Branching into 2023.

November and December are crucial times for small businesses like me. It's our one last deciding factor to know whether your business this year is a success, work in progress or it's time to move it back to hobby.

Since we started in late 2018. We've had close to 60 or so competition. We've also had bigger establishments switching to model after us and the way we navigate which is via community.

Honestly when we started booming in 2019, I was unsure how to exercise my role in the plant community. I was at that time and till now, have always considered myself a hobbyist. I was too naive and thought that many people wanted to be my friend and work together to create a more inclusive community. In the end instead, we were exploited for other businesses gains, manipulated by landlords and had to restart again. 2022 was one of my toughest year having to restart the business after our big move, emotionally and financially. 

During these tough times, I also met many kind people in the business and have existing plant people from the community that are always there for me. In all honesty, it is exhausting to always think ahead, being relevant, being financially stable and of course keeping a forever farm space in Singapore. I just hope it will be smooth sailing journey in these next 2 months that will determine my plans for 2023.

This is not a pity post, I just wanted to share this. A lot of people congratulate me, say great things about Littlebotany and how far it has come. The reality of it is, it's damn difficult but most times oh so rewarding.

Hang in there Fendi.

#selfmade