Well, in this case: There’s money in house plants.

Like, literally. Last week I thoroughly decided to start this business (and in the original Latin, de caedere means “to cut off” – so to decide means you are removing all other options).

Immediately after deciding, I started finding money in plants. 

Yeah. Literally. I’m pulling a dead leaf off an aglaonema and find a couple dimes in the pot.

Next day, I’m fussing with a dracaena and find a quarter and a nickel. Two days later, a dollar bill in a fiddle-leaf fig.

This kept happening.

No joke. In five years I’ve found garbage in plants, and the occasional binky or bouncy ball, but NEVER money. Ever.

Oh hey, Universe. I see what you’re doing there…

More to come 🙂

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!

Okay. What really prompted this?

I NEED A CHANGE. 

I fractured my sacrum in late January. Yep, I broke my ass. Wee patch of black ice in an otherwise-dry parking lot. In the dark. Luckily, no one was around to watch as I massively biffed it. Unluckily, no one was around to help me up. There I was alone on the pavement, on my back, in the dark, floundering like an overturned turtle in a ball pit. Zero percent graceful. I could barely move, let alone stand – but thanks to social anxiety and a healthy fear of being run over, I got to my feet and struggled over to my van to call in the injury because I was at work. The nurse on the other end said it was probably a bruise, and that not moving will cause it to seize up, so continuing to work is probably ideal. Regular icing and painkillers, see a doc if it’s unbearable, etc.

I don’t know that she realized that my pain tolerance is, well, quite reasonable. Maybe unreasonable. They ask you about your pain at the doctor’s office on a 0-10 scale, 10 being “the most pain you can imagine,” and I rate my pain realistically, mentioning that I’m imagining a 10 to be complete evisceration or some similar horrible situation. 

I say that to let you know what a 6 feels like. Yes, I could move. Barely. Holding my breath. But, due to the nature of my job, I kept working. Y’see, I work with live plants. You’ve seen plants in lobbies and offices that look WAY too perfect to be real, right? That’s us – we’re the little elves behind those plants. 

In other words, my job dies if I don’t do it.

Therein lies the issue. It also takes a very specific type of person to do this job, so we’ve had staffing issues for as long as I’ve been with the company (5 years). Want to take your paid vacation? Okay, but you’ll need to work 55 hours the week before and the week after so you don’t murder anything, because it’s likely that no one else is available to work for you.

I’ve kept this job because I love working alone, but mostly because I can listen to audiobooks and podcasts about 30 hours/week (at 2x, because I’m crazy like that). This job is what has allowed me to gain the knowledge to become an effective business coach. So, up until now, it’s been thoroughly worth it. I consider myself exceptionally lucky to be in a position that pays me to learn all day. There comes a time when a person has to make next steps, though, and right now is that time.

So! How did I get through? I decided I would focus on complimenting people to improve the chemical cocktail in my brain. Paying someone a compliment will release dopamine, so at least I would have that thrown in to numb some of the intense pain I was feeling.

My favorite one that day, and one that I’d still remember months later, was the woman in the elevator. We’re in a hospital and she gets in with her walker, dressed to the NINES: stovepipe-leg jeans with a crease down each leg, red shirt, jean jacket that fit perfectly, gold bangles, gold necklace, gold rings and earrings, and BRIGHT red lipstick. Intensely casual-chic. 

I compliment her outfit and she absolutely beams and says “Not bad for 94, right?” This one interaction got me through the day. I can only hope to kick so much ass when I’m pushing a hundred 🙂

I also decided it was time for a new approach, so I started thinking…

Hi!

To introduce myself: I’m Veronica. I’m probably just like you, or similar. Solo mom with a full time job and a small business coaching side hustle. Massive enjoy-er of life. Dating an incredible guy (who shall be called Mr. Turbo) who has his own munchkin, a year apart from mine (7&8). Gardener. Painter. Procrastinator. Fully human (read: fully imperfect). And striving, every day.

Recently I’ve been realizing that building the coaching business to the point I can transition to it full time would require me to give up more sleep than I’m willing to lose, so I need to create a way to bring in passive income. The thing that lights me up about coaching is working directly with people in small groups or one-on-one, so building courses to mass-market isn’t the path I want to take – at least not right now. 

Also, I’m one of those ‘multipassionate’ nutcases who has about eighty things that I could imagine myself doing for the rest of my life. All at once. ALL OF THEM. And somehow I like to convince myself that I can.

Welcome to the entrepreneurial soul, friends. If you’re anything like me, you feel pulled in multiple directions all the time and either just drop projects without completing them or run in every direction at once. Hey, sometimes you’re even successful! But it takes some serious dedication to get yourself to focus on one or just a few things to reach that success. That’s my problem, too.

The following is going to be a documentation of my foibles, complete fuck-ups, doubt, resignation, fear, procrastination, guilt, shame, ice cream binges, and avoidance. It will also be a chronicle of success.  Yes, ALL OF THOSE THINGS are necessary to success. And I’m going to show you how.

This, friends, is how a small business coach builds a business.

Side note: I haven’t figured out how to get to the text editor of my main blog posts page, so they all appear in most-recent-first order. I can figure out the shortcode to get them in ascending order but I don’t know where to put it!

Help! 😀

(If you want it in chronological order, read it bottom to top. Sorry!)

For no-nonsense small business coaching and tools, check out

Professional Catalyst

For houseplant care and nonsense, check out the in-progress

Oh Happy Plants!