Control Your Business Growth

Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Joel Salatin

Through direct marketing, we developed a customer base of families in the community who wanted pastured meat and poultry. We wore the hats of producer, processor and marketer so we could set our own prices rather than cast our wares on the commodity table.

We realized that advertising is often expensive, with undependable results, so we opted to rely on relationships to sell our products. I put together a slide program about ecological, pastured livestock production and presented it to civic clubs in the area. We gave samples to prospective buyers, and we rewarded word-of-mouth evangelists with free products.

In high school, Joel Salatin started his own business selling butter, chicken and eggs at a local farmers market.

These strategies kept our growth gradual, but also helped us develop good spending habits. If we had accumulated farm debt to grow quickly, we wouldn’t have developed the experience necessary for maintaining the integrity of our production. I’ve known numerous farmers who grew their farm businesses faster than their expertise, only to have their businesses collapse when disease or sickness hit, or they failed to keep up with orders. If you can’t market and deliver one pig, you sure can’t market and deliver a dozen. Going from 50 to 3,000 laying hens entails exponentially more skill and management.

The problem with debt isn’t that it’s inherently bad, but that it can quickly spin out of control — and it can enable a business to outgrow the owner’s knowledge, skill level and ability to produce. Suddenly, the operator is confronted with infrastructure limitations and challenges that go beyond his or her limited experience. At the same time, the cash overhead (debt payments, for example) rapidly escalates, and this squeeze can create a death spiral.

I encourage aspiring farmers to live in a tipi if they have to in order to stay out of debt, and to put every spare penny into their farms. Build a profitable farm business first. Do it on rented land. Do it on a small scale. If you only have 2 acres, make the most of those before thinking about upgrading to a bigger acreage. Under intensive rotational grazing practices, 2 acres is enough for 500 laying hens, a milk cow or two, 30 honeybee hives, 500 broilers, 50 turkeys, $20,000 worth of vegetables, and specialty fruits, such as blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. In Quebec, Jean-Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener, provides an inspiring modern example of how you can gross $120,000 on only about 2 acres of land.

In my experience, size is almost never the weak link keeping a small farming enterprise from being successful. The problem is constipation of the imagination — a lack of creativity, efficiency and business acumen. Fast growth won’t fix any of these problems; it will only compound them. If you aren’t successful managing a small number of acres or animals, why would increasing those numbers improve your situation?

If you’re struggling to keep ahead of the chores on a small place, the problems will only multiply if you expand. If you can’t successfully shepherd the birth of five calves, having a hundred births to manage will not suddenly make you a better farmer. If you can’t manage your own time effectively, having more people to manage won’t help.

To continue reading about Joel Salatin’s home based business, check out “Avoid Farm Debt While Growing Your Business“ on MOTHER EARTH NEWS.