Starting your own farm is arguably one of the more difficult businesses to get into. Besides being a physically demanding business, getting your farm up and running and conducting regular maintenance can be tough as well. That said, it is certainly rewarding for the right individual! If you are interested in running a farm, here are five rules for starting your own farm that you need to know in order to get a successful start.
Starting Your Own Farm
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Determine Your Market and Craft a Business Plan
Running a farm is expensive, which means that you need to have a comprehensive business plan before you begin investing money into your business. Long before you even start tackling the hard work and heavy lifting, you should be thinking about important points such as:
- Who your market is and how you are going to get your product to them?
- How you are going to fund your farm?
- How much experience you currently have with agriculture?
- What animals you will own and what crops you will cultivate (and if you have animals, how much it will cost to get high-quality, wholesale feed like that provided by Conway Feed) ?
- What resources do you have and what you will need to get in order to make your farm a reality?
- What paperwork will be required to get your farm up and running?
- Where your farm will be located?
If you can come up with a full concept about what your farm will look like, how it will be managed, and what will be necessary to get it started, you are well on your way to making that concept a reality.
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Find the Right Educational Tools for Your Needs
Unless you have had experience working on or managing a farm, becoming more acquainted with how a farm operates is vital to the success of your business. Once you have finished the planning stages, make sure to look for educational resources that will help you learn more about planting your crops, tending to them, harvesting them, and managing your plants from beginning to end. You should also start looking for management courses that will help you figure out what systems and processes you need to implement in order to ensure that your business runs smoothly (unless you will be running a small farm on your own).
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Look for an Individual or Organization That Can Support Your Growth
Having an experienced, business-savvy individual on your side who can guide you through the process of starting and launching your farm is an invaluable tool. If you have any family or friends who have worked in this industry, see if they can help you as you navigate this new space. If you don’t know someone, but can find someone who you can network with and build a relationship with, this will help you as you start your own farm as well. The more support you have as you go through each step, the more likely you are to succeed.
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File Your Business and Begin Setting Up Your Land
Once you have a great plan, all of the education you need to be successful in each aspect of your business, and the help you need to make it happen, it’s time to put your plan in motion. The first step in getting started is to find where you will be located, double-check that you have everything you need to set up, and file your business with the federal government and your state. Then begin work on the farm design that you created earlier in this process. Although it may take a while to set up, the finished product will be worth the effort.
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Enlist the Help of Machinery and Employees
For those who plan on running a small farm on their own or with their family, your main concern will be finding and acquiring the machinery needed to work efficiently on your farm. If you are planning on developing a larger farm, you will need to enlist the help of the proper tools as well as hire employees. Farm work can be quite complex and difficult, so it is important that you find people who can handle it while still making sure that you are taking necessary precautions, like conducting background checks for criminal records and looking through free public records to learn more about their background (professionally and personally). Once you have the farm and the tools, you are officially ready to get started!
As it is with any business, setting up your desired business is vital to success and execution. If you are looking to start your own farm, use the five tips above to make your dream farm a reality!