We were lucky to catch up with Shannon Beck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shannon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was laid off a couple months prior to the pandemic starting. Houseplants have always existed in my life. I come from a very long line of women gardeners and my ADHD brain shuts off when I’m tending to plants. In the summer of 2020 I had my first plant sale in my backyard. I got some garage sale signs and taped over them “PLANT SALE”. There were around 300 people that showed up over the span of 6 hours.

My friends have a really cool coffee shop called Bad Seed Coffee & Supply. In 2020 after my very successful plant sale, they invited me to sell some plants at their shop. I took $2k and got to work. I had a small selection of plants as well as a teeny tiny soil bar and also sold my pre-mix soils in bags. We were sharing such a small space and my business started growing pretty quick. In the beginning there was no where for me to have a POS so the baristas at the coffee shop got to sell everything for me. I would still be here most days to help with plant questions and the soil bar, however that gave me the freedom to do all of the makers markets/pop-up’s around town to get my name out there. As more people started visiting, I had to move all repotting to an after-hours setup. From 4-7pm on Thursdays you could bring any plant to the shop and I would mix the soil in front of you and walk you through learning how to repot. I also would diagnose issues, etc.

In 2021 I took out my first loan as Bad Seed and I were ready to take over the bay next to ours (our landlords bike shop). It took about a year to finish the buildout. In October of 2022 we opened Nodest Home Plants & Soil Bar. Business is growing fast we’re having a great time!

Shannon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Shannon. My husband and I moved our family from Seattle to Omaha, NE in 2018. I grew up here, he’s from Seattle. We have two kiddos, Rudy (6) and Lily (8mo). My background is in television and film, however I’ve been surrounded by plants my whole life. My mothers side of the family are super hardcore plant people, my aunt is even the President of the Washington State Garden Club. I started Nodest Home Plants in 2020 after getting laid off. I have no background in business, however I was very lucky to have such a wonderful friend and mentor who just so happened to own the coffee shop my plant shop is in! I’ve known the owner of Bad Seed Coffee, Brenna for almost 20 years and shes a stellar entrepreneur. I also am so lucky to be married to an accountant who is extremely helpful and smart.

Nodest Home Plants, “We’re making a home for houseplants”. What sets us apart from other plant shops is our Soil Bar. The Soil Bar is a no-judgement zone. Bring any plant that you have from home, from repotting to troubleshooting, we’re here to help. We carry a large assortment of beautiful pottery as well, so if you need to move up a size we can get you setup in a new pot, or pot it up in a nursery pot on us. All soil is hand mixed and created by myself and is also sold in 2LB & 5lb bags. We do around 5 workshops a month as well, 2 kids workshops and 2-3 adult workshops. I’ve always prided my business on education. I always compare myself to the humane society because I want to make sure that whichever plant you pick out, it’s the best fit for you. If you’re new to plants, I’m not going to sell you a Calathea. Sorry, I know it’s so pretty. We’re currently working with Nebraska Abortion Resources to help raise money and awareness. My wonderful manager Bee and myself run BINGO nights for non-profits. The first night sold out so fast we had to do 2nd one and we’ve already raised over $6k!

I’m so proud of my little shop. It’s just my manager Bee, myself and our lovely Elizabeth who works weekends as she is a 4th grade teacher M-F. We all work really hard and have made a really great name for ourselves in the community!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I was really lucky when I started my business because my friends let me move into their already established (6 year) coffee shop. I had $2k to get me started. My sister in-law’s sister made my logo for me and told me about Canva. I opened during covid and that’s when houseplants really started to take off. The coffee shop took 20% of all of my sales and also gave me the freedom to grow how I needed. When I would do makers markets or off-site events the barista’s were the ones ringing people up. Because of that platform I created very specific labels for each plant so that if I wasn’t able to chat with the customer, they would be able to know the basics.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Four months after I opened I broke my ankle! I couldn’t do anything for what seemed like forever. While I was laid up I took the time to work on my brand and my business model. I opened the moment i got my boot off. In 2023 while pregnant with my daughter, I had a very rare pregnancy called Hyperemisis Gravidarum which essentially means I was allergic to being pregnant my entire pregnancy. It’s a very sad, lonely and scary disease. I went to work for as long as I could, however at 7 months pregnant I became unable to eat without vomiting and started losing weight drastically so I had to stop working. Then the day before I came back from maternity leave my one full time employee quit, leaving me to navigate a business that I owned, yet wasn’t able to be apart of for what seemed like forever.

Grow Slow, Fight Fast

Contact Info:

• Website: WWW.NODESTHOMEPLANTS.COM
• Instagram: NODESTHOMEPLANTS
• Facebook: NODESTHOMEPLANTS
• Other: TikTok- Nodesthomeplants

Image Credits
First photo: Amber Sky Media All other photos: Bee Poblete