Do you call yourself a plant lover?
Or, are you all about saving the environment and planting more trees on Earth, so it’s not dying at least?
Worry not! You don’t have to hassle getting dirt on your clothes anymore. JustPlant can bring you only the best cacti and succulents arrangement.
Maybe, to put in your kitchen or your room by an east facing window? (Psst psst, don’t forget, these babies need plenty of sunlight!)
They are your great, tiny little green companion.
And guess what? Here at Sterrific, we had a chance to interview both the founders of JustPlant, Justin and Christine!
They are friendly enough to get back to our questions and here are what they both got to say!
The founding idea behind, JustPlant?
Q1. What sparked the idea of JustPlant?
Justin:
It all started from crafting a gift to Christine which then sparked an interest with succulents. I collected and learned to take care of plants but oddly enough they never really survived.
Which was then I realised that a lot of the information given by nurseries on succulent care was in fact mostly incorrect which led to the inevitable deaths of my plants and also the lack of knowledge of names for some of these unique plants which makes it hard to look up and find proper care for them.
I realised this was a never ending issue that tends to make people believe they can’t sustain a living plant – so I grew a passion for educating people correctly and roped Christine into the idea of starting a business.
We tried out selling in a couple of small bazaars and from then we went on and the love for educating people and meeting more plant people haven’t stopped since.
The name, JustPlant.
Q2. Is there any story behind the name, JustPlant?
Justin:
Christine suggested the name, why not combine the 2 things that started this whole shebang.
Justin + Plants = JustPlant haha it has been stuck ever since!
Define JustPlant.
Q3. If people were to ask you what is JustPlant, how would you define it in your own words?
Christine:
JustPlant is not just a shop that sells succulents.
We aim to go the extra mile for you guys – to also educate and guide you, especially if it’s your first time buying some!
Your target market?
Q4. Do you have any specific target market?
Justin:
Basically everyone who loves plants!
We have customers of all ages that buys our succulents.
We have kids that are around 10 year olds that are very curious about succulents because of their funky shape and colour to grandparents who are retired and have an awesome garden and looking to add a few more cacti/succulents to their garden.
What is your way of marketing?
Q5. How do you market your business, and which tactics have been most successful?
Christine:
Basically I’m a designer, Justin’s a digital social marketer.
Both of us with experience with marketing so we are really blessed with the experience and skills that we have from our day jobs.
There isn’t a particular method that’s a surefire for us as for a fact things revolve around a lot of trial and error.
How about the funds?
Q6. How did you raise funding for your venture?
Christine & Justin:
Our pocket money! Haha.
Basically we both individually came out with our own stashed money to pour into our little venture.
We started pretty much from nothing, everything was from both our pockets which taught us to be #frugallife so that we can continue doing what we both love with JustPlant.
Your satisfying moment?
Q7. What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Justin:
Ah! This is easy, the most satisfying moment is when we have returning customers coming back to us no matter which bazaar we are at and sharing with us their succulents stories together with pictures.
For us this is an extremely rewarding moment to know that imparting the right knowledge will definitely bust any sort of misconception such as owning a black thumb.
Future goals?
Q8. What are the future goals for JustPlant?
Justin :
Our constant future goals is definitely to have a place of our own.
Maybe a boutique store?
Someone sponsor us please? haha 🙂
For now our next “step up” is probably hosting workshops as we’ve been getting requests from customers.
Maybe somewhere in 2020?
Any challenges?
Q9. Are there any challenges faced by JustPlant since it was first established?
Christine:
Plenty!
First was me worrying about not making profit while Justin is off day dreaming that this was going to be a piece of cake haha.
Currently I feel the challenges we face is sometimes we can’t open booth at bazaars as frequently as we’d like anymore due to our day jobs in agency life.
Because I feel opening booths are the best way to connect to our customer on a personal level to educate and mingle with people from all walks of life. But we always try to do as frequently as we can!
Justin:
Christine is a worry pot!
I always try to keep a clear head because we can’t have two worry pots in the business right?
One of the biggest challenges that we’ve faced before the inception of JustPlant was whether to apply for a business funding or should we just chuck a huge lump sum of money to start the business.
I’m actually glad we did none of that because I didn’t want our business to start with a huge bang but cannot sustain over time. We want to slowly grow our brand, learn the tricks of the trade as both of us needed to learn to run a business from ground zero.
Challenges will keep on coming and we can just anticipate them and work them out to the best we can together.
Can you imagine that Christine has to learn how to tally our accounts at the end of the month and she hates numbers!
What is it about JustPlant?
Q10. What do you want people to know about JustPlant?
Justin & Christine:
We definitely want people to identify JustPlant as a friendly brand that educates and guide you the best we can instead of just selling some succulents to you.
We are always happy to share all the knowledge that we’ve learnt from trial and error from taking care of succulents to anyone who is interested.
Stay calm, don’t be such a worry pot!
And that was all about JustPlant, introducing to us about their amazing plant business.
Ah, good news! At JustPlant, they’re not only selling you an assortment of cacti and succulents, but also loves to share their knowledge and what they know about how to care for these cute, delicate plants.
They are truly a plant lover at heart.
Of course, you don’t want your plants dying the second you get all excited about getting your hands on them. Then, all the blame in the world goes on your back and you no longer want to take care of any of the plants in the world.
Imagine what will happen to these need-all-the-love plants.
If you don’t take care of them, then who else? *sad face*
So, if you are interested to know more about their succulents and cacti plants business, go ahead to their website on https://www.justplantmy.com/
Don’t stop there! Go visit their Facebook and Instagram right here as well.
Want more exclusive interviews? Then check out our blog!
Sterrific Agency is a creative digital agency with a range of services we provide that are web design, branding, SEO, copywriting and more!
It’s a good deed, have fun saving the Earth, you earthlings.
