices
2) you need a tank like he has
3) you need his reputation and fanbase, he sells a lot of wood too


----------



## andusbeckus (11 Oct 2017)

Thanks for all the advice I’ll maybe sell a few on hear and see how it goes. 

Will let you know when I make my first million


----------



## zozo (11 Oct 2017)

dw1305 said:


> but you could specialise in plants that can only be grown submersed, because there don't fit in with the production methods of the big producers, and they don't tend to travel very well from SE Asia.



Absolutely, i ordered a Aponogeton sp. twice from Asia, both arived completely dried out and dead. Lukily, due to Ebay policy and feedback possiblities i got refunded.

So also keep that in mind with selling on Ebay, before you know you have a dispute and the policy says "If product is recieved and not as described" You're intitled to demand a refund. I guess it's not Ebay paying for that it is you as seller. You need to refund the product + shipping cost.  Asia has an advantage, shipping cost is a lauch, hence they have the booming economy by now. Shipping is the least of their worry.. But in Europe this means, 1 refund might cost you 4 other sellings to break even again. Not refunding for what ever reason will result in bad feedback, bad feedback results in less sellings. So there is not much room for a European seller, it's running on the tip of your toes. Before you know you feel like Santa Claus giving all away for free..

I've been hunting for rare aquatics since i'm back in the hobby.. some are rare because they are difficult and there for come with a low demand. You have to put a lot in to grow them, but due to diffuculty demand is rather low, it doesn't even up with the amount you have to ask to break even. There are not enough nerds around to buy it from you for a high price. Selling them cheap, you are stealing from your own pocket.. 

Example, Hydrocleyes nymphoides, a plant rather difficult to find bt not so difficult to grow. I found it via the private sector. Now i got it.. And in proper conditions it grows fast and big, it overgrows it's demand. If i would offer to sell it, i would throw away more than i sell. I can't keep up extending my water volume to keep growing on every runner till i sold it. And that's likely the reason why you don't find it in the LFS. Not finding it in a LFS means less people know about it, resulting in less demand.

Bottom line, economicaly, you are not in the best possition to make any money..


----------



## Edvet (12 Oct 2017)

zozo said:


> completely dried out and dead


i guess most produce come by boat, sloooooowwwwwww.


----------



## zozo (12 Oct 2017)

Edvet said:


> i guess most produce come by boat, sloooooowwwwwww.



Could be, maybe they use both airplane and boat.. I order a lot from Asia via internet and sometimes it arrives with in 10 days and other times it takes up to 6 weeks.
But all have an airmail stamp.. Actualy now you mention it, never seen a Boatmail stamp??   I always thought they put packages on hold per region till the pallet it full. I realy have no other idea..


----------



## Costa (12 Oct 2017)

I think this is a great plan and I also think that you can compete against not Tropica itself, but the various resellers. After all Tropica and all suppliers are strong as their distribution network. If you can provide healthy plants at fair value, I'm sure you can compete against all big resellers. 

You my specialize in rare plants, or you can offer plants across Europe, if you can ensure fast delivery. You can develop your own brand of ferts and expand your offer from there. 

Check out this guy in the US, he's doing the same and he started out of a 60 gal and now runs a successful business.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JacobsAquarium

Speak to me as soon as you have a plan in place, I might be interested to join the venture.


----------



## dw1305 (13 Oct 2017)

Hi all,





Costa said:


> You can develop your own brand of ferts and expand your offer from there.


I think that might be a viable option. 

cheers Darrel


----------



## mort (13 Oct 2017)

If you do go for it I'd plan it as a hobby venture. I sold marine macro algaes for a while as apart from a couple of species they aren't easy to find. In 2 years I'd sold so many to so many people that others had cottoned on and started a race to the bottom with pricing. This can be a real problem unless you have something new to offer repeatedly.


----------



## kadoxu (13 Oct 2017)

I can give you some advice here...

I sell a few plants on Ebay, and the best advice I can give you is to do the math right and be prepared for the things that can go wrong when selling plants.

My advice is:

Start with some cheap plants that propagate quickly
I started selling the Dwarf Water Lettuce that I removed from my tanks every week. Selling packs of 10 plants for £2.50 with p&p included on Ebay.
I started by packing the plants on zip bags and shipping them on a jiffy bubble bag (not the best thing, as I learned latter on).

Keep your customers happy & get some good reviews
Whenever I get a complaint, I do a full refund and give some advice on how to recover the plants, if possible, even if I know the whole lot of plants is going to come back after a couple of days.

Pack & ship stuff properly
If you ship using Royal Mail, make sure you save the records, as you can claim for compensation if  parcel is lost.
When a parcel gets lost, offer a refund, don't offer to send another batch. I learned the hard way that if it gets lost once, there's like a 90% change of the next ones being lost as well.
Use letterbox sized boxes to send small amounts. This avoids problems when people are not home to receive the parcels.
I always ship first class, and also tracked when the sale is for a larger amount.

Account for all expenses when pricing
Post & packaging supplies, energy, water, etc, all this costs can add up and make your sales worthless.
You can probably ignore energy & water if like me you have the plants in your aquariums, but for a business you need to account for those as well.

Upgrade slowly
Invest a small amount and upgrade with your sales money.
After a while I invested in a propagator and started selling other types of plants. A cheap heated propagator like the Sanky Growarm will pay for it self in no time. (you have seen Andy's propagator, I can tell you it works great)

Try different plants, even if you think they won't work
After a few months, my outside pond was filled with huge Water Lettuce plants. I saw some for sale on Ebay and thought "why not?". It was the plant that made me more money so far, and I have only been selling it for about a month or so.

Research, research, research...
Don't try to reinvent the wheel... if there is a plant for sale it's probably being farmed and/or propagated by someone successfully and changes are, there is a Youtube video on it.
If the plant is rare, research what its needs are and try to replicate it's ideal environment.


I would have loved to have most of this knowledge when I started... it would have saved me a lot of money!


----------



## Edvet (13 Oct 2017)

mort said:


> something new to offer repeatedly.


No other option then yearly trips to the jungle then


----------



## zozo (13 Oct 2017)

Edvet said:


> No other option then yearly trips to the jungle then



I'm still searching for a south american reophytic or even beter semi aquatic epiphyte.. It doesn't seem to excist in the aqaurium trade.


----------

