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I could read threads like this all day <3

Don't feed the plants!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbQwEAvSMHM

Whereabouts do you ship to (and if possible can you share a link or something)? I'm always looking for more Europe/UK plant suppliers!

I'm also trying to start up a small online plant shop but am finding it hard to a) get the growing space, and b) get the interesting stock - would love to hear about how you dealt with these issues when first starting up! :)

My website is https://phito.be :)

I ship in the EU and any other countries that have trade deals that allows plant transfer without requiring phytosanitary certificates (Switzerland for example)! Sadly after Brexit I don't know if I will still be able to ship over the UK :(

Finding the growing space is hard, especially if your plants are big. Thankfully I focus mostly on the Drosera genus, which are mostly small plants. I can fit multiple plants in a 7x7cm pot. I grow the winter-hardy ones in a greenhouse, the tropical ones are grown inside under LEDs.

Finding rare species is not too hard if you have good contacts in the community (I've been part of it for more than 10 years, so it was relatively easy for me). The hard part is propagation. Thankfully for me, a lot of Drosera are really easy to propagate by leaves cuttings but for the species that are not easily propagated, I work with an university that propagate them in tissue culture for me.

Good luck with your project, it requires a lot of work but if you're passionate about it, it won't feel like work!

Yeah there's been a lot of Brexit talk in the orchid communities, it's a big problem because of how hard they are to propagate - there's only a few orchid nurseries left in the UK that can grow from seed because you need a lab setup, which is a huge shame

I've had good luck growing a few Drosera from seed, never even thought about leaf cuttings, that's super interesting!

Hopefully depending on Brexit I'll be able to order from you next Spring! Do you have a mailing list or something?

Yes Brexit is a real mess for plant collectors (and for almost everyone else, but that's just my opinion).

Looking forward to send you plants, make sure to say you're from hacker news in the notes of your order ;) I don't have a mailing list yet, although that is a good idea and I will look into it for the next season!

Given that any competitors may also face the Brexit problem and it hasn't happened yet, why not start a subsidiary now and ship a bunch of product over before Brexit comes into effect?

For multiple reasons:

- There's basically no competition, except maybe other hobbyists that trade or sell their excess plants (which is basically what I do, but with a website).

- UK residents represent less than 10% of my customers.

- I don't have a lot of stock. For some species I sometimes only have 1 of them available over the span of a few months.

- It would just cost too much to keep them alive in another country before selling them. Some of the plants I sell require very specific conditions and a lot of knowledge about them to keep them alive.

- It's totally out of the scale of what I'm doing, remember that this is a thread about one-person business. I do not want too many customers otherwise I will just run out of personal time (I'm doing all the packaging after work hours)

It's just really not worth it or even possible for me. If some UK resident really wants to buy a lot of plants from me, then I can request a phytosanitary certificate from the government (costs around 100€, and includes an inspection).

From his posts here, it looks like this is just a small side business for him, and he still works a normal day job. If UK customers are already a small fraction of his total customer base, it's not going to make any economic sense to start a subsidiary of a small moonlighting one-person gig just to retain those customers.

There's a lot of small businesses out there that just don't have enough market demand to be turned into something as large as what you're suggesting.

consider moving to a .com domain and go with translating your content for new markets.

Thanks for the advice, translating is definitely a goal for next season (I have a lot of French customers as it's my main language, and they are often confused about the english website).

What would moving to a .com domain do? Help with SEO?

I'm guessing the idea is that a .com looks more "official", but I think that's becoming less and less over time as alternative TLDs get more uptake. This probably depends on your customer base though.

My father-in-law also cultivates and sells carnivorous plants as well as water lilies as a hobby. And he's also Belgian.

That's awesome, maybe I know him!

I thought you might. His name is Guido Lurquin.

Is your father-in-law also on HN? :p

I appreciate your advice. It may seem obvious but obvious is easy to miss sometimes. Anyhow, question, how do you maintain your supply? I would think those plants are hard to cultivate?

I do a lot of leaves cuttings and sow a lot of seeds during winter, then they can reach a good size for the next spring.

For plants that are slower to grow or impossible to propagate via cuttings, I work with an university near me that propagate them in tissue culture.

Can I ask how much profit you make off the plants?

This year I made around 6000€ in profit. I could make more but the limiting factor here is mostly time.

My main goal is to cover my hobby's expenses, which are mostly the electricity bill and acquiring new species.

Would it be worth hiring someone at this stage?

Actually that was what I was curious about reading the title of the question. If you are successful as a one person business, it makes sense to scale it past a one person business.

>If you are successful as a one person business, it makes sense to scale it past a one person business.

That's not necessarily true. A lot of businesses just don't have enough demand out there to justify scaling up. For instance, suppose you make a business selling a custom LED set for a particular mechanical keyboard (or come up with some other obscure niche product); just how many people out there do you think are willing to pay for that? Larger businesses need lots of customers to pay for all the overhead, which for a 1-person side gig is essentially free (they're working in their spare time): you need employees you have to pay by the hour, regardless of demand, year-round; you need a building/commercial space; etc. You can get away with a lot of things as a 1-person side gig that you can't when you take on employees, and those costs are significant.

how did you find your first customers?

In this market, the demand for certain species is much higher than the offer. So I just advertised in the online carnivorous plants communities that I had these species for sale on my website. People rushed in to get them and bought other species alongside.

do you mind sharing the URL for your business ? I love discovering indie businesses outside of software realm

of course, it is https://phito.be/

I wish you had a blog where you share "behind the scenes" stories running this business

There's a few pictures here about how I pack my plants (warning: large sized images will load with this page, still have to fix this...)

https://phito.be/frequently-asked-questions/

and a few blog articles here

https://phito.be/articles/

I would like to write more blog articles, but I am a very slow writer and I don't have a lot of time :/

Next feature for website: organize plant by trap's type or insect they eat :)

I see your Belgian as well. How's the tax situation for something like this? Not giving you too much trouble?

EDIT: This also explains why you say "6 month winter" :D

Previously I was under a certain revenue per year that allowed me to pay almost no taxes, but now I have to put the regular 21% tax on

best idea in this list!

Thanks :)