Comfrey on Etsy as Income

In our household we've had need of some some extra income, so in late April I took a look at my comfrey patch and wondered, can I sell this stuff online?  I have sold some berry bushes here out of our little nursery area, but I wanted to try my hand at some online sales.  I figured comfrey would be a good bet.

Well, long story short, in 3 weeks I ended up with $1450 in my pocket.  I could have sold more but quite frankly I ran out of stuff to sell.

Here's the rough breakdown:
Total Sales: $3066.29

Expenses:
- Etsy Fees: $343.47
- Etsy Marketing: $153.77
- Shipping - Labels/Postage: $965.08
- Boxes and Shipping Supplies: $157.54

Earnings: $1446.43

I bought a bag of 50 comfrey roots from Twisted Tree Farm in 2018 or so and had planted them out.  One row in particular was 35' long with comfrey every 18 inches or so.  It's from this row I took $1450 out of the ground when we needed it.  

In this time in addition to digging and dividing plants, I had to figure out:
- Etsy itself, financials, etc.
- Boxes - what to order
- Packing - how to pack plants in boxes, organizing labels to get the right stuff to the right folks.
- Organizing all this stuff in our home.
- Fielding questions from my wife regarding store 38 boxes of comfrey in the fridge pre-shipment.

This seems small but in the midst of orders it's an extra bit above just raising plants.

I've come to see propagatable plant material as a savings account - Comfrey, willow trees, poplar, all your ribes, blueberries, hydrangea, weigela, etc.  The list goes on.  Once you figure out how to make more of them they are a savings account.  

Learn to propagate.  Still working on a book on this subject that will be out by the end of the year.

My thoughts on Etsy:
- Good place for small plants and starts like this that people are looking for.
- They do take fees, but the advantage is you don't have to spend time building a website.  I think in particular the marketing and brand recognition of Etsy and that it's an established marketplace make it worthwhile especially for experiments on what to sell before you build out a whole site.  In particular their handling of ads on Google for you is worth the time saved, in my humble opinion.  I'm not sorry for doing it.  
- Shipping, payments, sales taxes, all this is integrated and ready to go.  You just write your listings.
- The biggest issue I had was working out their payout schedule.  They hold funds for 14 days in reserve, but on top of that, if your business is growing rapidly, your current orders held in reserve are actually holding back the funds from your older orders.  It's hard to explain but let it suffice to say if you need cash quick, this is not the site to do it on.  At that point you should run Squarespace or something where you get paid a lot quicker.
- I learned (and am still learning) a lot about sales and FOMO/scarcity from this experience.   Sell something for $10? no sales.  Sell for $14 with 25% off?  People buy even though it's $10.50 now.   Have 25 of an item on Etsy?  No sales.  Only 9 left?  Sales.
- I am learning about how to do marketing with pictures more than words.... it's a few extra clicks to get to the description, so I've been embedding text in my images to describe the product and benefits.

I would do it again for experiments like this.  

Is this the end solution for me?  No, but it was a good way to do an experiment with less than a day getting listings written and in front of people.

I can dive into any topics anybody would like to know more about.

As I was not selling roots, I was busy planting more rows of comfrey and planting odds and ends pieces in 50 cell trays.  If anyone wants to start their own patch (and are in the US, East of the Mississippi, and not on the Gulf coast), I have about 200 of these little guys left that still need a good home, I'll post a link over in the products forum if anybody is interested along with a way to get a Permies coupon for comfrey on my Etsy shop.

Here's the thread with links to the Comfrey I have left if anyone wants to try this:  https://permies.com/t/284718/Comfrey-Rooted-Starts

I just wanted to pop in and say that I really like the look of your Etsy store. It is really inviting and I think you have your products labeled well.

I'm going to scrape together some pennies, I think there is an elderberry on there with my name on it.

Very cool operation you have.  I never thought of selling the plants already started. I assumed they would get too beat up shipping.  I only sell roots, and then I've only sold them on here or in person by word of mouth.  Good job taking this up a level.

I like what you're doing and think it's a great deal. I almost ordered but when I see regressive sales tax and "fees" constantly going up here, I am forced to stop and reconsider.

I've decided to only use cash to the extent I can at this point. I am ripping myself off by doing this of course. But it helps me sleep well at night.

Nice looking operation!

Trace Oswald wrote:Very cool operation you have.  I never thought of selling the plants already started. I assumed they would get too beat up shipping.

I mailed a buddy of mine a started plant. It had 3 leaves and I rolled it in a wet paper towel and put inside of a used quart ziplock and did not seal the bag.

I talked to him a month later and he said it was doing great. I bet the boxes do an even better job of keeping the started plant intact than a bubble mailer.

Thanks for all your encouragement.  

The comfrey is very tough and like someone said if you keep the roots moist it does well shipping.  I cut off most of the leaves and ship them in sandwich bags with the tops sticking up, and a note to the effect "I have cut off the tops, it will send up new growth in a week or two"

For the crowns and roots I packed them in shredded cardboard soaked in activated EM-1 microbial inoculant.  It keeps them moist AND has a good start for the soil food web.

I also pack in shredded cardboard in 6" x 6" x 2" boxes and refrigerate 12-18 hours before shipping.  The thought being they are at least cool when they show up at UPS.  Boxes are about $1 each from uline.com, and I re-use other boxes for larger orders.

I also sell on Facebook for cash and word of mouth.  I do enjoy the interaction and not boxing, fees, shipping fees, etc.    

My vision is to have lots of operations like mine all over, where people can pay cash/barter for useful plants.    This operation I've described would take up a 35' long by 2' bed on the side of one's house.    You can imagine groups of people each propagating different useful plants and selling locally.  This is what I'm writing my book about.

Yes the fees, taxes, etc. stink, BUT, BUT, by putting myself out there in the online marketplace I can show people there is a different way with information on how to do it themselves if they are interested and they can have a nice little side gig selling locally.  Or compete with me on Etsy.  There is room!

There was a nursery near me about 20 years ago, Miller's in Canandaigua.  Each spring I'd go there and you could get a grafted, 6' tall apple tree for $18.  It's where I got the apples for my orchard.  Starks bought them out,   Now it's at least double if not triple the price, and it comes in a box in the mail.  I used to walk into a refrigerated warehouse with HUNDREDS of varieties of all sorts of fruit trees and pick what I wanted and talk to people who knew everything you'd want to know about growing them.

Blackberries: Look online and you can EASILY find them for $45/plant on fastgrowingtrees.com.  I can root hundreds for pennies and sell for a reasonable price, and show others how to do it.

And I could go on.  

I want to put myself out there and encourage and inspire others.