24 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



even if only 20x20 ft. or 25 ft. in size, and a 12-ft. wide plant 

 house, can be made the foundation to build upon. There are today 

 any number of towns where there is an opening for the right man. 

 As we increase in population, so will the opportunities for more such 

 openings increase. 



You may come to a small city or town and admire the layout 

 of the modern retail grower's establishment, but hardly ever will 

 you find such a place where the owner didn't start with very limited 

 means, adding and improving as he went along, until he got where 

 he is today. That is the natural way. There are cases, of course, 

 where two or more men put in $10,000, $20,000, or more, started 

 out with an uptodate establishment and succeeded, but these are 

 the exceptions. 



Were I to offer any suggestions to those with capital starting 

 into business, here they are: Begin with a knowledge of the business; 

 select a proper location, one where there will be room for expansion, 

 yet near enough to the town and on a main road ; invest only about 

 one-half of the capital on hand to begin with, and pay more attention 

 to an attractive front, a store, and a show house than all else. As 

 you go on, you will soon find out where there would be an advantage 

 in erecting a house for a particular crop or in growing on certain 

 stock that you use but cannot always buy satisfactorily from others. 

 But from the very start, put on a good front, buy according to your 

 requirements, pay your bills as you go along, live within your income, 

 advertise, and keep it up. 



STARTING WITHOUT CAPITAL 



The man who really wants to start in business for himself is 

 going to do it whether he has money to do it with or not. He doesn't 

 need pointers from others on how to do it for there are none they 

 could give him. If you were to hear their stories from fifty men 

 who started with little or nothing and succeeded, there wouldn't be 

 two cases alike. It isn't always the man who knows most or is the 

 best florist who succeeds. In fact, I am convined that there are right 

 now more of such men working for others than are in business for 

 themselves. There are cases where the owner of a notion or drug 

 store started to handle cut flowers in one corner of the store and 

 later took on flowering plants; then he hired someone to make up floral 

 designs, and finally went into growing on stock and devoted his 

 whole time to it with great success. Then we know of those who 

 never grew anything but Lettuce and Cucumbers under glass, but 

 who changed to flowers and made it pay; also the man who never 

 handled a Rose, but went into Rose growing and succeeded. 



Any man who wants to succeed as a retail grower has to be not 

 only a florist, but also a business man. He not only has to love 

 flowers and be able to grow them, but he also has to know how to buy 



