Planning Your Life Within Farm Fusion
Starting in a measured way
Know that is good to start small with a step into it approach that allows you to scale, pivot and optimize along the way. If you already have an existing business to plug these ideas into, great, if not, there’s a lot more to consider.
‘Betting the farm’ is an approach we should avoid at all costs. We sleep better and learn more when we bootstrap our way one practical step at a time.
All of our timelines will be different. I was starting from scratch, and knew I would be starting a new life in a new state whenever I was ready. That’s a huge jump, but my trade off was moving in with mom and dad for almost 2 years during the research phase. I needed lots of time to grow personally and to save for future student loan and mortgage payments. On top of that, I needed as long as it would take to figure out a business model that was so adaptable it had unlimited ways of pivoting to success. Leaving a good paying job just to go bankrupt within a year wasn’t an option, but neither was the status quo. It was necessary for creating what is the basis of the framework now called Farm Fusion.
Here’s what my timeline looked like:
Year 1: Save $ & explore possibilities
Year 2: Build a food truck that can act as certified kitchen
Year 3: Purchase property. Build DIY high tunnels and farm infrastructure
Only then I did leave my full-time job. 3 years. This course is here partly because hindsight could have saved me most of that.
So, what things can you do to start in measured way?
(Recommended reading: Pumpkin Plan by Mike Micalowicz)
Setting things up for success, high automation & low day to day maintenance from the start
To avoid burnout, you must know how to save yourself from yourself.
The more self-awareness you have around what you are best at, and the things that weigh you down, the better.
I am not good at keeping with monotonous routines and wanted the freedom to travel on weekends, so I designed my business around them.
Here’s a few steps I took to protect my happiness and sanity, allowing me to keep this a fun and enjoyable business to run:
Farm:
-Easily maintained flood and drain propagation tables in a shed that felt more like a baby plant making paradise.
-Passive hydroponics for simplicity and to avoid pump failures while I was traveling.
-Automated drip irrigation everywhere else.
Whenever I find myself picking weeds and watering by hand, I am looking for long term solutions in not having to.
Food:
-Aim for 1 food purchasing day per week, including personal and business
A trip into town ‘only’ takes an hour.
Business:
How can you keep yourself from the business running YOU, instead of YOU running the business?
Continually ask, ‘what would this look like if it were easy?’ You’ll likely find that giving up a little up front can get you a lot back over the long term.
-Automated online storefront, email campaigns, accounting & payment systems
(Recommended reading: Clockwork by Mike Micalowicz)
Leveraging assets you already own or have access to
What assets do you already have access to? Think you’ll be using a commercial kitchen? Instead of building one, can you rent time in a shared kitchen to get started?
a food truck & a home with plenty of land & a pond for endless water supply. (There are relatively low regulations when it comes to water collection, zoning & requirements from the dept of ag.)
Reduce Risk
Know your local restrictions!… and expect the 100 year storm via wind/flooding/snow (take a guess why I mention that!)
What other things could throw a monkey wrench into your plans and what can you do to eliminate that risk?
Grow in grow bags because my property is prone to flooding.
Contact the building inspector, dept of ag and the health department about my plans before I make any financial commitments.
Leveraging Renewable/Reusable Inputs
Saving time, materials and money is part of the farm fusion ethos.
What can you avoid needing to need to bring in more than once?
Farm:
Nutrients – fish poop via fish tank, chicken compost, vermicompost & horse manure from neighbors
Water – Pond & locally available IBC tanks
Food:
Packaging – with exchangeable ball jars to dramatically reduce waste while encouraging repeat business
Bootstrapping A Business Infrastructure
Jeff Bednar of Profound Microfarms has traded for the majority of the equipment in his diversified indoor farm, and only expands after he’s consistently selling out all of his existing production.
What focused set of small projects can you start now?
What would it look like if it were optimizing for low day to day maintenance from the beginning?
Can you start with a small system that can easily be added onto as you expand?
Are there trades you can make to get your initial equipment outlay without spending any money?
Farm:
-Seed starting: Aquaponic flood and drain for microgreens & propagation using basic materials.
-Greenhouse Production: DIY Covered Hoop house for leafy greens & herbs for year round production
-Outdoor Production: Grow Bags on adjustable drip for herbs, tomatoes, peppers, pickles, raspberries
-Chickens: Chicken coop built from existing swing set on property with fencing, large feeders, waterers and poop hammocks for easily coop cleaning and nutrient collection
Kitchen:
-sweat equity invested food truck avoiding need for additional commercial kitchen off-site.
Business:
–No physical storefront, just an online presence with the occasional sighting of the food truck.
-No employees – designed as a 1 man operation, with clarity on how to scale up once the low cost model was proven
Recap: Questions to answer
How can you keep yourself from the business running YOU, instead of YOU running the business?
What assets do you already have access to?
Instead of building one, can you rent time with ________ to get started?
What things could throw a monkey wrench into your plans and what can you do to eliminate that risk?
What focused set of small projects can you start now?
What would it look like if you optimized for low day to day maintenance from the beginning?
Can you start with a small system that can easily be added onto as you expand?
Are there trades you can make to get your initial equipment outlay without spending any money?
What would this all look like if it were easy?
Even if you aren’t super clear with a product idea, you should be able to set up some good guideposts for later.
In the next section, we take a look at the considerations in building a local food brand through the lens of Veg2Bowl, Craven Local Food Market as well as Nick Burton’s Victory Lunch Club and Herb’s & Oil food truck.