Mini Planta: set up your own urban garden at home

Throughout the month of November, we’re supporting all small businesses and neighborhood shops. Why? There are countless reasons—and even more after 2020—but right now we’re just concerned with one. November 30 is Small Business Day. Throughout the entire month, N26 is celebrating small businesses everywhere. When it comes to passion and personality, small businesses just can’t be beat.

Today, we’re introducing Mini Planta, a project with roots in Madrid and Galicia. Founder Rocío grew her business out of her own love for gardening. Her mission is clear—provide the tools for everyone to be able to tend their own garden in their own home. Plants add a touch of warmth to any room, filling the space with color and life. Mini Planta wants its customers to stop thinking of plants as mere decorations, but start recognizing them as living beings that should be nurtured from the ground up. Her goal is to guide people along the journey of raising their mini plant into a super plant. 

She explains, “The idea is that with each mini plant from Mini Planta, you learn a little more about gardening. This way, the act of buying a plant is not just a decorative choice, but a commitment to care for these living beings that are essential for our planet.”

The Mini Planta online shop offers a wide variety of mini plants, organized into different categories, depending on the kind of space you have and how green your thumb is. These categories include low light, indestructible, pet-friendly, and hanging plants. In addition to plants, you can also get ceramic flower pots and paint kits to decorate your mini plants to your own personal taste. And if you’ve had bad luck with plants in the past because of to over- or underwatering, don’t stress—the care section explains step-by-step how to water, care for, and provide your tiny plants with everything they need to grow up big and strong. On top of that, orders over €25 get free shipping to anywhere in mainland Spain! 

We spoke with Rocío to ask her what inspired her to start Mini Planta, and how she managed to maintain such an original and lively online business throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

-  When and why did you decide to start your own business? 

More than two years ago, I left my job at a communications agency and decided that it wasn’t for me. I started to think maybe the time was ripe to try to start something on my own. I was about to start travelling around South America for 4 months, and I was very drawn to the idea of working remotely while travelling, which turned out to be an amazing experience. That gave rise to my first project, Koconut, an online shop for earrings and accessories for young women. I set it up without any external funding—just what I had saved from my previous jobs. And it’s true that my partner helped me a lot at the start since he had another e-commerce site that was doing quite well—so that really jump-started the project. 

But when COVID-19 and the lockdown came along, I started reconsidering the kind of business I was involved in and realized I wasn’t entirely happy. It was then, during that three-month hiatus, that MINI PLANTA was born. It's a business that came out of the pandemic and started exactly the same way as Koconut—in my home and with the resources I had available at the time. 

-  How has the coronavirus affected your business?

Well, the coronavirus was the reason Mini Planta became what it is today. I think the fact that we were “forced” to put life on hold for three months prompted a lot of people to reconsider their situation in many aspects of life. In my case, my everyday life before the coronavirus was at a standstill and I couldn’t get myself to say, “enough is enough.” And while the pandemic has obviously brought more negative effects than advantages, it did, at least in my case, help me lay a better foundation for me to grow as a person, and by extension, grow my business.

-  How have you adapted to the new situation? 

Since we actually launched Mini Planta in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, we had to deal with those conditions from the very start. For example, we had to contact and search for all our suppliers online. Most important, we had to handle the logistics (shipping orders, receiving goods, etc.) from my home in Madrid for two months before we were able to move to a warehouse in Galicia.

-  What do you think sets small businesses apart from large companies?

I believe that the great thing about small businesses is that we can offer products or services with basically the same quality as those of a large company. We have the desire to keep growing, but also the awareness that our customers are placing special trust in us. And that sets a level of expectation that makes every client special and unique. In a way, every sale is a reason for celebration—this is reflected in our customer service and the care and enthusiasm that goes into every step of the process.

So why not make your life a little greener and try your hand at gardening with Mini Planta? Follow Mini Planta on Instagram and Facebook so you don’t miss out on any news about their new products or new ideas on how to bring a little nature into your home.