Welcome to Ghost Business - where business ideas go to launch 🚀 or die ☠️

Plant Daddy

Growing green… This used to be me. Aspiring plant daddy just trying to earn a little extra cash to pay for my house plant bills. I would write about plant ownership, the history of house plants and any weird plants I stumbled upon. (You can check out the old posts here)

But one post stood out to me the most. I thought about it often. It was about Plant-fluencers making money and this is how I encountered Hilton Carter.

The green thumb… After doing a deep dive into Hilton, I realized something wild. This Plant-fluencer is likely making $50k/mo through multiple revenue streams all with his plants.

But how did he do it and could others replicate it?

Damn daddy… Hilton has multiple revenue streams all stemming from his plant hobby. Based on his half million followers on Instagram, these are estimates on what green he is bringing in annually:

• $200,000 in Book Royalties. His book Living Wild will sell internationally, assuming 5% of his followers are buying at an average profit of $8/book, thats 27,500 copies sold.

• $60,000 in Plant Shop Profit. Plant shops don’t typically make a ton of money. Assuming he nets about $5k/month in profit as he is also the co-owner. $60k seems modest.

• $50,000 in online Product sales. His curated products on his site will gather sales in the range from $3-$5k per month.

• $120,000 in Promoted Ad Revenue. Based on his following, Hilton likely brings in $10-$15k per month in ad promotions.

• $120,000 in Interior Design consulting. Seems like he has his hands full and will likely only take on a Interior Design consult monthly at about $10k per month. Hit him up here!

No leaf unturned… Having this many revenue streams as a creator is optimal. Leveraging your following for more than just paid ads is a great way to earn significant income. But can anyone do this or does it take a special green thumb?

The End Goal

The Hilton Experience… Ultimately building a plant ecosystem empire like Hilton Carter would be the ideal lifestyle. Having multiple revenue streams means you don’t have to rely on 1 or 2 to pay the bills.

The more things you can “build once, sell twice” increases scalability for anything you’re doing.

Being the go-to plant guy or gal has a ton of upside. Hilton is leveraging his skills and followers to sell anything you need to become a plant goddess yourself. Plant shop ownership, book sales, selling plant products, and plant consultations are all great ways to earn some cash.

Yet there’s still room to grow!

But wait, there’s green… After doing this deep dive on Hilton, I realized he could be expanding his offering. Owning the full vertical of house plant ownership is the best way to own the market. Here’s how:

• Selling soil, fertilizer, lights and other plant growth products

• Selling your own propagated plants (Monsteras by Carter)

• Creating a podcast or youtube series on interior design and plants

• Selling courses on interior design, plants, etc

The MVP

A budding biz… Do you love plants? ✅ Are you on social media? ✅ Do you have a pulse? ✅

Congrats! You’re able to start this business!

There’s a few ways to enter this game: write, talk or pictures. CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON!

Start with whatever you’re already into:

• If you like to write, start a newsletter

• If you’re a jibber jabber, do a podcast

• If you’re creative behind the lens, post to instagram

Either way, you’re going to need to build a following of people to sell to. The best way to do this is to share your growing journey.

“Patient you must be” - Yoda. This will take time (1-3 years) to build but once you have that following, you can sell them whatever you want!

Scaling Up

Growth spurts… Consistency is key here. Posting to your preferred medium on a regular basis will help grow your following fast. Once you get to 10k followers or subscribers, you’ll be ready to turn on that money faucet.

The easiest way to start is through affiliate links and product ads. Write, talk, and show how you use these products and how they’ve helped you grow and you’ll be well on your way to earning some affiliate bucks.

Take note of which type of products and ads are getting the highest clicks (earning you the most money). These are the products you will want to sell yourself.

Next you’ll want to offer a free simple guide to plant ownership with tips and tricks.

Help a homie! Offer to guide a friends plant growth journey, and make sure you use before and after pictures (this are key to the next step)

Then you can offer a paid guide or course with details on growing your plants (and your business)

Content with content… now all you have to do is keep putting out that sweet content. That’s your funnel to the rest of your biz 🔑 

Viability:

1 [building spaceships] 🚀 to 5 [easy peasy] 😊 

Consistency is key… This is very easy to start but you have to stick with it. Growing your following is a grind as it is a low barrier to entry. A lot of competition out there 🪴

But if you can stick it out, there’s riches to be had!

(As usual each business will have it’s own setbacks, and it’s all about the execution and consistency rather than just having the idea 😉)

It’s a great day to be great!

Love, Mike

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