Lowkee.....sharing business ideas.

Kiwi Phil

Commander
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
2,182
Thanks Phillip.

The 2nd set of photos makes all the difference. Guess I posted right as your were adding more.

Would you mind sharing how that type of business works? I don't mean to pry, I have always wondered how the profit versus time works out for selling crops. Do you sell to grocery stores or? If you have a link to a site which covers all of this, I would appreciate it. It sounds like a much more stable career. I'm always looking to get out of web development (IT in general) and back to my roots (raised on an angus farm). It's just tough to find a different career which pays as well and has any kind of security (not like IT has any security at all).

Thanks,
Lowkee

I certainly don't mind sharing my business op.
I grow culinary herbs for a Supermarket chain....no one else.
As for profit versus time......that's easy.....if you work out what we get per hour, no one would do it.
We have made good money, but when 2 of you do over 80hrs week (includes early starts in the office, same at night, plus the endless hours we spend 'talking' things over and taking notes).
We are 'home based', and that drops off probably $60-80k per yr in costs we would incur if we had to lease premises etc.

Also means a lot of the house costs have a % of them written off to the business, thereby assisting your tax bill.

eg our land rates (taxes) are over $2k (which everyone pretty much has) but our house and gardens only take up 16% of the land area, so therefore we claim 84% of the $2k as a business expense. This happens with many expenses.

I don't deal with restauraunts or small customers now. Makes me really nervous actually. I did a flea market for about 15yrs and that was reasonable, but just became too much when we got bigger.

If you are going to grow things, try and make sure your product falls into what I call the 'staple area'.
Now this is only my theory, so don't treat it too seriously.

I reckon the housewife splits her income up in to:

housing (mortgage/rent)
staples (food/groceries)
utilities (power/water/phone etc)
recreation (birthday presents/ hobbies & interests/ meals out/ entertainment/ holidays etc
savings

now my product is grown in a pot, and in the early days, retailers wanted to place it in the plant nursery department, and I wanted it in the fruit and vegie area, right next to the tomatoes.
Do you see what I am getting at....put it in front of the housewife so she uses her STAPLE budget to buy it, not her RECREATIONAL........and make sure you grow it so it meets her staple needs.
As I said, thats just my way of thinking so take it for what its worth.

Next thing.
We sort of fell in to herbs, and I would never do them again.
I think you have to pick a crop that most people buy on a regular basis. Very few people use herbs.
Now if I was growing tomatoes, totally different story.
Same with lettuce.

Starting out.
Ever thought of starting it on a hobby basis.
Keep your job, but in your spare time, grow things.
You may find your attitude toward you job would become 'better' as you would be living for your hobby.
Does that make sense??

If it was to be herbs again, then I would do all the rosemary's, lavenders; shrubs; perenial and tuberous; culinery annuals and perenials.
Put them in nice new pots, (no weeds), and take them to a sunday market, and display them on a nice table, with a plastic covered checkered table cloth, and make them a bargain....if they are $4.50 at the nursery, do them for $3.90 or any 4 for $12.
Packaging and presentation is 90% of the sale.
If you could knock off $300 cash a week from a small hobby, maybe you could learn, develop and improve out of your profits, and just expand a little more every month till you reach the point you can say 'to hull with the job, we can live well of this', or 'the job is great; it pays all the bills so I can practice my hobby'.

As you have a background in agriculture, let me know what else you want to know. I can discuss structures, fertilizer recipies....the mechanics.
etc.

Cheers
Phillip
 

Dunaruna

Admiral
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
6,027
Re: Lowkee.....sharing business ideas.

You explanation sounds great, where do i sign? :D

Seriously though, sounds to me that you have a great head for business.
 

tashasdaddy

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
51,019
Re: Lowkee.....sharing business ideas.

i think your plan would work with just about any business, manufacturing the product, distributing, and marketing. you have to have a product the public, needs.
 

lowkee

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
1,890
Re: Lowkee.....sharing business ideas.

Wow! Great explaination! It looks like you have one great operation going after your latest expansion. After reading how you have gone about it, it seems I'll be sticking with the web for a bit longer ;) What you say about 'working for your hobby' is very true and not how I have been looking at it for a long time. Something has to pay to fix this rotted out hull of mine and it appears the web will have to do until I find a property condusive of raising angus once again.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to explain how it works. It's tough to learn how different businesses work in our day and age, as it has somehow become socially impolite to ask how people make their income, everyone fearing they will be helping a new competitor.
 

mikeandronda

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 13, 2003
Messages
1,888
Re: Lowkee.....sharing business ideas.

Hey Phil, great advice for bussiness owners regardless of what they are into. Great post.
 
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