How to Grow Your Hobby Farm – and Help Your Community in the Process

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Whether you grow vegetables, raise animals, or keep honeybees, your hobby farm is central to your life. If you're looking to turn your farm into a business, however, and want to try to make a living off of your land, YaDa Chef shares what to consider.

Setting Up Your Business

Your first consideration is setting up your homesteading business. Do plenty of research here so that you know exactly what's required. There are various possibilities for organization, but you might think about forming a limited liability company (LLC) operating as an S Corp. This type of business has plenty of advantages, including limited personal liability, flexibility, less paperwork, and possible tax benefits.

However, if you think you may want to scale up your business by hiring employees and finding investors, setting up a corporation might be best. It is easier to sell shares of a C Corp than LLC membership interests, and many investors prefer the well-established and predictable structure of a corporation. Look into your options to decide which is best for you by understanding the difference between S Corp vs C Corp pros cons. Once you decide, you can file the paperwork yourself or work with a formation service to avoid the hefty lawyer fees that can be involved in the process.

Creating Your Brand

Shopify notes that you also need to create your brand. Look for the unique aspects of your product. Perhaps your vegetables are organically grown or your honey derives from a particular type of flower. Accentuate your strong points, and be creative about your product's name. You want it to be descriptive and memorable.

Marketing Your Brand

After you've created your brand, myFarmLife.com points out that you need to begin marketing your products. If you aren't especially talented in graphic design or web design, consider hiring a graphic designer or web designer to build your marketing materials.

Some marketing you can do yourself, and marketing on social media can be an effective and inexpensive way to get the word out about your products or services. You can create a platform-specific ad or use a banner template to create marketing materials you can use across platforms. Look for templates that are free and fully customizable, so you can change the text, font, and colors in addition to adding your logo and images.

Finding Funding

Part of getting your business off the ground is finding enough funding to start up and stay going until your products settle in a stable market. As one option, you can apply for some small business grants for hobby farms. These can help you get on track financially, but they can be challenging to get. Before you even start writing grant applications, draw up a detailed business plan that presents every aspect of your business. Grant organizations want to see this.

Next, search for grants specific to your farming industry, and pay close attention to the requirements involved. For some grants, for instance, you need matching funds. As with traditional lenders, you’ll want to make sure your credit is in good shape; first, see how your credit report stands by downloading a free report from AnnualCreditReport.com. Then make sure your grant applications are stellar. Hire a grant writer to help you or at least review your work if necessary.

Get Involved in the Community

Once your business is up and running, do what you can to stay involved in the community. Look for opportunities to volunteer or hold fundraisers for those in need. Remember, the more people who know about your business – and how much you care about your community – the bigger your potential customer base can become.

When you've set up your business, created your brand, come up with a marketing plan, and secured funding, then you can settle in and enjoy your hobby-farm-turned-money-maker. So get to work doing what you love.

Looking for personal chef services? YaDa Chef is your source for South Florida personal chef meal planning and preparation, as well as catering. Contact us today to learn more! 954-367-YADA (9232)

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