Why I Quit teaching to build my Flower Shack

Officially 4 years of The Flower Shack!!! 🎉 The Flower Shacks birthday actually coincides with my birthday. I first opened it up on July 6, 2021.

If you guys have been around awhile you know I was a high school math teacher. But I have also always worked on the farm. So it’s hard to put a number of years that I’ve worked on the farm. From a kid, to a college student and to a full adulting teacher. It was the PERFECT summer gig and then I would help out when I had free time throughout the year. Right after college I started doing the Mills River farmers market which gave me my first real itch to make mixed flower bouquets. Before that dad always sold straight bunches. So after college, Dad grew the stuff, I helped when I could and I sold every Saturday at the market.

After teaching for about 6 years I had my first son, Kason. With teaching you’re allowed to take up to one year (unpaid) off. I wasn’t planning on taking that whole year off but I did. I loved being a mom too much. I ended up coming up with some new ideas on the farm to try and make a little extra money. That was the first year I made succulent pumpkins!! So the summer gig turned into a larger fall and spring gig that year. Once I got back to teaching I was working in the afternoon on the farm with my one year old!! I loved it. And so did Kason.

Naturally to add to my plate I had another baby and took another year off! 14 months actually with summer. And then Covid happened. During Covid I had to figure out how to sell THOUSANDS of plants with no big plant sales to attend. That’s a big chunk of my parent’s income. It’s actually the main chunk for them! They’re lucky I had that year off to help them. Really lucky. I listed every single plant online. It took so much of my time putting orders together. No way I could have taught and done that. Later that summer I went back to teaching. But I also didn’t slow down on the farm. I even got to teach from home the first 6 weeks when I returned and then every Wednesday after that till like January? I still remember my pile of snacks I had next to the computer to throw at Sawyer. I also spent a lot of teaching hours doing farm stuff🤫 What a memorable year that was. Teaching math from a computer to a bunch of high schoolers, that’s a challenge. I will forever be a paper and pencil math advocate.  Forever.

We were forced to fit a full day of teaching into a half a day. I saw no difference in my students learning, granted I’ve taught at the alternative school my whole teaching career. But when the school year ended I couldn’t wait to be on my farm full time for the summer.

I wasn’t sold on quitting quite yet but I was already leaning that direction all spring. I was working WAY too much. Especially March-May. Honestly I look back on that year and I have no idea how I did it. 40 hours of teaching, 30 hours of farming and being a mom!? Oh and I also was hosting a constantly fully booked Airbnb that I was cleaning. It was a blur. The Airbnb income was actually a huge contributor of why I even thought I could quit.

I asked my parents what they thought about a farm-stand idea. I just thought with two babies the farm stand would be a better fit than weekday markets. Which I did try a handful of those. All I really wanted was to be with my babies and a farm stand made that easier. Surprisingly my parents were all for it especially when I said I was thinking about quitting teaching. I think they knew I would make their life a lot of easier, at least I’d like to think I do. I actually didn’t have any design input on the shack. That was all mom. I gave the idea and she pretty much had someone lined up and it was built.

I had no idea if it would work, I was actually pretty nervous when I saw it being built. But worst case scenario, my children would have a playhouse to grow up with 🤣 so finally I took a leap on my 31st birthday and hoped people would show up.

The first year of the shack I was only open one day a week Tuesdays from 5:00-7:00 where I would be set up waiting/hoping people would show up. I had a few plants displayed, flower bunches and I even advertised you picks! At the time I was happy with the turn out and I saw a lot of potential. So one month after I started I decided to go all in and I quit teaching.

That first year I was trying to figure out how the Flower Shack would become a part of the farm. The Transylvania Farmers Market was my main source of income. But if I could make the shack as successful as a market? I would be good. It didn’t happen instantly and the shack definitely didn’t pay itself off that first year.

The second year I tried something different. Self Serve! Yes!!! What a game changer that was. That year I did Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays open all day. The sales were sporadic. But I made more than I did the previous year so that was a win.

The third year I transitioned to just Wednesday and I sold as much in one day as I did in three days. So that was another win!!

And last year the fourth year was when I realized I should be pushing plants at the shack more. I had them out during my first year to try and draw more people but then I reverted to just flowers while it was self serve. Our whole farm business is started because of plants. Why wouldn’t I be pushing the plants!?🤣 that was when I started the weekly plant box with pick up at the Flower Shack, forcing people to see my pretty bouquets.

And even though the flower shack is four years old now I’m actually in my fifth season of the Flower Shack. And I am offering SO MUCH MORE! I desperately want to add another day of the shack and I think it will happen. Might be next year. Might be the year after? I need more people to find out about me before I commit to another day. You could help me with that! Tell a friend or leave me a review on google and Facebook!

If you read this far I just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for supporting my farm and my visions especially with The Flower Shack. And thank you for giving me a life where I can raise my boys while working a dream job. I work hard at everything I do and it means the world that people appreciate it 🙏