Turn Your Farm Venture Into a Business

Reader Contribution by Joel Salatin Of Polyface Farms

Have you ever dreamed of taking your part-time homestead to a full-time salary? What’s holding you back? Business books say most people are more afraid of success than failure. After all, if you’re successful at a creating a credible business from your self-reliant craft or farm venture, you’ll need to think like a business. Marketing, production, finance, accounting, permits – enough already!

As I’ve thought back over my success as a full-time farmer, several key ingredients come to mind.

1. I’ve never been alone. I grew up here, in this community, on this land, and although Mom and Dad never made it a going concern – always working in town to keep the farm vision quasi-alive – that psychological and financial support were key when Teresa and I decided to leave outside employment and return full-time to the farm. I always had other people who could complement my weaknesses with their strengths. Today, our staff of 20 brings gifts and talents to our farm that I could scarcely imagine.

2. I’ve not been in debt. Because the land was paid for, we could live cheaply, at $300 per month. A few dollars go a long way when you’re not paying debt service. We grew all of our own food, lived in an attic apartment in the farm house, heated with wood, bought clothes from the Salvation Army thrift store, drove a $50 car (in our first 20 years of marriage, our total automobile expenditures, cumulative, were under $10,000), and never went anywhere. We didn’t even buy baby food – just used our little hand mill and fed the kids what we ate. And cloth diapers.

3. I’ve let function drive design. Our farm does not sport white picket fences or picturesque barns. Before we had our own bandsaw mill, we tore down dilapidated barns in the neighborhood to scavenge lumber for building projects. Function over form drives our projects, and while they may not look like something to grace the front page of Southern Living, they work. We build sheds with rafters made of poles – like much of the world uses for their houses.

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