We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Schutz. Jessica is the owner of Green Lady Gardens, a houseplant and pottery boutique in the heart of the Art District on Santa Fe. (733 Santa Fe Dr, Denver, 80226.) We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with her below.
Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.
Green Lady Gardens donates at least 5% of profits to non-profit organizations that address issues important to us. This includes environmental protection and social justice, empowering youth through the arts and environmental engagement, and supporting the Latino population of Colorado through programs that provide social, political, environmental, educational, and cultural benefits. You can find an (incomplete) list of organizations we donate to on our website.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I started Green Lady Gardens as a floriculture art and decor studio that specialized in making no-water moss and fern gardens using dried, preserved, dyed, and hand-painted plant materials. I sold at markets and did custom installations. Today, GLG is a houseplant and pottery brick and mortar boutique that provides a one-of-a-kind plant shopping experience through houseplant education and color so that every customer leaves filled with joy, empowered to own plants, and inspired to live creatively.
The transition from art markets to storefront began at the end of 2017. My then husband lost his job and we agreed he needed some time off. I took the first full-time job that came along because, benefits. I didn’t have time to produce art, but I didn’t want to toss my business away either. I started slinging houseplants at the South Pearl Street Farmer’s Market on the weekends to stay in touch with GLG. On day one I realized that people have gone houseplant crazy! This excited me. For the last two decades, since high school, I’ve been the weirdo who gifts plants and moves a carload of them from house to house and state to state. (Plants in the 2000’s? Unheard of!) Day one of the farmer’s market I also realized I knew a lot about plants. I had a lifelong plant love affair but never anyone to talk about it with. I was just the person who diagnosed, advised on, and fixed someone’s when I visited. It wasn’t until explaining plant care at the farmer’s market that I realized I knew things, real things I could articulate. I always just did plants. I didn’t know I knew plants. My final realization at the farmer’s market was that the plant purchasing process is broken. I kept hearing people say that they couldn’t buy a plant because, “I kill plants!” But I knew this wasn’t true. It was the result of an industry that sets people up for failure, not success. I thought, “I’m going to change the way people shop for houseplants.”
People kept asking for my IG account, which I didn’t have. So, I signed up and started browsing houseplant stores. I saw two plant shop aesthetics: Modern with white walls and white shelves or rustic with old wood on grey cinderblocks. As I scrolled, each store looked like the one before it. It was evident they were built with love, but I wasn’t meeting the hardworking and dedicated owners of these small businesses who are so central to the character of their community. True the store was built to the owner’s desired aesthetic, but I wanted to see something that told me what was unique about that person. I wanted to feel their energy in their photos. I wanted to know, “Who owns this store? What brings them happiness? What do they value? What are their values?”
One of the greatest strengths that locally owned brick and mortar stores have over big box stores is that they can break the buyer-to-seller relationship by creating real person-to-person and personality-to-personality connection. Small stores can create a more intimate with the people that walk in the door by being expressions of personality, uniqueness, and energy. I thought if I were to open a store, I would want it to be an artistic expression of my personality and history. A place where people could experience joy, where I could give them joy, whether they purchased something or not. I wanted to create an immersive experience of plants and colors that left every customer filled with joy and inspired to live creatively. I wanted my store to put houseplant education first so people would be empowered to own plants. Finally, I wanted my business to be rooted in socially responsible and culturally conscious business practices. These ideas were born on September 15, 2018, when the GLG storefront opened.
When you visit Green Lady Gardens, you will find healthy and happy plants, a large selection of colorful pottery, unique home decor items, handmade items from local and international artisans, and plant related tools and accessories.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Green Lady Gardens has a reputation for educating and empowering. Our goal is for customers to leave confident and ready to have a prosperous relationship with plants. Most stores and nurseries fail to do this for a variety of reasons. But at GLG, walk customers through the entire plant purchasing and ownership process by helping them find a plant that will thrive under their care, providing on-site education, sending them home with proper and detailed care information, and being available to help with post purchase questions or concerns.
When a customer comes into GLG they can find a plant that will thrive under their care in two different ways. One, they can use our one-of-a-kind assessment system that rates plants by care level, provides information on light and water requirements, and includes notes on what a plant tolerates or absolutely needs. Or a customer can get one-on-one assistance from a GLG associate. The associate will ask the customer about their home’s light, where they will place the plant, what their experience is with plants, and other considerations that may be necessary to determine what will thrive under that customer’s care. The associate will then give the customer a tour of those plants, discuss those options, and answer any questions. The customer can then choose a specific houseplant (or two or three) from inventory that was hand-picked for happiness and healthiness from a trusted local greenhouse.
GLG also provides onsite education and can answer nearly all plant related questions, from general advice to specific plant care advice to diagnosing and treating problems. Finally, we have take-home care information for almost every plant. Most purchases come with a very detailed care card. We also have online care slideshows that we put out semi-regularly for plants we don’t have physical cards for. Those can be accessed publicly through our blog. All the advice GLG gives is based on scientific fact or first-hand experience. (We hate plant care rumors or catch-all advice!) GLG is also here for customers with post purchase questions or needs.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
The Green Lady Gardens storefront was funded with three 0% introductory APR for 18 months credit cards. It was also funded with stamina and determination.
When trying to figure out how to fund a new business the advice is always to ask friends and family. That’s nice, if you have friends and/or family that have funds to give you. I, like many, do not. Small business loan requirements require a certain number of years in operation and minimum revenue and/or profit amounts. I also found most small business loans have higher-than-needed minimum borrowing amounts. Of course, you must pay interest on that loan as well. None of that worked for me.
I had enough cash for the deposit and second month of rent. (I made a deal with my landlord to get the first month free while I set up the shop, which is standard.) Every other penny put into my business was on the three credit cards. Only the one with the lowest APR (and the highest cash-back rewards) had a balance when 18-months came around. It continues to be the primary card I use for my business.
The other form of capital I had was stamina, determination, and grit. I couldn’t afford to pay an employee, much less pay myself. I worked alone for nearly 1.5 years until I was able to pay myself a wage that I was happy with, and I was certain I would be able to pay my business bills, including a second salary. Only then could and would I hire someone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.greenladygardens.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/green_lady_gardens/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/green-lady-gardens-denver
- Other: Google Business: https://g.page/r/CT-jfptvQ8KxEBA
Image Credits
Jessica Schutz