Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dominic Masiello. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dominic, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
I’m really happy that this is one of the panel questions, because not only doesn’t give me an opportunity to share some insights, but also honor my parents. And my grandparents as well.
My parents taught me many invaluable life lessons that I will always carry with me. The standout precept was simple, but powerful; the order of priority. ‘God, family, work’. When these are in the right order, there’s peace and blessing . When they’re out of order, you’re asking for trouble.
My grandparents followed these same principals and led by example. My mom’s dad was an architect and worked on some very popular restaurants throughout Southern California. When I was just a little guy, I’d sit at his drafting table and be enthralled with all the fun things to play with. The slide ruler, the oversized stapler, mechanical pencils, and my favorite, the electric eraser, which I accidentally put a burn mark in his drafting table with.
My dad’s dad owned and operated Masiello Fruit Co. with his brother. Every morning, he got up at 4am to be at the market in downtown LA to receive crates of citrus. When my dad was in high school, he would often help my dad early in the morning, then arrive at school and start the day. This kind of work ethic has now become a lost art unfortunately. I’m just grateful I got a little bit of that gene.
My parents always offered great advice and encouragement , BUT also let me make my own choices. These choices sometimes led to financial losses, however there was always a gain of knowledge and experience. All of which I plan on passing down to my kiddos.
Dominic, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I always knew I wanted to be a designer. Because of my grandfather being an architect, I think I just had it in my blood. Like I mentioned in the panel question, I would always sit at his drafting table as a young kid playing with all the tools and pretending to design.
My grandfather unfortunately passed away when I was about 11, so I wasn’t able to really learn from him. But as I got older, I loved drawing and designing. In my early high school years, as ny mom drive me to school, we would always look at the trees and plants, and how they would change with the seasons and get beauty of Fall colors. I developed a love and appreciate for trees and plants, and ultimately decided I would go into the landscape industry.
I studied an at Cal Poly Pomona and got my BS in landscape architecture. Immediately after college, I began my design career.
With a love and excitement for plants, I had always had this idea of creating a web based platform for people who needed help designing their garden. And of course, I wanted it to make money. After lots of brainstorming, planning, and budgeting, I began the development and implementation of the website.
When I first started Budget Plants, it looked nothing like it was today. It wasn’t even called Budget Plants. At its birth, it was called Sonrise Plant Palettes. The original concept was that users could upload specific garden criteria, such as location, style, sun/shade needs, and other site specific info into the data base of plants, and based on the criteria, a ‘plant palette’, or list of plants, custom fit for the site, would be produced. And this service would cost $5.
It sounded simple, but the coding and programming for the website and data base took days, weeks and months from professional developers. All in, I was about 15K deep by its launch date. I was super excited for this machine I built that was going to make me a ton of cash. And then!…nothing. No one was interested in paying for digital information which they could get just by doing a few hours of research on their own. I even tried rebranding, calling it Garden Brain, making the website more robust and user friendly, only to be dejected once again.
Throughout the whole process, my parents were relentlessly encouraging and supportive. Bits of advice and wisdom were always sprinkled into conversations, followed by ‘I’m so proud of you’.
Equally as supportive was my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife. She was by my side giving helpful critiques and was always an integral part of the development of the business.
As I received feedback from potential customers, the number one response I got was ‘so, you don’t actually sell the plants?’ And I had to answer ‘No, sorry’. Although helpful info, it was still just a digital product.
I had already been working in the landscape industry as a designer for a few years and had made great vendor contacts along the way. Because of this, I was able to get fantastic wholesale pricing on plants. And throughout my early years as a designer, my little side hustle was slinging plants out of the back of my truck for side cash. I’d place ads on Craigslist… lots of ads… and people bought plants from me. Sometimes they would pick up from my house, or sometimes I’d deliver. Because of my wholesale pricing, I was able to do a reasonable markup, yet still be under retail pricing. So it was a win-win for everybody.
As I thought about my failed website, I realized the digital info was just a tease. I decided to scrap that whole model, but didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I had to turn it into a moneymaker. Since I had lots of great info on the site, it actually had some really good SEO that was driving traffic. Ultimately what I had was a funnel which could lead to the sale of a product, and I needed to provide that product. Otherwise, I had nothing.
Then… it clicked. I would implement my Craigslist side cash gig as the main function of the website.
I could then started saying, ‘yes! I can sell you these plants’. At least to the folks in my immediate area where I could personally deliver plants.
I was already 15k deep, but I decided to double down. I found a new web developer and we began the long process. Round 3.. Fight!
After months and months of time, effort, and money, we launched the new site.. BudgetPlants.com.
Little by little, the orders came in. Initially, I was doing all the deliveries myself. But as the orders kept coming, I realized I needed better logistics.
I decided to leverage my purchasing power with my growers and was able to work out a drop shipping method. This business model helped me to able to focus more on the business and the continued development of the site.
Soon, things were really in motion. Orders would come in, I’d send them to the appropriate grower, and they’d ship out the plants. Since I did not have the massive expense overhead of a growing facility, I was able to keep my pricing extremely competitive. Where you might find a plant for nine dollars at a retail center, I was able to sell it for six dollars. Again, a win-win for everyone.
Today, BudgetPlants is thriving business that serves all of California, with plans to expand further out into surrounding states. I’m focused on the continued development of the site, as well as scheduling personal consultations for clients.
What has helped the growth tremendously is the YouTube channel. It’s all about brining people good, reliable info about plants and landscaping to help empower the DIY’ers get their projects done. And I try to salt in a bit of entertainment value to keep folks coming back. Stop by and say hi!
https://youtube.com/@budgetplants?si=PXI599So4StMCgci
I feel so incredible blessed to have this business. It has its ups and downs like all businesses do and that’s just part of life. In keeping God as the top priority like my parents taught, there’s always peace that only He can provide.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media has now really become an integral part of nearly every business. Plain and simple, it just helps get the word out there. But beyond that, it now acts as somewhat of a validation checker for users. Instead of Yelp or other review sources, I find that more and more potential customers will look on Instagram or TikTok to see how many followers you have. It legitimizes you as a business if you have a social media presence.
The platform I’ve found to be the most helpful is YouTube. The engagement is great, and has led to many new customers. But beyond that, I’m offering value to viewers by sharing my knowledge and experience to folks that needing help on their landscape project. I’ve received such wonderful heartfelt comments from people that have watched my videos, and that’s incredibly fulfilling.
Check out the channel!
https://youtube.com/@budgetplants?si=PXI599So4StMCgci
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
As I mentioned in the panel question, I ended up marrying my side hustle with my original business idea. And sometimes you have to pivot and take a loss on the time spent on a concept if it’s not working.
The side hustle of selling a few plants off of Craigslist actually gave me insight as to what the market needed. People want a quality product, at a fair price, delivered to their doorstep. Amazon spoiled everyone with this concept, so I had to create the Amazon for plants.
Once enough revenue was coming in, I was able to stop fulfilling orders myself and had the growers drop ship directly to the buyer. That way I can focus more on customer experience and growing the business.
Contact Info:
- Website: BudgetPlants.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/budgetplants?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@budgetplants?si=ualxmgSy2UHMjATx
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/I1pLJZgs6G
