GH bizz #2

You know, I would definitely post some of these questions in the Market Growers forum - there's a lot of business folks there, so you might get a larger number of people answering you.

What I *do* know... you should probably get the information about licensing via your county extension agent (an excellent person to make friends with!). At least here in TN, the license comes through the state after your greenhouse has been inspected for bugs, etc..

Offering competition to a well established business seems like struggling up hill to me, unless you are offering something different than they are - specialty plants, organics or something else they don't offer. If you're talking about specialty products, you have to make sure there's a demand for it -are people in your area interested in the new echinaceas? Or will the old ones be just as salable? Maybe wave petunias are popular? Have you talked to any of the people selling in your area to find out what they've been left with at the end of the season?

Don't forget that a lot of your construction costs, etc., can be written off if you are using it for a business.

What if you actually *lost* money the first year (not uncommon for businesses)? Would it financially ruin you or would you be okay? That's a hard thing to look at, but you should be up front with yourself about it. You can't predict the weather (will you have to heat your gh? That's been really hard for me), a bug problem, and there's the ol' learning curve.... I have a friend who is an experienced grower who lost 250+ plants by over-fertilizing them. Simple mistake.

Please don't think I'm trying to talk you out of it, but you need to look at this from all sides. From what I can tell, it's not a huge money maker, things are just too chancy. Others may have a different opinion.

Our local tech school offers a class on starting a small business, including tax issues, licensing, creating a business plan. It was an enormous help for my partner when she started her massage office. It helped her focus her thinking and provided a lot of info about who to contact and how to set up her books.

Is there something like that available in your area?

Thank you Pagancat for your thoughts. Yes, I know it's kind of struggling up hill. Here's my thought. Not directly selling out of our home but advertising a couple weekend sales on our property. Just small ones to get us established. We would sell plants at various locations such as our Farmer's Market and specialty gardening events. Then, I would like to make soom connections to sell at a business such as a small town grocery store, or other retail vendor. We are starting small to see if this is for us.

As far as seeing what others are selling well, we don't have a relationship with any other business. I'm not sure how to approach them. I don't think they would be too pleased to answer questions that would directly compete with their business. It's not so uncomfortable to ask questions on this site since everyone is in different locations and I won't affect their sales.

I guess I haven't thought of writing construction cost off on taxes or claiming a loss. If we do claim a loss, I think it would work out well on our taxes:). No, I haven't given the accounting much thought since I'm currently taking an Accouting class for my degree. One step at a time. :) Do you have some suggestions on where I might get started on bookkeeping for a GH business? Some books or videos we can invest in?

I'm not certain how much the startup funds will affect us. We are still trying to determine the best way to get started for a very low cost. ie, utilizing our garage to start seeds, building a small green house to grow plants in larger pots, designating an area to grow outdoors when weather permits, determining what we want to sell, and etc...

We are still in the very beginning stages of doing this. We have no idea what it will cost to get started. This summer will let us know if this is something we want to pursue or should consider it just another dream. We, in no way will quite our jobs or use this as a single source of income. This would be more as a hobby with the benefit of earning some cash. Of course, one always dream of huge success. :)

No I don't think you are trying to talk me out of it. You have raised very good questions that need to be addressed. Thank you.

My approach in all this is try to work past every hurdle to get this going.

Jayryunen,
I'm not sure what is available as far as business startup support. Since you have mentioned this, I'm going to contact our local extention office to see what they suggest.

Thank you for your great advice. Keep em coming. I need all the help and advice I can get, both positive and negative. It gives me a chance to work on every aspect and deal with problems before they become a problem.

Thanks again.
Lisa

hay guys sorry i haven't chimed in on this yet but i have been building a storage shed for a friend and just got home."lratliff29" "Pagancat" had some very good points the only thing i can say more is to start slow which i think you said you are. if you have been following my thread you know of my sons surgery took all my startup money so i am putting in what extra i have each month. from 20 to 100 dollars or so you could start by growing outside. i am only going to put shade cloth on my greenhouse till fall because i can't afford the plastic yet but will grow that way. mums are a good out door crop but that is later in the year. or you could start out with veggie bedding plants and what you don't sell you plant and make the money off of those and then buy things as you make the money that way if a crop fails it doesn't take the farm with it
i'll stop rambling now. lol "whitebear"

Oh, and if the fresh veggies don't sell, then you a) have food and b) have seeds to plant for next year!

Lisa:

Not much that I can add other than check out the other guys stock. See what they offer the most of. I would suggest just as others have, to maybe look at trying to specialize in several plants that the other isn't offer or doesn't have much of. Then find workshops, Master gardener's class might not be a bad thing to look into. Contact flower shops to see if they are looking for different types of flowers that you could grow to offer to them cheaper than what they are currently paying, maybe thing of some types of vegetables that you could sell to restaurants. There are lots of things to grow, but if you still to maybe a few items then you could become the authority on them and folks will seek you out. The idea to start with several "Driveway Plant Sales" is perfect, not a lot of investment and you could see how many come. Just keep in mind that there are advertising expenses, so start checking your local papers, online sources and figure that expense into your costs.

We had just started a small dairy/cheese farm before we had to leave and we were able to take a percentage of the value off our taxes for 7 years.... wonderful, since now I'm holding equipment....

Anyway good luck but do your homework first which will make for better success.

Janet

Also want to find out from the folks here, where can I purchase wholesale the plastic need for a hoop gh?

thank y'all.

Janet

i purchase most of my stuff from BWI "http://bwicatalog.bwicompanies.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategoriesDisplay?storeId=10051&catalogId=10001&langId=-1" but you need to put in a aplacation with them

Thanks so much gthumbus for the link.

Janet

Hey White Bear...

I just keep wondering....

How come you are "White Bear" and not "Polar Bear?"

hay ice_worm, windwalker a very old native American that didn't even know the year he was born "he just said he was born the year the river rose over the banks for 10 days" he has passed on some moons ago now, back the to the name he gave me the name when i was helping move some from a kitchen there wasn't any room for a dolly to move the fridge so i garbed a moving strap threw it around the fridge and pulled it up onto my back and carried it to the truck. and i have a white completion, he looked at me and said you are as strong as a bear, i call you whitebear, from then on at all the powwows and stomp dances or gatherings he would tell his version of the whitebear tail. of cores his got better and better as time went on. i sure miss the old cuss. but thats where whitebear came from. "whitebear"

That's a great story, White Bear! :)

=0) A good story grows better in the telling =0)

thanks "ice" my three sons are named derek= "broken feather" ,dainel= "hopping crow" and dalton="little bear".

Whitebear, are you so busy you can't give us an update? I miss you!

Yes, where the world R Ya????


Janet

I'm getting a little worried here.

i;m ok guys i;ve been helping getting a new farmers market planed and started up and making some birthday cakes for people. i'll be back at it on monday

Great, I'm glad you were just busy and not hit by storms or something.

here is one of the cakes forgot to take a pic of the other one

I wish I had a tenth of your creativity.

That is incredible.

Janet

thanks "meadowyck" pic does not show the size very well but that cake is three layers high thanks again everyone for worrying about me.

well i have two tilapia mothers with eggs now so that will give me around 400 to 500 tilapia so i will be getting the aquaponic systems up and running soon.

Woo Hoo!

OK, I know this is not a gardening question. But, how did you get the divots in the golf ball cake? (I also was worried, I was sure there was something wrong with my computer!) Glad your back!

thanks "Imagesoart" might sound funny but i used the end of a old sun tan lotion tube with a rounded end and pressed it into the icing.

Oh man - too high tech for me!!!!

how creative!

most certainly creative....

Janet

ps edited to add...... anyone hear a FISH FRY...!!!!! in the works.....rofl



This message was edited Apr 13, 2009 10:52 PM

thanks guys and "meadowyck" fish fry sounds good to me.

Say the word and we (DH and I) will make a quick trip to the south.

Can ya believe it, we are finally going to get some warmer weather but only for a day or two... At this rate I'll take it.....LOL

Janet

You must be real busy. I know I am.

you said it cricket, not sure which way i'm going sometimes, lol hay guys i'll try to get some pics up this week when i get new batteries for the camera. i'm building growing rafts right now for my pool that has fish in it. going to grow bok choy and lettuces on the rafts. my son was fishing in the pool on friday and cought two perch and a catfish in about 3 min.lol "my redneck lake" shooting fish in a barrel is just to easy lol.

Hey all, Any news? It got so hot here is Northern California that my Orchids got burned in the greenhouse. I was out of town, and the windows did not open. It was about 110 in the greenhouse. Some of them don't look so good. Most of the Orchids are in bloom. I don't know if they will continue to bloom or if they will loose their flowers, or if I should cut the flowers off so they can recover.

Anyway, my tomatoes (who liked the heat) to be stalled and don't seem to be growing very tall. I guess I can start planting them outside. The garden is about ready.

Oh, Good Heavens! I'm going to have to go exploring a little deeper on some of these forums. Ya'll have your own little group going on here! LOL! I've just read through this whole thread and will have to go to the previous threads to really get caught up with you. But I want to tell ya'll that there is some wonderful advise and ideas here! WhooHoo! Many thanks for sharing!

Glad you found us msrobin

welcome "msrobin" if you have any thing that you know about and would like to share, or need to know, or interested in just chime in. i'm not as vigilant with the pic as i was going to try to get a little better, just been real busy. but going to better "i promise" next week starting on more tilapia tanks up to 500 tilapia now, and going to move the fish in the pool to the greenhouse tanks "wife wants to start swimming. a permaculture guild approached me and wants me to put on some seminars on different thing "i pretend to know about" lol, so when i do my son is going to tape it and take pictures, i'll put the pics on here and the videos will go on "meta cafe" and "youtube"

i planted up about:

200 squash
200 zucchini
400 water melon "sugar babys" and black diamond"
100 okra
100 maters
400 lettuce
12 blueberry plants
ext
ext
ext and on and on and on..............................................

hay any buddy have a good recipe for pair honey they could DM me?

well i'll quit rambling just came in to get a drink of water and check this sight, now back out to work "can't waist the light" whitebear

i'll be back on tonight

I'm definitely interested in the Tilapi in the GH. Will have to go back and read those threads. You all are much farther ahead of me. I got my first GH last spring and it's only 10' x 10'.

My DH is in industrial construction, so we have to travel a lot for him to work. Because of that, it has been slow progress over 7 years getting our 15 hayfield and wooded acres set up, landscaped, etc. in order to start a business at home. We have settled on doing a CSA garden, with additional ornamental and landscaping plants, selling goats, rabbits and chickens/eggs. DH wants to build country style furniture and I like to buy old wood furniture and do decorative painting on it, plus make garden art. I know it sounds like too many irons in the fire to concentrate on, but in our community, we would not be able to support ourselves on just one of those things. Also thinking that there is a potential for some bartering with what we want to have available.

I have really enjoyed reading this thread!

Robin

I'm about to give away the last of my 100 tomato plants, just some sweet million cherries left now, I can't believe there are already flowers on them. I'll have to contain myself next year and not plant so many, har de har har, like that will happen. The two sizes of zinnias will be planted at church next week, the alyssum will go in tomorrow with the geraniums I bought for around the flag pole. The pink wave petunias all have a home, will have to do more colors next year. The last minute marigolds are so cute, all of 2 inches tall, they are a dwarf yellow kind, they will go around the edges of the red knock out rose bed.

Bok choy went into the home garden today, it is so much easier than regular cabbage, and I can pick it as I need it. B sprouts are just sitting there, maybe I started them too late? All I have left to move to the garden then are the different melons, it is just now warm enough. I thought the enlarged garden would be big enough but it seems the more space I have the more I start. Hubby has already said no to another raised garden for this year, haha, I'll get one in the fall when the leaves start falling.

The daf's & early tulips are just now finishing their blooms and the late tulips are about to open, really late this year, but the weather has been cooler than normal.

I have been trying to propagate cuttings from a dappled willow shrub I have with no luck, even with rooting hormone. Paper towel method, water glass method, cuttings in wet sand, wet potting soil, nothing has worked. I did bury one branch last summer but someone who will remain nameless (DH) pulled it up. Grrrr. IF I ever get some rooted I'll share, it is just the prettiest thing with pink tipped green and white leaves. It would sell good, I think, and grows great in damp areas. Any suggestions?

Well, I've rambled more than white bear, I think, so I'll end for awhile and let someone else talk.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2009 4:57 PM

its great to have ya here "msrobin" and sounds like your as busy as i am with thing, hay "cathy4" have you tried air layering yet for your dappled willow shrub?