Indoor plant maintenance

[timwaterworth]

I am a turf manager at a $5 million dollar a year company in Madison Wisconsin. A large part of our revenue comes from snow removal. Recently our winters have been poor and our winter revenue has dropped.

We are considering some alternative services and one that comes to mind that offers year around potential is indoor plant maintenance.

How does one get started marketing this service? We do have a few competitors offering this service but they are small. Please offer some suggestions and how you would proceed with this.

[Ric]

Tim

I have no first hand experience on indoor plant maintenance. So any thing I say take with a grain of salt. I once dated a girl who made it real big in that business in Houston Texas before the Oil Crunch. Her main squeeze was restaurants. Two to three times a week she would service the accounts watering and fertilizing them. Leaf shine was applied each time. But the big trick was her van with replacements in it. If a plant didn't look top of the line she switched it out. Of course she had a greenroom to grow and nurse her plants.

Now the interesting thing is She sold the business for a Million Dollar right before the Oil Crunch in 1975. She started the business herself after college. Her first move away from home was to Houston a boom town in the 60's and 70's. With degree in fine arts she could find a good job and started the business. Of course if I dated her, she was not only smart but good looking.

Now interesting enough here in Florida (plant capital of the USA) many of the large indoor malls and Restaurants have gone to high quality plastic plants.