The Big Idea - Potted Flower and Succulent Business
Meet Hope, a curious and creative 13-year-old with a love for plants. Inspired by her mom's thriving garden, Hope dreams of starting her own potted flower and succulent business. She’s read "The Lean Startup" and is ready to turn her green thumb into a profitable venture.
Hope’s Story: One day, while helping her mom repot some succulents, Hope noticed how much her friends admired the unique plant arrangements. This sparked an idea: Why not sell custom potted flowers and succulents? She realized that with a bit of creativity, she could make these plants perfect gifts for birthdays and special events.
Jobs to Be Done: The first step in launching your business is understanding the job your product will do for your customers.
Hope’s Example: Hope's plants aren’t just decorations—they bring joy, brighten spaces, and make thoughtful gifts. She identifies that people are looking for unique, personalized gifts and decor. Her potted flowers and succulents can fulfill these needs, especially for those who might not have the time or skill to create them themselves.
Key Lesson: Identify what problem your product solves or what desire it fulfills. For Hope, it's the need for unique and personalized gifts and home decor.
Customer Discovery: Talking to potential customers is crucial to understanding their needs and preferences. Here are five questions Hope used to discover what her customers wanted:
What do you like about potted plants?
How often do you buy plants or flowers?
What occasions would you buy a potted plant for?
What features do you look for in a potted plant (e.g., type of plant, pot design)?
How much would you be willing to spend on a custom potted plant?
Unique Tip: Hope gave away a few sample plants to her friends and asked for feedback. This helped her understand what designs and types of plants were most popular.
Hope’s Journey: Hope created a simple survey and shared it with her classmates and family friends. She discovered that many people preferred succulents because they are easy to care for and look great in small spaces. She also learned that custom pot designs were a big hit, especially for gifts.
Business Model Insights: Using feedback from her surveys, Hope refined her business idea.
Hope’s Insight: Hope decided to offer a variety of succulents in custom-decorated pots, with options for different occasions like birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. She also considered offering a subscription service for monthly plant deliveries.
Key Lesson: Feedback from customer discovery helps you refine your business model. Hope used her insights to focus on what her customers valued most—unique, easy-to-care-for plants in personalized pots.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP): An MVP is a simple version of your product that you use to test your idea and gather feedback. For Hope, this meant creating a few sample plants and setting up a simple landing page to gauge interest.
Types of MVPs:
Concierge MVP: Manually deliver plants to early customers to understand their needs.
Wizard of Oz MVP: Create the illusion of a fully functional business while handling processes manually.
Landing Page MVP: Create a simple webpage to showcase your products and collect email addresses of interested customers.
Email MVP: Send out emails to gauge interest in new products or features.
Hope’s Approach: Hope created a few handmade plant arrangements and set up a simple webpage with pictures of her designs and a sign-up form. She shared this page on social media and with her school community.
Financial Planning: Understanding the basics of cost, pricing, and profit is essential for any business.
Basic Concepts:
Cost: The amount spent to create the product.
Pricing: How much you charge customers.
Profit: The money made after covering costs.
Challenge: Calculate how many plants you need to sell to reach a specific profit goal.
Hope’s Calculation: Hope calculated that each plant cost her $5 to make. She decided to sell them for $15 each, giving her a $10 profit per plant. To make $1,000, she needed to sell 100 plants.
Actionable Steps: Here are three steps Hope can take to get started.
Hope’s Next Steps:
Create Samples: Hope will make her first batch of custom potted plants.
Set Up a Landing Page: She'll create a simple website to showcase her products and collect email addresses.
Promote Her Business: Hope will share her landing page on social media and with friends and family to attract her first customers.
By following these steps, Hope is well on her way to turning her passion for plants into a successful business. She’s excited to see her idea grow and bloom just like her beautiful succulents!
