Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victoria Bilgin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Victoria, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

Just a few years ago the plant business was dedicated solely for some very limited indoor plant selection and mostly dedicated to outdoor gardening. In just a couple of years, the pandemic hit and that brought a massive need to create a beautiful indoor space by using plants increased greatly, and with that demand and availability. That’s how my business and my mission were created. Being indoors more and not being able to be out or travel really started taking a toll on my mental health. I started remembering how beautiful it was to grow up surrounded by greenery in my home back in Chile, and how therapeutic it was for my dad and granny to have gardens and indoor plants hanging all over. I began to recreate nature indoors, and from there I wanted to share how rewarding it was to grow plants and the benefits of nature indoors.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I studied to be a teacher and I have been doing that for about 10 years. I never thought about doing something different than teaching children but during the last couple of years I started thinking about other ways to incorporate my other passions for making a living. I started growing plants in a small apartment with amazing windows and light, so I started documenting my progress in social media. All this process was so exciting and making my place into a little jungle felt calming and gave me a purpose and motivation that didn’t know it was there. So, with the help of my husband, I decided to start a little side business to basically pay for the plants I was getting. And that’s how everything slowly grow into the business we have today, focused on bringing the green indoors and creating a beautiful indoor life.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The use of social media was incredibly helpful and allowed me to build a client base that allowed me to reach people from a over the country. My guiding idea was to provide the help and service that it was sometimes lacking with some online companies. I was also able to start doing markets and events in the DMV area, where people were able to approach me and my products, making the experience more connected and organic.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I started researching about businesses, I realized that I needed a nice little cushion of seed money to get it going. I wanted to get as much as I could from what I already had accesible and low cost. To start, I was able to get tax help, website design and technical support from my husband who already owns a business. I also rented a small parking garage to keep inventory and packing facilities. Then, I started selling in small scale on Facebook groups and to local people and that allowed me to get some of the money to start inventing in materials and expanding inventory.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ruleofgreenthumb.shop
• Instagram: @ruleof_greenthumb
• Facebook: @ruleof_greenthumb