One day in mid-February, one of my favorite orchids bloomed. But when I say bloomed, I mean BLOOMED – the little cutie got 13 buds on it!
Here’s the kicker: I’d spent maybe 5 minutes caring for it in the entire previous year.
I look at that, and I see massive beauty. I also see massive value. What if I could teach people how simple plant care is? What if I could pass on everything I’ve learned from my work with plants in super-easy-to-implement videos?
You know how I’ve spent 5 years working with house plants? 5 years x 52 weeks x 40 hours/week = 10,400 hours. Over ten thousand hours of experience, on top of my previous experience with plants (I used to own a one-woman landscape construction company and have had my own house plants since age 12).
They say ten thousand hours makes you an expert, so here we go!
I decided I’d start a small business creating video tutorials and supporting material to teach house plant care. I already know how to market and build the supporting structures of the business from my coaching experience, so this is a perfect way to tie everything together.
Now, to be all-in I had to sit on the idea for a few weeks and let it germinate. I mentioned before that I’m an entrepreneur. I’m pretty sure Merriam-Webster defines it as “A person who has eighty ideas a day and wants to pursue all of them.” So I know it’s a good idea to let an idea convince me of its worth before pursuing it.
It convinced me. Why? Because people walk up to me ALL THE TIME at work to ask me questions about plant care, and I’ve gotten really good at diagnosing issues, giving them simple tricks, etc. The ‘need’ has been trying to get my attention for years, and it’s there!
The first step is a proper market research phase. I determined my target market: 30-something professional women who live in cities: appreciation of goofiness, love of plants, income bracket that allows for the purchase of information products, limited free time (read: needs easy to use information delivered quickly).
Next, I spoke with a few people in my target market. This was exceptionally easy for me – they came up to me while I was playing with plants in their offices and asked me questions about the plants they have at home. The first woman I spoke with was also a former YouTuber, and when I mentioned the idea she loved it (and also gave me some tips about making videos!).
Idea confirmed: Needed and marketable. Name of business? Naturally: Oh Happy Plants, because my namesake is fantastically ridiculous.
It’s off to the races!