I put this here thinking it'd get more opinions and many of those in this section may be doing exactly this or something similar. I see chiliplants.com sell peppers during the fall but I'm wondering if there's enough demand for specialty peppers year round?
Speciality Pepper Busiess Viable?
- Thread starter newhotstuff
- Start date
Of course there is; when I lived in the states (Portland, Or) Habaneros, Jalapenos, Serranos, and Thai chilies were available 24/7/365. I don't think a domestic grower is going to be able to compete with cheap imports in the winter/spring times of year. Cheers
Last time I was in Vancouver Canada the plant shops had many kinds you can't get at the food shops to try. I should not give advice, but in Thailand where chilies are used alot by all Thai and hard to avoid for visiters. Don't think it would fly good even here, as finding exotic chilies at the big plant market is not going to happen, as they say just not enough sales. I tryed to send seeds to my friend and family was told not to bother as they have no interest. I could sell more Spiders, Snakes, Scorpions, and so forth. Theres got to be a market but can you really tap into it. And have the time and money to wait to get in?
I don't have a lot of pepper experience, I am new to the hobby, but as far as entry into new-to-you markets go I can lend some advice.
Step 1: When you don't understand the market DONT have a long term plan for your business. It seems crazy at first but unlike a market that you have experience in, something new and different will be just that, NEW and DIFFERENT. Don't assume you understand the market before getting your feet wet. Build your specialties as you build your client book.
Step 2: Start really small, but make sure it is reproducible. It is great to sell a bunch of pepper plants that are huge and well developed in their pots for $500.00 to some rich fanatic, but is that a scalable business? Can you reproduce those plants for a new buyer by tomorrow? (Botanical timelines and customer demand will NEVER line up) So you start small. Sell seedlings and seeds and sell the seedlings when they are still young. Peppers take forever to germinate (as we all know) so lets make sure you don't slap MORE time onto your "time until next inventory delivery" calender.
Step 3: Understand that a potential sale, is not a sale, and that most leads will fizzle. Dont let that discourage you. Most of the time you won't sell what you are selling. You don't buy every single item that you see in a commercial and you shouldn't expect others to. It only takes one big order to change the scale of your business, so stick through the no's and the "yes's" are all that better.
Step 4: Start up Capital is overrated. Think unit cost (price for the plant,pot,soil out the door including the costs of growing it up) and think about ways you could begin your business without spending ANY money. Only use sales from your small no money start up to build the company into something that satisfies all of our steps. If you only use profit for expansion your risk assessments will always be way lower than a competitor that bought a greenhouse to compete with you.
So what did we do to succeed? Well we more to the point DIDNT do a lot of things that others may tell u to do.
We didn't assume we knew the marketplace, and we grew with the client base
We didn't try and own a nursery overnight and started very small keeping our costs down.
We didn't leverage ourselves heavily and then hope for a sale, we economically worked out a product that wouldn't cost the farm house to R&D
We didn't quit after the first person told us to give up.
Entering a market you don't understand is A LOT of fun. You learn and make stupid mistakes and so long as you aren't paying a lot for your mistakes they are the best way to become pro.
GO FOR IT.
Step 1: When you don't understand the market DONT have a long term plan for your business. It seems crazy at first but unlike a market that you have experience in, something new and different will be just that, NEW and DIFFERENT. Don't assume you understand the market before getting your feet wet. Build your specialties as you build your client book.
Step 2: Start really small, but make sure it is reproducible. It is great to sell a bunch of pepper plants that are huge and well developed in their pots for $500.00 to some rich fanatic, but is that a scalable business? Can you reproduce those plants for a new buyer by tomorrow? (Botanical timelines and customer demand will NEVER line up) So you start small. Sell seedlings and seeds and sell the seedlings when they are still young. Peppers take forever to germinate (as we all know) so lets make sure you don't slap MORE time onto your "time until next inventory delivery" calender.
Step 3: Understand that a potential sale, is not a sale, and that most leads will fizzle. Dont let that discourage you. Most of the time you won't sell what you are selling. You don't buy every single item that you see in a commercial and you shouldn't expect others to. It only takes one big order to change the scale of your business, so stick through the no's and the "yes's" are all that better.
Step 4: Start up Capital is overrated. Think unit cost (price for the plant,pot,soil out the door including the costs of growing it up) and think about ways you could begin your business without spending ANY money. Only use sales from your small no money start up to build the company into something that satisfies all of our steps. If you only use profit for expansion your risk assessments will always be way lower than a competitor that bought a greenhouse to compete with you.
So what did we do to succeed? Well we more to the point DIDNT do a lot of things that others may tell u to do.
We didn't assume we knew the marketplace, and we grew with the client base
We didn't try and own a nursery overnight and started very small keeping our costs down.
We didn't leverage ourselves heavily and then hope for a sale, we economically worked out a product that wouldn't cost the farm house to R&D
We didn't quit after the first person told us to give up.
Entering a market you don't understand is A LOT of fun. You learn and make stupid mistakes and so long as you aren't paying a lot for your mistakes they are the best way to become pro.
GO FOR IT.
Depends on your market. I stopped growing lots of super-hots since nobody around here wants them, I basically have to give them away. Bigger cities, or areas with a lot of immigrants may have a lot more demand. Most people who buy super-hots only need a couple peppers so you may have to look for sauce makers, or extreme heat lovers, or grow mild and medium chiles which more people would be interested in.
I'd also add, that with this wonderful thing we call the internet, your business doesn't have to stop XX miles from your house.. If you can ship, your businesses front door can be on any computer screen in the world. Granted, with produce and plants it stops at the nations borders without jumping thru hoops, but still, thats a WHOLE lot bigger of an audience if you have the determination to get your product out there..