Idea of the Week: Home-Based Business Growing Plants

Filed in archive business ideas on May 14, 2007

If you've always had success growing plants and are looking for a great home-based business idea, why not turn your talent into cash? Plant growing can be a good, steady business once you've established yourself and it doesn't even have to cost you a lot of money to start. Better yet, you'll be doing something you love. Here is a short guide you can use to start your home-based business growing plants:

Required skills
Obviously, you need to have a green thumb. However, that 'green thumb' myth is really just that - a myth. It's not some magical ability you should be born with and it certainly can be learned.

You'll need to like plants, know how to grow and take care of them and understand their needs. You should know which ones will bloom when and which ones will grow where. Growing plants is almost accompanied by Esoteric knowledge, but it's something you can learn.

If you've been growing plants successfully, you probably have developed the intuition to know what is right for what types of plants. Try to expand that knowledge by getting more training, reading more books and learning from other experts. Depending on the type of gardening and plant care you plan to do, you could also earn your certificate in horticulture or nursery management.

Tools
You'll need a complete set of garden tools, including a hand held shovel and pruning shears. Your old garden tools will do nicely, although you might want to invest in some good garden tools once your business takes off.

If you have a reliable garden, there's probably no need to build a nursery. It's a good idea, however, because you'll have a proper place where you can propagate, plant and nurture your plants.

If you do have a nursery, you should have an efficient watering system. You can build this yourself or have it professional installed. Otherwise, you can make do with a simple garden hose with a fine sprinkler attachment.