Should I start a Tree/Plant Nursery Business

I was hoping people on here could help me decide if I should start a tree/nursery business or not. For context I have a background in maintenance work, so I have multiple skills working on things. I also have a lot of appliance repair experience and I thought about starting a business in that field.

However, my passion doesn’t lie in fixing appliances, but it’s a great opportunity, good money, and there is no competition in my area. On the other hand I’d rather do a tree nursery, because my true passion lies in nature and the outdoors. The only problem with running a tree nursery is that there is competition in my area, I have no experience in it, and I don’t know for sure if I have the demographics for it.

My question is should I do the appliance business? Which would pretty much be a guaranteed successful business and I would make great money and fairly quick. Or is there potential in running a tree nursery that I am not aware of?

Could you possible do both to start? Your main business to start (or keep doing) would be your appliance repair business and you could dip your toes into the nursery business? This would at least keep income flowing for you as you figure out the ropes with plants. Then you can eventually transition fulltime into the nursery IF you find that you are having success.

I personally would have a hard time taking a risk when I have an almost guaranteed cash flow from something that I already am familiar with.

I also believe that you can successfully flesh out a nursery business on the side without too much overhead especially if you specialize in something such as fruit trees, bushes, or even something like native plants. I know of a local who only works with fig tree varieties and does well on Etsy.

It's a good business and can be very profitable. There are always a demand for more trees where I live.

But start small.  Do what you can with as little as possible. Maybe a few hundred dollars investment, then let the nursery pay for it's own expansion. This is where a lot of nursery failures come from, starting larger than they can handle.

Questions to think about.
. Do you want to retail or wholesale?
. Do you want to ship?
. Do you have a friend with a landscaping company who can give you free hedge trimming (half your startup cost and potential first customer)
. What are your local laws around selling plants?
. What are the local companies already doing?
.  What would be your niche?  Your focus that makes your trees more special than already existing trees?

Lots or little to consider here. I would suggest looking up Twisted Tree Farm in the state of New York and seeing if that model appeals to you.

For years I've pondered and tinkered about a nursery as well...but I'm a total slow roller. That can be a good thing tho as I'm getting lots of experience in the ways of doing and not doing things, so be patient and start very small with low expectations. I've lost hundreds and more trees over the years mainly to my inability to water regularly and/or insects and animals.

To bare root, or potted, or both?

Online sales involving shipping, or on-site pickup, or both?

Native wildlife and ecosystem boosters, or domestic ornamentals for aesthetic landscaping, or both?

Timothy Norton wrote:Could you possible do both to start? Your main business to start (or keep doing) would be your appliance repair business and you could dip your toes into the nursery business? This would at least keep income flowing for you as you figure out the ropes with plants. Then you can eventually transition fulltime into the nursery IF you find that you are having success.

I personally would have a hard time taking a risk when I have an almost guaranteed cash flow from something that I already am familiar with.

I also believe that you can successfully flesh out a nursery business on the side without too much overhead especially if you specialize in something such as fruit trees, bushes, or even something like native plants. I know of a local who only works with fig tree varieties and does well on Etsy.

I considered that, but I figured that would be too much at once. Plus I’d rather commit fully to one business. Appliance repair takes a good deal of investment and equipment. I could turn a profit quicker, but it would take a good 3-5 years to establish a full time business.

Trees take ages to grow.  No money coming innfor 3 to 7 years is tough.  But it does give time to build contacts.

However, if you go with a permaculture style growing, the nursery takes about 3 hours a month for a reasonable size start.  If you want irrigation style nursery, up that to almost 4 hours a week.  It's not a big time investment if you start small.  And the risk is way less if your crop gets wiped out due to peats, disease...

The ones I know that successfully started a nursery kept their fourty hour a week job for the first few years.  Or they didgthe 60h a week landscaping and 4 hour a week nursery as this builds clients and free supplies.

Ryan Burkitt wrote: I considered that, but I figured that would be too much at once. Plus I’d rather commit fully to one business. Appliance repair takes a good deal of investment and equipment. I could turn a profit quicker, but it would take a good 3-5 years to establish a full time business.

I can't fault you for that one bit. I tend to be quite risk averse when it comes to financials but that does not mean that it wouldn't work. You know the specific details of your lifestyle the best! Outside of the business side of a nursery, how do you imagine you want to stock your nursery? Seed starts and/or propagation?  Have you thought about the infrastructure you may want such as greenhouses or air pruning beds? What ideas do you have currently for a vision?

Timothy Norton wrote:

Ryan Burkitt wrote: I considered that, but I figured that would be too much at once. Plus I’d rather commit fully to one business. Appliance repair takes a good deal of investment and equipment. I could turn a profit quicker, but it would take a good 3-5 years to establish a full time business.

I can't fault you for that one bit. I tend to be quite risk averse when it comes to financials but that does not mean that it wouldn't work. You know the specific details of your lifestyle the best! Outside of the business side of a nursery, how do you imagine you want to stock your nursery? Seed starts and/or propagation?  Have you thought about the infrastructure you may want such as greenhouses or air pruning beds? What ideas do you have currently for a vision?

I was thinking seed starts and propagating at the same time, but also I would like to do air pruning beds. I thought of starting out selling seedlings.

I have found an integral dilemma to being someone selling trees while also wanting to help as many tree thrive long term as possible. In my observation and that of many permies, trees do better if in their forever home as young as possible, with planting seedlings being the ideal for longterm health, resilience, and drought tolerance. So the conundrum arises that the trees people are willing to pay more for, larger ones, are the most likely to fail or falter from transplant stress, and will be surpassed by trees planted much younger or as seeds.

Some have the right market—higher end real estate with ongoing development driving demand and providing new buyers—and landscaper customers who are happy to get paid to replant as many failed trees as their customer will pay for. This is not all nurseries, and I do not spite those in this lane but it does not compel me. Others, like Burnt Ridge, seem to have found a niche where they can sell wide ranges of ages in volumes large enough to allow for very small margins on each sale, with the apparent primary goal of getting more trees planted in the world while sustaining the operation. Burnt Ridge is wonderful, but I just do not know how their economics and logistics work out.

I'd love to learn how to run a proper nursery, then setup one and run it like a pro, then make it a community asset and teach locals how to run it, creating good teachers of nursery who can go out and setup more nurseries where needed, expanding outwards. Hopefully we won't be shut down once the gov sees how much good we're doing That last thought came to mind after watching a podcast with Paul Wheaton and a guy who started a homestead in Costa Rica which became a hit on WWOOF. What also comes to mind is a page from the PDM (or was it a classroom lecture from his PDC?) where Bill talks about the value of setting up a gardening service where you go around helping and teaching people how to setup a garden. Such a business could probably be run out of a van/truck and a garage. The thinking goes further; say there's a country which offers you a passport and 0% tax scheme by investing in their country through a business venture - setup a gardening service business and help people in that country get up and running growing and eating their own healthy food!