We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jira Sai. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jira below.

Jira, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

During the pandemic, I started collecting houseplants and it became an obsession. The thought came to me while I was stressed out with my full-time job back them, as I was wiping the leaves of my fiddle leaf fig to unwind, that ‘I could do this all day’. A few months later, I started my small, online business.

Back then, I had about 120 plants in my collection. Mostly plants you can find in grocery stores or your local plant shop, and some I got online from Etsy. I would watch plant YouTubers talk about plants and admiring their collection. If I see something I like, I need to get my hands on them.

Now that I have collected all the common plants, I started venturing into ‘rare plant’ market. These are the plants that are not mass produced, hard to find in nature, and mostly had to be imported from tropical countries. I purchased my first rare plants that I have been admiring for so long, for $120. The plant came in a small 4″ pot and I killed it within the first month.

But I did not give up. Given that I am from Thailand, where those ‘rare plants’ are from, I reached out to my family to see if they could ship those plants to me and found out that my cousin, who has been collecting and care for rare plants for more than 10 years, has just lost his job. I then asked to purchase some of his plants and for him to source some other plants for myself.

Through trials and errors, I learn to acclimate plants that have been through the importing process. I started selling on Facebook, and opened up my website. After about 4 months of operating everything in our second bedroom, I figured we need a bigger space.

This is when I walked pass our current store front location, only a few buildings away from our apartment. The unit has a floor through, east facing windows, and a patio. When I visited the space, I knew it was perfect.

After signing the lease, I the next month spent painting the wall and refurbishing the space, My husband and I built most the shelvings and furnitures in the store by ourselves, including the plant wall to separate the working area and the store front area. We secured some suppliers and vendors, and continue to build relationships with our customers on instagram. The rest is history.

Jira, 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?

My name is Jira – and I am obsessed with houseplants!

Growing up in Thailand, I was always surrounded by beautiful plantlife, colorful flowers, and stunningly shaped leaves.

After four years of teaching, I came to realize that my plants are truly the source of my energy. Caring for plants is how I care for my self and my mental health. I wanted to continue to nurture my own love of plants and encourage that love in others.

With the support of my family, Plant Corner was born, literally, from a corner in my apartment.

Plant Corner is a woman-and-minority-owned small business specializing in rare plants. We strive to provide our customers with healthy, acclimated plantlife, supplies, and advice in the shop and over our website.

All of our merchandise is sourced from small, often women or minority owned businesses, so you can be secure in knowing exactly who and what your purchases are supporting.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Loving what you do is not enough.

I love plants, and I love taking care of plants, but doing these tasks day in and day out make me lost my sight of the business.

I spent most of my day taking care of plants rather than thinking about how to get more customers or visualize where my business was going. Where do I want to be. As a result, I felt like I was trapped in this plant maze. The daily tasks that I used to enjoy was not enjoyable anymore. It became a burden.

Now I am taking a step back and spend a portion of my time being a business owner – not just a plant lover – and study about different strategies I could use to grow my business. This process actually revive my passion once again.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The key to grow on social media is consistency. You should post something everyday that are different, engaging and beneficial. Having a schedule or ideas mapped out will help you save time tremendously. You can also make content in advance – for example on Mondays, I usually post quotes that relate to plants and growth mindset. I spent about an hour making 20 posts I could use for 20 weeks. Make my life easier in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://plantcornernyc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantcornernyc/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/plant-corner-new-york