Hello Fastlaners!
I am new here, but I wanted to take the time to introduce myself and log some basic plans and goals. This will also be a chance for me to dust off my typing fingers as I begin the process of building a blog (that is not entrepreneurial in nature).
For as long as I can remember I have been a wantreprener. I bounced from idea to idea with complete lack of focus. It was not very pretty. I read TMF over a year ago and have been lurking on the forum here and there ever since. I will say I took more risks and had more failures this last year, but the failures have actually mattered. I blew 10 grand on a business last year that brought me roughly 2k in revenue. I'll admit, the 8k loss was incredibly painful, but I'm more proud of losing that money than I am of anything else in my life. This forum contains one of the few groups of people in the world who could ever understand that.
This thread is not the time or place to go into details of the failed business, (that will go in the first chapter of the book I write), this is the place for my current plans and goals. The initial goals of my current business model are to create $2400 worth of Organic Produce and plants per week, and earn a minimum of $1200 per week through the sales of said produce and plants.
I was hesitant to start this thread; after reading of MJ's explanation of the reasoning behind the secrecy and unwillingness to display ones niche, website, or financial data. I will not be sharing the details of my big picture globalization, or the intricacies of the distribution system I have in my head. There are indeed people out there who have the knowledge, confidence, and resources to make my vision a reality in less time than it would take me, but the decision to not spill the beans comes from a different reality. What good would it do for me to disclose my "big plans" to earn billions in top-line revenue through food production while I am still dependent on a modest salary to pay the mortgage? Yes these ideas exist, but it seems more appropriate to focus on the baby steps required to replace a modest salary with a modest business net profit.
As a matter of fact, it was about 3 years ago I first noticed it would be profitable to run a produce stand when I observed exactly how much a local farmer was earning selling oranges and strawberries from the back of a pickup. My lady friend requested I stop for strawberries, and I obliged. She waited in line for damn near 20 minutes. In the 20 minutes I stood there, the farmer had pocketed over $200. My naive self instantly assumed the farmer was earning a whopping $600 an hour, but I now realize he only earns during the hours he spends selling, not during the time he spends growing. (which actually is only time spent picking the oranges, as they grow every year en masse from established trees. Hmm, perhaps there were money trees before the internet.)
You may be thinking of stealing my idea and running with it. That's fine. If you find enjoyment in the villainous deed of stealing my idea to be a small scale farmer, power to you. Matter of fact, there is enough of a market for produce that unless you are planning on setting up a produce stand directly next to mine, selling exactly the same products, it really doesn't affect me now, and most-likely will bear no effect on my large scale plans to earn billions while ending world hunger.
Since I just mentioned the need for affordable, quality organic produce, allow me to segway into a brief analysis of my business model through the CENTS test. Food. It's pretty much #1 on the needs list, and millions of people die of being HUNGRY. This leads me to hypothesize that there is not enough food produced in the world. Need rating: HIGH
Entry, now this ones a bit tricky, and I am hoping a few of you will chime in on my analysis of this. There are a few barriers to entry, aside from the typical barriers keeping the majority from embarking on any entrepreneurial journey. I would say the barriers are pretty low. Most anyone could start a small farm if they had the resource of land or the capital to acquire land. (The large scale fastlane vision will require several years of trial, error, and creating new growing methods.The methods of farming I will be doing are relatively specialized, and before I can earn my seat at the entrepreneurial grown-ups table, I have to spend several years of trial and error of the growing methods that I plant to exploit and change to suit my needs. This will be the real barrier to entry competition.) Entry rating for starting a produce stand: Relatively LOW.
I would say control is moderate. There are always factors outside your control with farming. Pests, weather, soil composition, local climate, etc. Part of the intentions of the 2-3 season experimental learning curve will be learning of ways to gain control of these factors while still remaining organic. (True story, this is how/why GMO produce was developed) People need food year round, and I have the ability to provide that. (*Side note, I live in Central FL so I practically can grow produce year round.) If the economy collapsed, I would still be able to earn whatever I need by adjusting parameters. Big picture control rating is moderate to high. Produce stand control is Moderate.
Scale as a single guy running a produce stand is pretty small. It would initially be limited to within a few mile radius until an effective distribution system is implemented. Scale potential is huge. (Apples grow in New England ends up in grocery stores in FL, while Oranges grown in FL end up in stores in Maine.) Scale as a one man stand is obviously low. Scale potential with the proper distribution system, global.
Time. The ever flowing river. This is where it may seem that a produce stand is not free from my time. Even the large scale plan involves a large distribution system and human resource systems so I estimate passivity on a large scale being at 50-60% passive, needing my direct input more than a web-based services business. Since I plan on running the produce stand by myself, passivity is nil. The growing aspect is fairly hands off though, once the seeds are planted, watering and growing are automatic and require very little of my time until the produce needs to be harvested or the plant is ready to be sold. The goal for the produce stand is simply to get me out of my career, which will give me more time to work on the ideas an process required for globalization. It will also give me the satisfaction of control over my own life that all of us are after in the first place.
That's my elementary analysis of the pros-cons of getting involved in small scale farming and produce stand sales. I have been planting seeds and collecting resources over the last few weeks. (I just recently moved to a home with land so this idea could be pursued.) I have been planting roughly 200 seeds per day six days per week. If there was no loss whatsoever and I was able to sell every single plant or piece of produce produced, my current rate of effort would yield between 2 and 4K per week. Of course, there will be some loss, which is why I am producing significantly more than will give me the income to leave my job forever. I am using this as my baseline to reach my goal of consistently earning $1200 per week to replace my salary. I plan to sell mostly on the weekends, and tend the gardens during the week while I am not at work.
I have been planting regularly for the last 3 weeks and should have more product than I know what to do with come March-April. This is when the challenge will switch from production to sales. Ok, I think I'm done writing for the evening.
Please share your thoughts! Are there any other "farmers" on the forum?
I am new here, but I wanted to take the time to introduce myself and log some basic plans and goals. This will also be a chance for me to dust off my typing fingers as I begin the process of building a blog (that is not entrepreneurial in nature).
For as long as I can remember I have been a wantreprener. I bounced from idea to idea with complete lack of focus. It was not very pretty. I read TMF over a year ago and have been lurking on the forum here and there ever since. I will say I took more risks and had more failures this last year, but the failures have actually mattered. I blew 10 grand on a business last year that brought me roughly 2k in revenue. I'll admit, the 8k loss was incredibly painful, but I'm more proud of losing that money than I am of anything else in my life. This forum contains one of the few groups of people in the world who could ever understand that.
This thread is not the time or place to go into details of the failed business, (that will go in the first chapter of the book I write), this is the place for my current plans and goals. The initial goals of my current business model are to create $2400 worth of Organic Produce and plants per week, and earn a minimum of $1200 per week through the sales of said produce and plants.
I was hesitant to start this thread; after reading of MJ's explanation of the reasoning behind the secrecy and unwillingness to display ones niche, website, or financial data. I will not be sharing the details of my big picture globalization, or the intricacies of the distribution system I have in my head. There are indeed people out there who have the knowledge, confidence, and resources to make my vision a reality in less time than it would take me, but the decision to not spill the beans comes from a different reality. What good would it do for me to disclose my "big plans" to earn billions in top-line revenue through food production while I am still dependent on a modest salary to pay the mortgage? Yes these ideas exist, but it seems more appropriate to focus on the baby steps required to replace a modest salary with a modest business net profit.
As a matter of fact, it was about 3 years ago I first noticed it would be profitable to run a produce stand when I observed exactly how much a local farmer was earning selling oranges and strawberries from the back of a pickup. My lady friend requested I stop for strawberries, and I obliged. She waited in line for damn near 20 minutes. In the 20 minutes I stood there, the farmer had pocketed over $200. My naive self instantly assumed the farmer was earning a whopping $600 an hour, but I now realize he only earns during the hours he spends selling, not during the time he spends growing. (which actually is only time spent picking the oranges, as they grow every year en masse from established trees. Hmm, perhaps there were money trees before the internet.)
You may be thinking of stealing my idea and running with it. That's fine. If you find enjoyment in the villainous deed of stealing my idea to be a small scale farmer, power to you. Matter of fact, there is enough of a market for produce that unless you are planning on setting up a produce stand directly next to mine, selling exactly the same products, it really doesn't affect me now, and most-likely will bear no effect on my large scale plans to earn billions while ending world hunger.
Since I just mentioned the need for affordable, quality organic produce, allow me to segway into a brief analysis of my business model through the CENTS test. Food. It's pretty much #1 on the needs list, and millions of people die of being HUNGRY. This leads me to hypothesize that there is not enough food produced in the world. Need rating: HIGH
Entry, now this ones a bit tricky, and I am hoping a few of you will chime in on my analysis of this. There are a few barriers to entry, aside from the typical barriers keeping the majority from embarking on any entrepreneurial journey. I would say the barriers are pretty low. Most anyone could start a small farm if they had the resource of land or the capital to acquire land. (The large scale fastlane vision will require several years of trial, error, and creating new growing methods.The methods of farming I will be doing are relatively specialized, and before I can earn my seat at the entrepreneurial grown-ups table, I have to spend several years of trial and error of the growing methods that I plant to exploit and change to suit my needs. This will be the real barrier to entry competition.) Entry rating for starting a produce stand: Relatively LOW.
I would say control is moderate. There are always factors outside your control with farming. Pests, weather, soil composition, local climate, etc. Part of the intentions of the 2-3 season experimental learning curve will be learning of ways to gain control of these factors while still remaining organic. (True story, this is how/why GMO produce was developed) People need food year round, and I have the ability to provide that. (*Side note, I live in Central FL so I practically can grow produce year round.) If the economy collapsed, I would still be able to earn whatever I need by adjusting parameters. Big picture control rating is moderate to high. Produce stand control is Moderate.
Scale as a single guy running a produce stand is pretty small. It would initially be limited to within a few mile radius until an effective distribution system is implemented. Scale potential is huge. (Apples grow in New England ends up in grocery stores in FL, while Oranges grown in FL end up in stores in Maine.) Scale as a one man stand is obviously low. Scale potential with the proper distribution system, global.
Time. The ever flowing river. This is where it may seem that a produce stand is not free from my time. Even the large scale plan involves a large distribution system and human resource systems so I estimate passivity on a large scale being at 50-60% passive, needing my direct input more than a web-based services business. Since I plan on running the produce stand by myself, passivity is nil. The growing aspect is fairly hands off though, once the seeds are planted, watering and growing are automatic and require very little of my time until the produce needs to be harvested or the plant is ready to be sold. The goal for the produce stand is simply to get me out of my career, which will give me more time to work on the ideas an process required for globalization. It will also give me the satisfaction of control over my own life that all of us are after in the first place.
That's my elementary analysis of the pros-cons of getting involved in small scale farming and produce stand sales. I have been planting seeds and collecting resources over the last few weeks. (I just recently moved to a home with land so this idea could be pursued.) I have been planting roughly 200 seeds per day six days per week. If there was no loss whatsoever and I was able to sell every single plant or piece of produce produced, my current rate of effort would yield between 2 and 4K per week. Of course, there will be some loss, which is why I am producing significantly more than will give me the income to leave my job forever. I am using this as my baseline to reach my goal of consistently earning $1200 per week to replace my salary. I plan to sell mostly on the weekends, and tend the gardens during the week while I am not at work.
I have been planting regularly for the last 3 weeks and should have more product than I know what to do with come March-April. This is when the challenge will switch from production to sales. Ok, I think I'm done writing for the evening.
Please share your thoughts! Are there any other "farmers" on the forum?
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