[Music]
hey what's up you guys i'm christina
from leafy luster and today i want to
share with you how much money i made
selling plants i'm collecting plants
over three years now and i'm selling
them for two years i have data from
those two years we all know that the
houseplant hobby can get very expensive
especially if you are venturing into
more uncommon or rare houseplants these
can cost quite a lot and this can weigh
heavy on our bank accounts luckily for
us houseplants are a regrowing resource
so we can capitalize on that today i
want to show you how i do it why i do it
and how much money i made exactly in
those two years of me occasionally
selling some plans online so let's get
right into it let me tell you selling
houseplants online has never been this
easy you just go on facebook marketplace
or ebay or instagram or
however you like you just make an
account you can put your plans in the
prices you want the description some
pictures people can hit you up send you
a dm and then you can negotiate if
necessary see if you get a sale or maybe
trade and it's very quick and easy i
consider myself a private seller i'm by
no means a professional business
i have documented my process of selling
plans in those two years via a excel
sheet that i made i have all my sales
there i will share those with you in
detail today my process is very simple i
propagate the plants because i like it
it's fun anyways and then i have a ton
of cuttings that eventually grow into
little baby plants and i need to get rid
of them so i sell them online at any
given time i have several propagations
going in the first year i think it was
less and the second year now i think i
had four like bigger sales i'm working
on a principle that i don't like to sell
freshly taken cuttings you have no
guarantee that those cuttings will
survive i usually put them up keep them
in soil for a while so i really see that
they are
acclimatized
acclimatized in the soil when i'm sure
they're growing in the soil they're
doing fine i sell them that's the way i
go about it if there's someone who's
willing to buy a freshly taken cutting
then
good for you
well obviously if you're just starting
your collection you won't be able to
propagate a lot of plants they might be
very small you don't want to cut them
back when you just bought them to grow
for yourself and it's totally fine maybe
you bought a plant and it's just one
shoot and you want a more full bushy
look you propagate this one plant get
like four or five cuttings out of it and
how i go about it is i just keep three
cuttings for myself and then two from
the cuttings i sell i have a win-win
situation you planned kind of pays off
itself or at least lowers the price
enough of the talking let's get right
into the spicy part
[Music]
okay first let's check out the excel
sheet of 2020 i started like midway in a
year it's not the best it works for my
purposes if you're a business you need
to have better axle sheets
on the top here we have um how i mix my
soil and then the expenses for that
here i try to calculate how
much one pot of soil costs on the left
side we have listed all the plants that
i sold or wanted to sell that i
propagated normal monstera deliciosa for
example this one had rips and i needed
to cut it up completely and treat it
this way on this side i have the price
that i list the plans for and then on
the left side i have the price that they
actually sell for you see sometimes
people negotiate and i am up for that if
you're a nice person just be nice on the
internet people like this right here is
actually the most interesting part here
you see the total sales that i did in
2020
238 euros in total i just subtracted the
expense for the soil and the expenses
for the pots what i was left with was
218 euro in 2020 which is not bad but i
am fully aware that i have spent more on
plans this year nonetheless you get a
little bit of money back and maybe if
you are very disciplined you can just
take all this plant money and from this
plant money you can buy new plants kudos
to you if you are able to make this i'm
not how much money was i able to make in
2021
do you want to know
how much it actually was drumroll please
since by this time i have further
increased my collection and i also was
more in the propagation game my plans
were just bigger i was able to take more
cuttings from them one important aspect
of this is obviously as a planned parent
you buy plants for yourself not for like
selling them and that is what i'm doing
i want them to get big and beautiful and
i want to see them grow sometimes you're
just a need to cut them if they just
outgrow your
space this year i had a lot more
spicy plants and by this i mean a lot
more uncommon plans materials listed
again right here i found some pots that
are way cheaper than the old ones that i
used so i pulled it down to 10 cents per
pot and then the actual expenses for
2021 in euros i calculated 28 cent per
pot and then everything that is on top
so the price of the plant is the actual
profit that i make disclaimer i'm not
counting electricity or water or my
working time this is just a hobby so
we're keeping it very basic here okay i
have all of the plants that are so
listed on the left side i have some
higher priced plants this time for
example the allocation of friday some
philodendron varicosemes in there other
ones like pothos you won't be able to
charge a lot for them but that's fine
that's not our goal right here i make an
effort to list my plans a little lower
than the
average because a i think plant prices
are exaggerated anyways at the moment
and b they sell better i just want all
of them to be gone most of the plants
are between like five or 10 euros it
just adds up if you sell a lot of them
the color coding here is to have a
little bit more overview this year i
have made a total of
762 euros in sales which is great 129
euros are still not sold yet with this
number now i can calculate the expenses
multiply 91 with 28 cents and then we
get 25 euros and 5 cents for our
expenses you can now calculate our total
profit and
it's 736
euros and 95 cents in
approximately it's this amount which
actually is over three times as much as
it
was last year
isn't this amazing that's a lot of money
to sum it up it is around 1 000 euros in
those two years it's obviously not a lot
for a business but for a casual
on the side i sometimes sell plans to
get a little bit of planned money back
this is great let's talk about
for example laws and taxes and stuff
because with this amount of money you
might think yeah well don't you need to
pay taxes or like have a business or
anything
depends on the country you live in
depends on how many plants you sell how
often you sell them
how much they are worth so obviously you
can sell plants that will cost way more
than everything that i made this whole
year and also i think i need to mention
that the amount of plants that i bought
this year that i later on propagate
eventually i didn't even cover my
expenses with all that i made let me
tell you one thing this year
i'm not proud okay i am not proud of i
bought stuff like a philodendron el
chaka red a single name aurea
a
and splendid
a lot of hoyas in my rough calculations
i spent like
1170 euros minimum this year on plans
girl how much money do you spend on
plans but i was able to significantly
lower the cost of my plants this way i'm
glad that i did the plant sales because
i feel less terrible right now
what can we conclude from this video now
i think there are four main points that
are very important number one
houseplants can be an expensive hobby
and if you want you can get your money
back if you don't make it in one season
then just sell a little piece the next
year and the next year and the next year
and eventually the plant will pay itself
off number two
selling houseplants online is very easy
very accessible everyone can do it
shipping plans isn't a big deal as well
i didn't know that when i started
collecting house plans i was mind blown
when i heard that plants can be shipped
via mail most plants it works really
well so number three
some plants are obviously easier to
propagate than others also grow faster
than others for example this monstera
ardensonii is an absolute best seller it
grows like weed i have to cut it back
constantly so that's why i have so many
propagations of it the people love it so
there's always someone who is very happy
to get a propagation from this plant put
some thought into which plants are
easily
propagatable
coming up to number four
four it is fun propagation is fun and
also the taking pictures writing a
description connecting with nice planned
people is so much fun maybe you find new
friends and
this is a big big plus for me number
five i get a bonus pro tip for me as a
let's say experienced seller always be
nice in messages this applies to buyers
and sellers there is no need to be rude
or scammy or anything else just be nice
and polite and enjoy the process okay
also if someone seems fishy to you
you're probably right i just want you to
have fun speaking of fun i will leave
this video right here of me doing a fine
diy and this playlist down here of all
of my propagations if you want to
propagate yourself and then maybe sell
later i'll see you next time until then
enjoy plants goodbye
[Music]