Business Structures

One thing that needs to be taken into consideration eventually is what kind of business type one sets up.  Should it be sole proprietorship, a corporation, a partnership or even a limited liability company?
It really depends on what you need from that type of business entity.
A sole proprietorship often doesn't need much separate business or tax filing which is easier and better for a small company but doesn't offer a lot in the way of protections.
 An LLC offers more protections but requires more filing and proof of structure, and income and taxes.
The Modern Farmer  offers a lot of good information and insight regarding starting up a CSA and also a business entity.  Much of what they suggest really comes down to how much liability do you want to take on.  With a CSA, there is the risk of not having crops, something being done that a customer doesn't agree with or even a slight risk of something like food poisoning.  This could lead to a person being personally sued and their assets being affected rather than the company being sued, like in an LLC.
They also suggest having a fleshed out contract to sign with potential members.  Let them know that there might be a lean month or season, just depending on weather and bugs. 
The Modern Farmer also takes into account if you have a participant come to the garden for a you-pick type event, that there is enough insurance on the farm, in the event that a guest is injured.
This article references some other links that have good, thought out agreements.
They mention people getting sick from food several times, enough that it makes me wonder if the authors had someone get sick.  In a small CSA farm,the odds of someone getting sick should be very minimal.  These are not like sweeping fields of lettuce with people going to the bathroom in the fields, spreading germs.  These are smaller farms, managed by fewer people with more of a personal investment into the goings on of the farm and what it produces.

Paying someone else to do your marketing for you

I was thinking about how marketing might not be every business-minded persons strong point and what would go into hiring someone else to do the marketing for you.
I read a good article on The Hired Guns on 7 things the Chief Digital Product Office at Merriam Webster looks for.
1- initiative.  Being a good worker bee and doing what you are told is a fantastic role to fit into.  But, rising above and standing out is when you can anticipate something and get to working on it without being told.
2 - creativity. This means being OK with looking beyond "we've always done it this way" or "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
3 - numeracy. This refers to using analytics to identify and utilize trends. There are enough programs and apps and platforms out there now that can take your information and help you analyze it so that you don't have to be a math person, you just have to know where to go to get and use the right information.
4 - legal grounding.  This one was interesting to me because the author mentions knowing the difference in a sweepstakes and a contest. I looked it up and got this answer from Marden Kane:
          Two of the most common promotions are Sweepstakes (games of chance) and Contests (games of skill). The major difference between sweepstakes and contests is that contest winners are selected by judges using a set of criteria whereas sweepstakes winners are randomly selected.
While you don't have to have a legal degree, having some working knowledge of some common laws or legality in your chosen business is always a good idea. It'll help you if an issue comes up because you'll already have an idea of where you can start, when coming up with answers.
5 - testing chops.  I think this goes along with number 3.  How do you know what is working if you don't check and see?  Number proof or it doesn't count.
6 - social media savvy. Being aware of what platforms are used and why.  Having number proof as to what the demographics are and how that audience is reached, helps.
7 - curiosity. For me, this goes with number 2.   Don't be satisfied with how things are.  Be hungry for more and want to dig in and learn more.  

The last one is just be a decent person. I think that should be applicable everywhere.

Using email to reach customers

In a lot of the e-marketing and regular marketing that I have been reading about, it mentions email campaigns.  I've been wondering what all that means and really entails.  Like, I expect to get emails from companies that I know about and actively signed up to get their emails.  But how do I reach people who might not know about my company yet?

Campaign monitor.com  has a very visually appealing site with lots of good information on how to get going with an email campaign.  It doesn't really expand on HOW to get the emails, other than ones you already have. 

Neilpatel.com does go in depth a little more but still really relies on getting people to give you their email once they are at your site.   One thing that was mentioned was making sure that your email is whitelisted, so that it doesn't get automatically blocked by major service providers.  

More reading suggests that if you don't have a site or are starting out, you'd need to spend some money on an Opt-in list.  And basically spam people that way.  It could be dangerous, as target customers might have a negative opinion after getting your email in their junk mail or it might pay off and get someone to look at your site who you might not have gotten to by other means.

More on Marketing

Marketing online is such an easy way to go about marketing your company or your brand. This goes beyond a simple social media presence and looks at things like email campaigns and search engine marketing.

It isn't enough just to have posts and followers and "likes". Those clicks need to be able to turn into real revenue, either by customers buying things from your site or through pay-per-click advertising.
Content has to be in the right area at the right time.

Do you get in on a mailing list and send out 1000 emails? Do you piggy back off of a like minded other company, ideally one more successful than you? Do you pay to have your website featured on the first page of search engine listings?

7 Different types of Digital Marketing offers some ideas and suggestions.
Advantages and Disadvantages is another good site.  They point out the disadvantages of e-marketing and only having an online presence.  Sometimes people still want to have hands on , face to face time with a product and don't only want to interact online.  Also, it takes time to keep everything online updated.  It needs to stay fresh and current or can slip from the minds of potential customers, especially during the start up.

Passive income for the winter

Now that we are coming up on Thanksgiving and working our way into winter, the garden slows down.  That also means the income from anything growing on the farm slows down or outright stops.
We're still eating from the garden but we don't mind eating the tomatoes (because yes, we still have tomatoes growing) that have blemishes, or the turnips that are the size of a volleyball.  Those are products that while perfectly fine to eat, aren't as easy to work with for the average consumer.
Last week, I shared some information about getting involved in stock photography and this week I'm thinking more on how to turn a blog into income.
There are a lot of blogs out there already and it would be an easy thing to add some of the pictures I'm already taking for the stock photos, to the blog. That would be a very niche way to separate my blog from others.   It would take a lot of research into what is out there already and what is doing well, to determine what might be lacking.  At this point, I think other than basically being willing to start documenting from the ground up, the only other difference is geography.  I'm not sure of any others in the North Alabama/Southern Middle Tennessee area.  So we'd just have a different perspective.
Being so close to the state line also offers twice as much learning about rules and regulations.  All that can be shared in a blog, as well as the steps taken. But, this is only good if people can find your blog. One easy way is to pay to have the blog listed or actually get a domain name and real website.  Basically, if it can't show up in an internet search, it doesn't exist. This is one of those "takes money to make money" types of things.   This site, offers some nice things like tracking how many readers your page gets. It also offers "AdSense" which allows targeted ads to be in the blog, which can generate income.
Another way is to do a review or share a favorite brand or product.   Mention enough times how much a certain brand of fencing or trowel or whatever works for you and you can turn that into a link where if your bases buys through the link, you get a little kickback.
It all still goes back to marketing principles and how to get your name and product out there, even if your product is a blog.

Diversifying revenue streams

One way that I've read about as an income stream is to take pictures for stock photos.  There is a big market for that and like anything, there are some pictures that are worth more than others.
In this Business Insider article, they say to take pictures of "business, education, lifestyle, medical — anything that happens in life, if you take a picture or video of it, people need it". 
Unsurprisingly, there are businesses that are built around taking valuable stock photos and also business that help newcomers to the game get their pieces sold.

It seems like such a fun thing to do on the side.  A lot of people would love to be a photographer or really enjoy taking pictures and to find out you don't have to be some professional with several thousand dollars invested in gear and training, is really exciting.

"A 2017 Creative Trends Report from Shutterstock showed a rise in nostalgia-related images, and content around cybersecurity and VR."  Also, pictures of people who look like every day people and from all walks of life are in demand.

In my real life, I currently work for a steel mill and I know pictures inside the mill would be in high demand.  Any new publications we have internally all use the same handful of pictures -  for years. Of course, any pictures taken would have to not show a company name or logo and couldn't show any proprietary technology.  

This picture was taken by the woman interviewed in the article and it is one of her higest selling pictures -  it is of her kids and their friends, at a festival.
Something to think about, if you are already taking pictures for marketing -  take a few more and try to sell them as stock photos!

Researching for Marketing

It has been incredibly interesting to do the research for starting a CSA in my area.   in my case, i'm not trying to re-invent the wheel but I can definitely look at making the wheel better and getting it into the right hands.  It has been reassuring to see that others have had the same idea and been able to make a go of it.   It is also nice that there is a real community there of people who want to see other like minded people succeed in that area, as well.  It might seem a little counter-intuitive to share your successes and failures but right now, CSA's and Farm to Table is growing enough that there is plenty of room for people to join and participate.

It does mean that marketing, specializing and diversifying are very important. If you start off like every other company, who will want to buy from you?  What will set you apart?  Most people will look at longevity and price, and probably not in that order. Money talks and people want to save where they can.  That also means spending wisely and not buying from a company that won't delivery or that isn't tested and tried.

In the arena of new business, word of mouth and reviews will make such a difference.

Growing your business

It seems a little strange to be thinking about how to grow a business that hasn't started yet but there needs to be room for growth and development.  A business can adapt and change and needs to, to survive.

One woman, Sheri Salatin, is the marketing director at Polyface Farms.  She talks about how they had to diversify on their farm business.  They had eggs and whole chickens.  They firmly didn't want to cut up chickens and process them more but by listening to customers they realized that a lot of customers wanted the chickens processed more, either due to time or they really didn't realize that chickens had bones.  They noticed a huge increase in sales, once they started cutting up their birds.

Sheri Salatin also speaks about knowing who you are marketing to.  In their business, they realized that 90% of shoppers and food shoppers are women.  As such, they need to market more to women.  And they need to understand how women think and behave.  Notably, most women are talkers. So they make an effort to talk to women and get away from the "beep" society that we live in.  She says we get beeped at everywhere.  Beeps at the checkout at the store, at the gas station, anywhere. Take the time to talk to your customers.

She also says part of this talking includes saying thank you.  Thank you for your time,  Thank you for your business.

She says to look at marketing in smaller, more manageable bites.  Tell a friend, then another friend. Don't try to get 1000 people at once.  Get one. And then one, and then one more.  It will grow from there.

Impulse buying

Impulse buying is something that I think everyone is guilty of but some more than others.
It is hard to resist the BOGO call sometimes!

Impulse buying can be anything from gum or candy at the check out lane to clothes or electronics that seems to be on sale and can't be passed up - they are too good of a deal!

I think the idea of a deal or sale makes the shopping seem more urgent, since it is suddenly a limited time offer.  This is used in many areas including car sales.  How many people have been car shopping, been undecided and have had the salesperson tell them that the price is only good that day or that week?  Lots of people, I imagine.
The thrill of the deal and the pressure makes people more susceptible to giving in to that impulse.

Marketing91  has an article with their 9 ideas that elaborate on impulse buying.
Some people are more prone to enjoying shopping and getting a rush and some emotional fulfillment from any kind of shopping, including impulse buying.

Some people are lured in by a well designed display.  Either calm and orderly or brightly colored, either tactic can work, for the right audience.

Other factors that help are time and money.  Simply put, if you have the time to shop -  you will.
If you have the disposable income at hand, you'll find a way to spend it. 
of course, that doesn't always stop some people.  Which is why we have sch a huge credit card industry and so many people in debt. But that is another discussion.

One other area of impulse buying that I hadn't given much thought to is basically peer pressure.  A friend or loved one will encourage you to get that item.  Treat yo' self!  You deserve it!  It looks good on you!  I'd get it, if it were me.   You alone might not go on a shopping spree in the newest store, but once your friends are all getting several items, it seems that you are almost obligated to get something, as well.

Basically, pay attention to your shopping patterns.  Make a list and stick to it.  Never shop hungry or bored.  Or maybe, allot yourself a budget - $5 for impulse buying.

Marketing and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

It is interesting to think about how Maslow's hierarchy of needs relates to marketing.
At it's base are basic needs -  food, water, shelter and clothing.  Depending on your product or service, you could aim to market right for that area.

Buy my food!   You need to eat, after all!
 Buy this top!  You can't be naked!

These are crude examples but they aren't necessarily wrong. They also don't do a good job of selling the audience on why their hard earned money should be spent on YOUR food or YOUR shirt, rather than the next persons. A Savvy marketer would have to work on that.

Above the very basic needs are safety and security.   You can have enough to eat and a place to sleep but that isn't as sustainable without some measure of safety.  Knowing that you are going to be attacked for your bread helps you to rest easier at night and stay healthier.
That can be another area to narrow down your marketing. 
Buy this top -  it will keep you warm, dry and visible out in the woods.  
Now you are aiming for a more targeted audience.

Now the pyramid gets into the psychological needs  like belonging, friendships, love and esteem.
One can get by feeling alone, unloved or like they don't have anything to offer, but that is no quality of life.  It's a mentally dangerous area.
This leads to some marketing that is in effect saying:

Buy this product or experience!  
All the cool kids are doing it and you want to be a cool kid too, right?

 It's a version of capitalizing on peer pressure.  It's also known as "keeping up with the Jones'".  You want to feel as if your purchase was a smart purchase and a good use of time and your resources. 

The top of the pyramid is for self actualization and self fulfillment.  Many companies are advertising to people who should buy their product or experience in the name of self care. 

 No one will love you and take care of you like you can.  
Take time for self care, because you are worthy and worthwhile. 
Are you living your best life?   You will be, if you have my product in your life.

This type of marketing does make me think about things in my own life.  Like, am I living my best life? Then I look at the product and wonder, would it enhance anything or improve in an area that is lacking?   Most times I realize the answer is no, it wouldn't.  Collecting more things isn't going to help me and might actually contribute to stress from over spending or wondering why I have so much clutter.  

The Hierarchy of needs does not particularly include room for clutter or stuff or objects.  We don't need as much as we think we do to be happy and fulfilled.  It then takes some smart and deliberate marketing to convince us otherwise.

An Experience as a Business

I don't think that this is a new idea.  People have been paying for things like a murder-mystery dinner for a while now.   There are a few companies that offer "tipsy painting" which involves drinking and painting canvases. The idea is that social, in that these are group events and also an experience.
Anyone can drink and paint but a lot of people think they don't have the ability and enjoy the help of a teacher saying how to turn a blob of blue paint into an ocean.

A company I recently discovered, 1818 Farms, has turned buying flowers, into an experience.
1818 Blog
They grow their own flowers, then cut them, and drive them to locations to sell. Sometimes they offer bouquet making classes.  This is something that might seem unnecessary, as one can go into most any grocery store and buy flowers or pre-arranged bouquets but this offers a lot more customization and personalizing. They also emphasize a "seed to vase" initiative.  It brings an awareness to the fact that living plants come from the ground and are real things.

People can have a feeling of back to nature without having to dedicate the time and resources to growing their own acres of flowers.
This brings me to the idea of having a mobile farmers market.  People are loving the idea of choosing fresh, organic fruits and vegetables but getting to the farmers market isn't always convenient. Bringing the food to the people seems like a next logical step in a "farm to table" movement.  Personally, as I rather enjoy growing flowers, too, I love the idea of offering both fruits, veggies and flowers, to round out the experience and shopping.
It would be changing, depending on what is ripe and in season, so people would want to come back, again and again, for the freshest of what is in season.

Online Surveys

Online surveys are something that has become a business of its own.   You can get paid now, just to give your opinions.   Many companies offer a chance to win a gift card or even receive a coupon to use at their business. I've started seeing an increase in one question surveys on Instagram asking simply, which do you like more - A or B and you can see what the population and target audience/followers are interested in.
There are a couple companies out there that specailize in online surveys Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey.  I've worked a couple places now that have used SurveyMonkey for work related questions. It seems quick and easy to get going with them, as well as free.

Zoomerang offers a tutorial video on how to create better survey questions. The first one is "clearly define the purpose of the survey" or in other words, "what are you trying to find out".  If you don't know what you're looking for, your questions won't be to the point and won't give you the information you're wanting.
Next one is to keep the survey short.  They say this helps actually get people to take the survey and finish.   Have you ever thought you'd kill a minute answering a few questions and then 20 questions in, there is no end in sight?  The quality of answers can go down too. This goes back to the first tip - know what you want to know.  You can drill down quickly and more effectively.
Third and forth are keep the questions simple and close ended.   Close ended questions goes against a lot of what we have been taught in communication with others, but in this case, it is necessary.  The more closely you can get to some for, of "Yes" or "No" answer, the better.  Even a scaled answer, as in, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being very satisfied, will help get a good result. And don't flip flop what your scale means.  If 5 is always the best, don't change it to 1 being the best, some questions later.   Also, don't change to a scale of 1-4.
Make sure the questions build on each other and flow towards a conclusion.  Don't start by asking "Do you put your shoes on left foot first and then right?" and 2 questions later ask about socks.  Socks go on before shoes, so ask in that order.
The next tips are to pre-test your survey and consider your target audience.  This will help make sure the survey makes sense and will get you the answers you're looking for and not waste anyone's time.
If you have a sausage making company, vegan and vegetarian shoppers are NOT going to help you on your survey.
The last tips are to send several reminders.   I know this has helped me answer surveys.  The first time that I get an invitation,  I might not be in a good place to answer.  I will surely forget but I'll usually be in a better place when I get a reminder.  It also makes me feel like my opinion is really wanted and valuable.
The last tip is one that i already mentioned - offer an incentive.   I know I have answered many surveys to be able to receive a coupon for a free food item at one of my local fast food places.   It doesn't hurt that I tend to be food motivated!

Guerrilla Marketing!

I really enjoy learning about guerrilla marketing.  For one, it makes my inner cheapskate happy and for another, it can really allow you to get creative.

I think it also goes hand in hand with niche marketing. You need to separate yourself from the pack and the best way to do that is to find your niche and the guerrilla the heck out of it!

Guerrilla Marketing Ideas  lists 25 of what they think are the best marketing ideas.   I like this article because it is recent, from July of 2018. It looks at using some of the less know social media sites, like Reddit, as well as really capitalizing on the internet.

         One idea is developing free themes for bloggers or websites. You can then hard code a back-link to your on site and piggy back from a bigger and more popular site or blog.
        Another is using a site like Hootsuite to follow buzzwords and hashtags that are trending and also use them.   You'll then show up in these searches.
       Twitter "leap-frogging" is another great idea.  Let the internet do the hard part for you, by taking advantage of search engines to see what are the trending articles/pages that most closely align with yours and then share your information with them directly. There is more information about that , here from the guy who coined that term.
      Utilizing LinkedIn is another idea.  I feel that this lends a certain legitimacy to your business and can tap into more connections and markets that Facebook and Instagram might pass by.
      The last idea is stickers and decals.  This partially appeals to my inner child but I've seen more and more people turning to a cute or clever sticker to hand out, for free. People love free and it gets them looking and thinking about your brand. Even more, when the stickers or decals are actually placed on a car, backpack or even wall.  It spreads your message further and to unexpected areas.

Being a cusp Millennial

As someone who was born halfway through 1980, I'm sometimes classified as a Gen Xer and sometimes a Millennial.  A new term has been coined for that age group - Xennial - which is for the  and micro-generation between 1977 and 1985.

XENNIALS  

       It seems like this term was first noticed in 2014, to describe this age group.  It is people who grew up in the days of playing outside but are now pretty tech savvy.  We grew up as tech grew up too.  We aren't as negative as Gen X but we aren't as overly optimistic as Millennial's.  It's a good balance.

       Reading this article, about 5 Traits older generations don't understand was pretty interesting, since I feel that I have one foot in each of those worlds.
      The last one was most interesting to me, Tackling Brand New Industries. The person in the article literally grew up to be a video game player and went on to teach others how to make money playing video games!  I can wrap my head around that easily.  That is fantastic for them!  Where my pre-millennialism starts to show is when I start thinking about how to make a very nice living off only having a YouTube Channel.

        How does one start? How much time is spent thinking about content?  How do you know what people want to see?
       Some of the homesteading vlogs I watch are so successful, both adults in the house (because most, if not all, are married with kids) have been able to quit their mundane jobs and vlog full time.
They garden, raise animals, and in some cases, sell their produce/animal product.   All thanks to a new industry, Vlogging.

How does one find more time in the day?

With so many demands on our time, including trying to make time to do nothing, how do successful people do it all? One method is scheduling.  Schedule everything and write everything down.  This becomes a bible of sorts.  It is the book that keeps everything flowing.   I use my calendar in my phone but I've found that it isn't always reliable.  That is something for me to work on.

Another idea that is gaining traction is a simple one - get up earlier.  Specifically 4am.
In this Wall Street Journal article, it states that at this hour, there are fewer distractions.  A motivated person can get so much done.  
why-4-a-m-is-the-most-productive-hour-

This time doesn't even have to be spent on work, it can be used for personal time, like meditation or working out.   I took a class offered through my employer and one of the segments was offering up an area of improvement in your personal life.   My area was waking up earlier to work out.  I know I should get up 30 minutes earlier but I don't.   The suggestion was get up 5 minutes earlier, to start.  Anyone can manage 5 minutes earlier, right?

Of course, if I got up at 4, there would be lots of time to get things done.   Working out, class work, bill paying, reading relevant and meaningful news.... Many things and I'd be in control of them, rather than letting them happen to me.
Again, many of the more successful CEO's use this strategy. Really, many of the more successful people use this method.  

It is certainly something to consider.

From the Ground Floor

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  Welcome!

I'll be looking at taking a semi-serious hobby of homesteading and blending it into a genuine business venture.

There will be plenty of time to elaborate on the gardening and growing part but I'll be starting the focus on the business part.
I like this article on Entrepreneur.com about the education levels of famous business moguls.

How Does Your Education Compare to Oprah Winfrey's, Elon Musk's and Sheryl Sandberg's?

How Does Your Education Compare to https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/307238

Many of our most famous business success stories show that education is important but it isn't the only factor.  Many actually attended college and didn't finish a higher degree.  The good foundation needs to be there but without drive and creative thinking, a diploma alone isn't going to start a business, successful or otherwise.