US (OR): Madras greenhouse business blossoms
“My wife wanted to start growing food to make baby food,” he said.
Unable to find the right greenhouse design online, he drew one up himself. It proved popular enough to provide a weekend enterprise; Sagner sold his first creations on Craigslist. After a surprising number of sales at a Portland home-and-garden show in February 2013, Sagner and his business partner, Zebulin Hannon, quit their day jobs and went all in building modular greenhouses.
“We went into that show hoping to sell four or five greenhouses,” Sagner said. “It was a dream come true. To my surprise and Zeb’s surprise, we ended up selling about 30 of them.”
Orders bloomed, Sagner said; the company had $160,000 in sales its second year and $800,000 last year. And that’s about as far as he wants to grow, Sagner said Monday. Scaling up means greater costs and a narrower margin, he said.
Read more at The Bulletin