168
7 min 4 sec

A Side Hustle with Succulent Growth Potential

A Houston mom digs into a side gig with creative and community benefits.
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What It's About

A love for succulents leads a full-time mother to a side hustle creating unique succulent arrangements.

Business Model
Product
Skills Required
Gardening & Creativity
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium

Words of Wisdom

When you're thinking of what kind of side hustle you should start, a good rule of thumb is to pick something that is highly feasible or something that you could begin experimenting on within a short period of time.

Ayde's story is a perfect example of this. Tenacious Leaf started in December of 2016, and they're already bringing in around $1,200/month!

Fun Fact

People have experienced the pleasant power of plants for quite some time: ancient Chinese cultures used plants for their ornamental features, aesthetics and as signs of wealth from as early as 1,000 BCE, and the ancient Egyptians potted their plants as well.

From the magazine Evolutionary Psychology: “Flowers have immediate and long-term effects on emotional reactions, mood, social behaviors and even memory for both males and females.”

Notes from Chris

Episode 168

Some side hustles call for getting your hands dirty. Seeing how forgiving succulents were in her own garden, Aydé Navarro-Urteaga’s mind was seeded for a business around succulents.

Ayde started going to thrift stores and vintage shops in search of unusual objects—odds and ends, glassworks, a drum—to carry the plants, and the possibilities bloomed. After a local vendor invited her to sell her wares at the Houston Music and Arts Hall of Fame event, she had to come up with a name: Tenacious Leaf was born.

The drum’s odd appropriateness inspired Ayde to see the potting possibilities as a treasure hunt—a chance to unleash her creative imagination toward the quirky and bizarre. That unleashing includes potting up succulents in the 100-year-old chamber pots of a friend’s mother. She now finds housing for succulents in metal, glass, ceramic, clay, wood and plastic objects, and even removes the guts from electronics to make habitations for her greenery.

Ayde’s startup costs were reasonable: around $1,000 to buy an initial stock of succulents, purchasing growing supplies and paying for the LLC business license. Their profits have increased month to month, and since this past January, they are pulling in $1,200 of profit. That’s a truly succulent stream of cash!


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Tenacious Leaf: Check out Ayde's customized succulent creations on her Instagram and Facebook pages!
SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today!

Learn More

GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time.


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Quote of the Day
"The best part is ‘thinking outside the pot.’ Custom orders are my favorite, as I am able to bring a piece of family history back to life, or create something that I wouldn't have thought of without someone else!"
—Ayde Navarro-Urteaga #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau