• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Opinions wanted - what do you think?

W

wordwiz

I've got a lot of my grow room done, except for adding some braces and lights. At the present time, I'm looking at growing about 1400 plants for sale, but it I add three more lights and want to get down on my hands and knees to grab trays, I can add another 600 or more, depending on what size containers I go with. The costs are not huge, maybe $150 but if I can sell all of them the minimum revenue would be $750.

The basic question - if you could scrape up the funds but have other bills to pay, would YOU go for it without knowing if you can sell them or not?

Mike
 
Gee wiz that is a pretty hard question to answer, did you do any research to find out how much people are interested? $150 does seem very reasonable though for that many plants. Now as i do the math i am confused.
You say 1400 plants and mention $750 revenue, this would mean that you are planning on selling the plants for 64cents a pop, i must be missing something here.

The way i would think is that i just have to sell enough to cover costs, once that is done the rest is pure cream for you.

How many plants do you think you would have to sell to recoup the outlay?
How much can one charge for a chilli plant.
I am leaning towards GO FOR IT!!
 
Novacastrian said:
Gee wiz that is a pretty hard question to answer, did you do any research to find out how much people are interested? $150 does seem very reasonable though for that many plants. Now as i do the math i am confused.
You say 1400 plants and mention $750 revenue, this would mean that you are planning on selling the plants for 64cents a pop, i must be missing something here.

The way i would think is that i just have to sell enough to cover costs, once that is done the rest is pure cream for you.

How many plants do you think you would have to sell to recoup the outlay?
How much can one charge for a chilli plant.
I am leaning towards GO FOR IT!!
Click to expand...

Lmao you said "gee wiz". But I think wiz is calculating the $750 as profit, not total revenue. But i say what the hell man, do it. Good luck in this, keep us posted.
 
wordwiz said:
The basic question - if you could scrape up the funds but have other bills to pay, would YOU go for it without knowing if you can sell them or not?

Mike
Click to expand...

you must ask yourself this question not us. when you say "scrape up funds but have other bills to pay"
I know you want to sell the seedlings for profit or for your org. (forget what it is right now,sorry) worst case you grow them out & harvest. then sell the dried pods or powder.
 
It sounds like a lot of plants to take care of. I'd probably start smaller until you get an idea of the market and your capabilities.
 
I wish my crystal ball was working so I could see how many people want to buy plants! My marketing plans:

The county fair has an arts & crafts fair on Derby Day (first Saturday of May) and this year I believe they are going to allow people to sell plants. This could be a way of selling 500 or more plants as it is well advertised and a few hundred people show up.

Farmers' Markets - there are at least two of them that are almost within walking distance. One is established, one is new. I'm estimating selling 50 plants a week for up to six weeks.

Senior Citizen/Community Council Groups: I know about six groups in the communities my paper serves. Many of them love to plant a few tomatoes or such. Since they average about 50 seniors per community, and I will deliver the plants to their meetings, I should be able to sell at least 150 plants via this way.

Business owners/employees: each week, I deliver a paper to about 250 businesses, all of them Mom & Pop type places that have 2-20 employees. I can leave a flyer with the paper, take orders then deliver. I don't know how many plants I can sell this way - as few as 100, as many as 500.

Eagles/American Legion/VFW: There are a few of these groups in which I know lots of people. Again, take orders and then deliver.

Advertising: One nice thing is it won't cost me anything. I can print a nice description of the produce and even include pictures along with an order form. Delivery won't be free (unless someone buys $25 worth of plants) but it will not be expensive - cheaper than what someone could drive to a nursery.

Forum: I operate two forums, one for communities in the area and another for the Fair. Neither is anywhere close to as large as this one but I should be able to sell maybe 100 plants this way.

Yard/Roadside sales: There are several businesses I know that will allow me to set up a stand in a remote part of their parking lot.

The key is how many plants I can sell at the Arts & Crafts fair.If it does well then getting rid of 1,000 in the next month should be relatively easy. But if I only sell 100 there, then I may have lots of plants left over.

As far as work and caring for them, it should not be time consuming. Sowing and transplanting them will take a while, but that's a one-time job. They will all be in flats with trays and I have a couple of tubs that will hold at least two trays each. Once I get started, the amount of time it will take to water them is going to be maybe 20 minutes per week since I will have fewer than 60 trays to move.

It's too bad I can't grow plants in 30 days. Then I could see how the first week goes and either sow a bunch more or devise another plan.

Mike
 
I agree with Chilehunter. We do not know what your bills are and how hard it will be to get the cash, so you have to answer it your self.
I also agree with Potawie. Start out small till you see what the market is and you get a following for your plants. I have done this here in Lake and Ashtabula, Counties Of Ohio, it was a good thing for a while and then it seemed to slow down the last few years. It was like the people started there own and were looking just for the hard to fine Plants. Good luck at what ever you do. IMO start off small then go form there.
Dan
 
Quite ambitious -- I would NOT go for it without knowing what the market would do. Money is tight as it is and you haven't tried entering the market yet. Start with what you have and build a reputation with the community for having the bestest plants ever!!
 
Mike...look at it like this....if you initial outlay is 150 and you can only sell 100 plants at 3 bucks each, you are still making 150 profit, not counting your time and effort...you can get your initial outlay back by selling 50 and everything else is gravy....

(I think you were going to sell them for 3, even if it was 2 sell 75 to get your money back and then everything else is profit)
 
Not knowing the exact situation you're in financially I can't say yes or no on your question. You've got room for 1400 plants already, which is a great start. I think I'd go with that for now. In these times conservative is the way to go. My opinion.

Best of luck to you which ever way you decide to go.
 
Here's a math breakdown.

The minimum of plants would be 612. If I sell all I would have receipts of $1062. If I use all the space I want to, the additional costs would be $250 (seeds, trays, lights, ferts, potting soil, electricity) but I would have 1,500 plants to sell. My revenue would be $2800.

As far as affording it, I have money set aside I can use. Yes, I could spend it on other things, including beer(!), but there is nothing I really need to pay off or buy.

I also just realized something, about the only money I would be out of would be seeds and electricity and a bit of potting soil and ferts. I can reuse the trays and cells next year. The lights are the highest expense, but they should last at least five years, maybe a lot longer, as I'll be using them for only a couple of months.

I guess it comes down to should I roll the dice and hope for a big payday and if it doesn't work have lots of seedling to add to my compost pile or play it safe and maybe regret running out of plants in early May.

Mike
 
Talking to myself here but: I have three 4' shop lights I can use, which will save me $80 in light bulb costs. Risk $175 to possibly make $1700? I don't see how I have a choice. One thing I learned is to shoot for the stars but be glad if you hit a very high tree!

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top