We were lucky to catch up with Janet Cabral recently and have shared our conversation below.

Janet, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our mission behind the Little Plant Market is to create community and support local small businesses. We designed our whole business around the idea that we would do small workshops and have local companies that create and design their own items be able to come together to teach classes and inspire others in our community. Little Plant Market was named a market so we could have more then just houseplants for sale.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My husband and I always wanted to start our own business. Vin is a welder fabricator and I was working in design when we came up with the plant shop idea. I knew right away I wanted something involving plants and his fabricated wall decor, but I also wanted to hold classes. With my business and design experience we knew we would have a cute successful shop. I love instructing workshops and teaching people about houseplants. We had to start out small until we found the right location. We started with mix and match at markets where you could pick a little lady and a little plant and pot them up! I come from a small town in the Midwest and when we moved to AZ we were surprised how little community there is and how every town is built up with the same Targets and car dealerships but not a lot of small businesses. None that were within driving distance from us here in the West Valley anyways!

Vin makes all my plant stands and created a self watering cactus drip out of aluminum so it wont rust! They provide water to your plant and they’re just adorable for AZ cactus lovers. We have a 3 year old who gets to come to work with me and help me water the plants and make pots and paint with me. It is really a great experience for a mom and son to spend time together.

Little Plant Market has 20 small local vendors selling items in the shop. We carry all kinds of hand crafted items from air plant hangers to stickers to soaps and candles. Some of the vendors have even hosted their own workshops here like making your own fleece succulent arrangement. We are so lucky to have such great vendors who want to participate in the events. We just recently had a little market in the parking lot with 15 local vendors that aren’t usually in the shop and they did a plant shop and swap. It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My husband and I met at a mutual friends birthday party almost 10 years ago. We knew right away we were each others person. He’s my best friend. AND he’s super handy and can turn all my crazy ideas into reality. It started out with little garden planter boxes and shelving but when he really got into welding and fabricating it turned into large plant stands and tables for my store front! We are inseparable and work really well together. The best part is we respect each other enough to be honest and make tough decisions together. I run the day to day at the shop and order inventory but he is behind the scenes working hard and supporting our family and my dreams of having a plant shop.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

The Little Plant Market was defiantly a side hustle at first. Even when we had finally opened a shop I was still working a full time remote job to help pay bills. We did not take out any funding or get help from family, we just decided todays the day and started. I would make little clay pots and paint them during zoom meetings and on lunch breaks. For our first market it was 113 degrees all day and someone from a few tents over passed out and the heat had killed about 4 of my plants. It was way too hot for houseplants outside that long in AZ. It was the end of October and I really thought it would be cooler. Lesson learned! We only did a few markets after that. I never really wanted to do markets but when you are a small business you have to start somewhere. Luckily I met some amazing people and took a few of them along with me on this crazy ride and they are still in my shop today! We moved from markets to smaller events and parties while I looked for a location. When I got to this spot I knew right away it was setup how I wanted so we could hold workshops and classes in the back room and still get a lot of inventory in there. My neighbors are amazing and we are happy to be off such a busy main street like Bell Rd. We’ve been open 8 months and people are glad we’re here! We are hoping to open another location in the future and grow but for now we are happy to be in our little plaza in Sun City.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://littleplantmarket.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleplantmarket_az/
• Facebook: Little Plant Market
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/little-plant-market-sun-city-3?osq=little+plant+market

Image Credits

There were a few pictures from Cactus & Pine Photography LLC Brand.