Empowering indie retailers
Cultivate’25 sessions for independent plant shop owners cover everything from business reports to overcoming burnout.
If you are an independent garden retail store owner, the responsibility of wearing all the “hats” in your business can feel both rewarding and overwhelming. A daylong series of sessions at Cultivate’25 aims to help this group of business owners by providing tactics and resources that’ll help all those different hats feel more comfortable — and maybe even stylish.
This series of six sessions under the umbrella of “Small But Mighty: Empowering Indie Plant Retailers” takes place on Saturday, July 12, the first day of Cultivate’25 in Columbus, Ohio. While each session stands on its own, as a whole they form a daylong experience. Three horticulture industry veterans lead this series of programs that touch on all aspects of running a business solo or as a small team. They’ll cover it all — from the nuts and bolts of tech and business tools to maintaining one’s own focus and life balance.
The hosts for the day are:
- Katie Elzer-Peters, founder and CEO of horticultural digital marketing company The Garden of Words.
- Benjamin Futa, horticultural communicator, designer and founder of Botany in South Bend, Indiana.
- Amanda Thomsen, horticultural communicator, designer and owner of indie plant shop Aster Gardens in Lemont, Illinois.
Balance > Burnout
“These programs are for the local and independent [indie] retailers,” Elzer-Peters said, noting the absence of the words “small business.” “There is nothing small about what these business owners are doing with their whole livelihoods on the line.”
Each session is geared toward shops that don’t have the large budgets for business consultations and the tools and technology they recommend.
“We wanted to hit on all of the different facets indie retailers deal with, from where you belong in your community and how you get involved in the community, to the brass tacks of what programs you should be using,” she said.
The series also includes a topic that usually doesn’t come up in other business-focused offerings: how to find balance and save yourself from burnout, with special guest business coach Meg Morrison.
“There’s a very big tendency in this industry of everyone just working themselves into the ground and saying, ‘I can’t possibly do it another way,’” Elzer-Peters said. “We would like to give them a look at how they can.”
Reducing the Overwhelm
As a solo owner, the ins and outs of the business exists in one person’s head — and it often just gets really crowded in there. A technique called mind mapping can be a release valve. Thomsen will lead an interactive session that helps organize one’s initiatives into actionable steps.
“If you’re like me and you’re doing it all, and sometimes it’s real oppressive to have all that inside your head, and it’s real important to get it out,” Thomsen said. Mind mapping an event onto paper, for instance, keeps all the plates spinning to make it happen.
“I’ll hang that mind map on the wall, and it keeps me on track in a way that is more friendly and less scary. It helps unburden your brain so you can keep moving instead of staying stuck.”
Business data and technology can be just as intimidating. A session that breaks down business reports will help independent owners use more of the information their systems are already collecting to make better decisions around allocating their funds.
Another session helps owners find the right business tools, including P.O.S. systems, email platforms and website builders.
“We just want to help make their lives easier,” Elzer-Peters said.
In addition to the hard and soft tools attendees will learn, they will also gain a network of peers who know and understand each other’s situations.
“The day is meant to give people tools, community, breathing room, and space to imagine a reality that is better than the one they are living in and show them how to make it happen,” she said.
Learn more and register for Cultivate’25 at americanhort.org/cultivate.
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