But first, meet Gina: Gina and Glen have raised steers on their farm for twenty-seven years. As a sideline, Gina grows flowers and sells them at the local farmers' market. She has also provided floral arrangements for a few local weddings. Her floral operation currently breaks even. Now, Gina is considering building a greenhouse and expanding her flower business with the hope that it can provide a secondary income.

Gina loves working in her gardens. Thirty years ago, when she and Glen purchased the family farm from his parents, she started with two small strips. Now, there are flowers in every direction. When Gina talks about working in her gardens, she uses the word "passion." When Glen describes it, he uses the word "hobby."

Gina would be the first to admit that she has never taken her flower operation too seriously as a business, mainly because she hasn't had time. She works full-time as a clerk at the local hardware store (primarily for the insurance), helps Glen with the steer
operation, and has raised three kids. Their youngest is now in college on a scholarship.

Gina would like to quit her job at the store, set up a greenhouse, and go into business for herself. Now that she's an empty-nester, she would like to do what she enjoys doing.

When she took the job at the store seven or eight years ago, she never dreamed she'd still be there today. It's not that she doesn't like her job, but she would much rather work in her gardens. She says, “I really can’t keep going through life pretending to enjoy my job. I want to be able to say that at least once I tried to do something I really loved.”

Glen winces when he hears her talk like this. Work is work, he thinks. The fastest way to stop enjoying something is to do it for a living. When he tells Gina that he thinks she should work for a florist before investing money they don’t have in a greenhouse, she gets angry at him. “I can’t go into town and work for Bev or Terry in order to learn their secrets, and then turn around and take their customers away from them when I set up my own business! What kind of person do you think I am?”

 

Gina's market research revealed:

In 2007, there will be about 350 weddings in the Sauk County, Wisconsin.

Two-thirds of the weddings in the county will spend an average of about $1,000 on flowers. The rest will spend a couple hunderd dollars, or less, on wedding flowers.

Sauk County weddings in Gina's target market will spend a total of $250,000 on wedding flowers in 2007.

Gina's research helped identify another market to consider -- Mother's Day

Mother's Day ranks second only to Christmas for spending on flowers

1/4 of all holiday spending on flowers is for Mother's Day

1/3rd of all flower purchased for Mother's Day are roses

How did Gina do it?

LEARN how Gina used the internet to find this, and other valuable information, that helped her analyze her business idea.

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