Another Small Business Closes Its Doors...Or Greenhouse

Today, another small business closed...not due to a world-wide virus, or government regulations, but because the businessman ran out of product to sell.

The season is over for Taylor Academy Plants, a.k.a. A Simple Life Plants. 

I'm proud of my son. He put in a lot of hard work. Of course, there were things he couldn't do that we helped with, like driving to pick up the plants and driving to the good spot to sell the plants. But still, he got up early on the weekends--something he doesn't usually do. He helped make decisions on what he felt was best for the business, including when to set up, how long to stay out on the sidewalk, and other things.

Yesterday afternoon, he had his best sale. A lone customer bought 1/2 of his entire inventory. Personally, I don't know if the man really needed thirty-two tomato plants, but who are we to argue? It was funny--after he left, we were discussing that very thing when we saw him come back and park his car. We were convinced his wife had told him to bring some of the plants back. Turns out, he came back to buy even more.

Score!

This morning, with an hour to go before we closed up shop, we had a half-off sale. A few more plants sold and then, time came to pack it up. My son decided to set up the table in front of our house with our remaining inventory and give it away to whomever wanted it. And that's what we did. Neighbors picked up a plant here and there, then finally, someone pulled up and took everything we had, about twenty plants. He gave my son $25,  even though we told him they were free. He didn't care and he made my son's day.

Yes, the doors have closed for 2020. But come 2021, he'll be back at it. It was a good experience.

The Things You Learn...Even With The Smallest Business

Tomorrow morning, my son will once again resume operations for Taylor Academy Plants, or A Simple Life Plants (the latter is my son's name for the business, and I like it better...). He'll set up the table, put up the signs, bring out the plants...

And wait.

Hence, the nature of commerce. You provide a good and/or service, and if that good and/or service is needed and worth the price, customers will purchase the good and/or service and everyone's happy. It's a process that's been successful for millennia, one I hope can continue for years to come.

My son has run into issues while getting product moved. Last week was a classic example. The night before our second Sidewalk Plant sale, we received a note stuck in our door. Turns out the city was going to do some road work right in front of our house.

At 7:30am, the trucks rolled in. They were done with our section of the road by 10:30am-ish. The sidewalk sale was to go on from 9am to noon-ish. When uncontrollable factors impact your operation, you can either learn from it, or curse it and blame others.

I know it's a stretch to suggest the road work greatly impacted his business. I mean, people aren't exactly beating down the door each Saturday morning. But, if anyone wanted to stop by, they'd have to circumnavigate pavers, steamrollers, and dump trucks to get to us.

I don't have the most business experience, but I'm trying to teach my son about promotion, marketing, inventory, and rolling with the punches. Tomorrow morning he'll be out--most likely with Nintendo Switch in hand--waiting to serve his customer base.

Here's to another week of experience...

And, hopefully, profit.

Our First Sidewalk Sale...

So much has changed this spring. Normally, after some early morning yard work, I might drive down to our local thrift store to possibly drop off some things and go inside to pick up some things. Another past time I enjoy on a beautiful spring weekend morning is checking out a local yard sale.

Not many of those taking place now.

And that's a shame.

There was, however, one local entrepreneur out in front of his house with product available. We held our first Saturday Sidewalk Sale. 

This is our youngest's business. He did the work to get the plants started. We're hoping he uses this experience to learn about costs and risks and organization, and saving. It's interesting--a few days ago I blogged about my first job was planting starts in flats in a nursery. 

My son had a couple of sales. We're hoping to take the lessons we learned from last weekend to see how to reach more people for the next sidewalk sale. That's what's amazing about having a business, even a small one. The things you learn about others, about yourself, is amazing.

I don't know if my son expected to sell out everything. I know he would love the $$$ if he did. But $$$ comes with work, adjustments, improvisation, and maybe a bit of humility. So, next time we'll pull out the table, set up the goods and see what happens....

At our Second Sidewalk Sale.

If You're Looking For Starts...Check Out Taylor Academy Plants

A few months ago our homeschool thought it might be cool for your youngest (and last student...) to looking into starting a business, something a teenager could do. We came across a project some other homeschoolers were doing--planting vegetable starts then selling them when they were ready.

Perfect!

Our son gets to learn about living things, what it takes to start a business, and seeing the product go from beginning to end, start to finish. We're to the point where the first plants are available to purchase so we created Taylor Academy Plants.

We even created a Facebook page, and you can access it by clicking: HERE.

Currently, we have just a few plants available, Cilantro, Artichoke, and Green Cabbage. By the end of April, we should have Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, Red Cabbage, Tomato, Lettuce, Basil, Eggplant, Watermelon, Cucumber, Pumpkin among others.

We had no idea what kind of a world we'd be in when we decided to do this. We had no way of knowing that people will be looking at the possibility of a home garden in a new light.

As you can see, the majority of the plants are not available yet, but if you go to the Facebook page and "Like" it, we'll keep you up to date on which plants are available. You can also contact us through the site to ask questions.

Check out Taylor Academy Plants! Come on--it'll grow on you.

(okay, that was bad...)