Start a Home Business Growing and Selling Cut Flowers

What if you want to open a flower shop, but you can’t find the funding to secure a retail store location? Or what if you enjoy gardening as a hobby, but want to earn a part time income doing it?

One option is to grow your own flowers and sell them. But how do you do that?

Lynn Byczynski has put together a guide (below) that shows exactly how to do it – even from your home. If you have a sizable backyard that gets sun, you can make it work. If you have the area to create a greenhouse to extend your growing season, that’s even better.

Efficiency

Knowing what to plant (the most popular flowers) and when to plant them for maximum output (ie. in succession) plays a big part in growing a successful floral business. You need to set up your operation to be as efficient as possible, especially if you are working independently.

Specializing

Another thing to think about is establishing your specialty, whether it is a certain type of plant, floral design arrangement or something else. If you can stand out in the marketplace, it will be much easier to market your products. In situations where your flowers or designs are extremely unique or one-of-a-kind, customers will end up coming to you because they can’t find the items you offer elsewhere.

Getting Your Flowers into the Marketplace

An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers

The key is to build relationships with local florists and supermarkets who can buy your plants. Additionally, you can sell at local farmers markets. Networking with florists and meeting people at farmer’s markets can also help you advertise your services for other potential income (ie. functions like weddings and other events).

Some offices and apartment complexes like to have fresh cut flowers in their reception areas and will pay for a floral arrangement delivery each week. This can be a great market to get into because it provides a consistent revenue stream, and you can create larger arrangements. On top of that, you are essentially getting free exposure to all of the company’s clients who view your arrangements.

What I like about businesses like this is that you can easily start small without having to take big risks or make large monetary investments. Grow some plants and make a few arrangements. Donate your floral design services and finished products to local groups or community events.

This is actually a good way to start many businesses, because you can get your product or service in front of lots of people (some of which are very influential in the community) and you don’t have to “sell”. You can make lots of connections and get feedback on your work that can help you both develop a better product and also meet new clients…

For more new business ideas for small and home-based companies, visit The New Business Idea. You can also get over 200 business start-up guides and download the Home Business Start-Up Checklist free from www.HomeBusinessCenter.com.