Young entrepreneur's indoor garden business

“I started to do business based on my project, which I had worked on since studying in the fourth year of a bachelor’s degree course at the Faculty of Communication Arts of Chulalongkorn University. That entailed designing a garden in a glass case – a terrarium – which is also my hobby,” she said during an interview with The Nation early this week.
After graduating, she started her working life as a graphic designer at an advertising firm in 2011, but she continued to study how to make terrariums as gifts for her friends.
“I took time to learn which trees are suited to a terrarium, how to create the environment within the glass case or bottle to grow the tree. I did this for over a year to test my gifts for friends. It proved a success, and was in fact quite easy for me to do,” she said.
Natjalin then decided to change from merely pursuing this as a hobby and made it into a job by starting to show her products at home-show events in 2012, investing Bt3,000 to create and display her terrariums at her first event, “Bridging the Good Life by Sansiri”.
Her efforts proved an instant success as she sold 40 terrariums, generating income of around Bt10,000 in the process.
She then participated in other home-product shows at places such as Aree Garden, and managed to sell all of her products on display at every one of these events, averaging sales of 40 terrariums and generating between Bt20,000 and Bt30,000 per show.
Her next move was to take up an invitation from a shop at Siam Centre to put her products on display at the store in early 2013. This inspired Natjalin to resign from her graphic designer job and establish her own business, NK Natural & Design, with registered capital Bt1 million.
Operating from the Siam Centre shop, Natjalin also opened a Facebook site called Tiny Tree Garden as an online outlet for direct contact with potential customers.
But she did not stop there, as the young enrepreneur also invested Bt100,000 to open her first coffee and terrarium shop at Sukhumvit Soi 31.
“My business now generates sales worth between Bt200,000 and Bt300,000 a month. This is from the sale of terrariums, conducting training in how to create terrariums, and the sale of terrarium equipment under the do-it-yourself concept. Most of my customers are either word-of-mouth clients or via Facebook,” she added.
Already having achieved so much in a relatively short time, NK Natural & Design next plans to display its terrarium products at the Another Story concept outlet at EmQuartier this year.
Natjalin said the key to the success of her business – which now employs seven people – is product quality, particularly at a time of intense competition, and with customers looking to buy products that are easy to take care of.
“Our products also suit the city lifestyle. With more people living in condominiums, they need a small garden in a bottle or a case to decorate their home – and it needs to be a garden that is easy to take care of. Terrariums are often their product of choice for decorating their home,” she added.