When Something You Love Starts to Feel Like a Business

At some point, almost everyone asks it: Should we turn this into something more?

What starts as something simple, something you love, something that feels like an escape...suddenly has potential. It could grow. It could make money. it could becomes something bigger. How exciting...and also how utterly terrifying! Because underneath it is the question no one really talks about: Does success automatically mean we lose the joy?

I'll be honest, when we started this flower farm we didn't exactly have a plan. What we did have was a whole lot of passion and a questionable amount of Googling. Like, "is this a rock or an anemone corm?" level Googling. For the record that may or may not have happened and I will be denying it forever.

Anyways... for me, this all started with a feeling. Walking through a flower farm with my late dog Lucy, watching her run through the sunflowers and thinking, this is it. This is the kind of life I want more of. Something grounded (pun intended), intentional, and hard to fully explain, but it just felt right. It was outside the four walls of the hospital where I built my career.. and somewhere along the lines I realized that sunlight is waaaaaay better than florescent lighting.

For my sister in law, it came at a completely different moment in life. She had just retired from the military, and for the first time in a long time, had space to choose something for herself. Not something structured or expected, but something personal. The chance to build something with her own two hands. To be her own boss. Honestly I pretend that it was my idea to start the business but she definitely knew a lot earlier than me. I think she was just patiently waiting for me to catch up or gently nudging me towards seed trays and a mild plant obsession. My bank account thanks her for that haha

So we started growing. Not just flowers but something we could share. Time outside. A different kind of purpose in our days.

We started on Mothers Day. Sold our first bouquet...then a whole lot more. Turns out Mothers Day is basically the Super Bowl of flowers.... who knew! Seeing people pick them up and genuinely connect with something we had grown ourselves.. it felt exciting and a little bit surreal.

In that moment, it was easy to think What could this become vs What do we want this to stay?

Because from the beginning we knew one thing for sure, we didn't want to lose what made us love it in the first place. Maybe even more importantly , we didn't want it to come between us.

Building something with someone you love is special, but it also requires care. It means checking in and being honest, especially as chronic illness girlies. Some days are for hauling soil and battling our nemesis (I'm talking to you crabgrass). Some days are for ignoring the to-do list entirely and finding joy in buying new flowers we definitely don't have room for. To our husbands, it's always "we're just expanding a little, we swear!" We're nothing if not flexible!

What we've learned after our first year, is to pay attention to when excitement can quietly turn into pressure. Because let's be honest... we still want this to feel fun, a little chaotic, and very us. So for us, the priority becomes; how do we want this to feel, what pace actually feels good, and what would make this stop being enjoyable?

That's what we come back too. Protecting the joy and our relationship. Making sure this adds to our lives instead of quietly taking over every conversation, every weekend... every spare thought. (Although spontaneous 11 pm seed-ordering sessions are pure joy and absolutely non-negotiable. We know we don't have the room for them... let us live!)

I think that's the part that people don't always talk about. Turning something you love into a business isn't just about growth but about staying aligned with why you started. It's choosing a path that still feels like you. Leaving room for the parts that made you fall in love with it in the first place. Recognizing that more isn't always better, especially if it costs you in the end.

We're still figuring it out. Maybe this will grow into something bigger one day, we're not ruling that out. But for now, we're building it in a way that feels right. Because if we can keep the joy...then honestly that already feels like success.