What is the guarantee that an idea for a business will work out in your favor? The answer is rarely straightforward, but there are steps you can take to mitigate the risks of entering a new market. For instance, conducting sales forecasting for each product you wish to sell is advisable. This isn’t as hard as it sounds; you could save yourself some severe financial losses by building your business around what the market demands.
Here’s what you need to know.
Starting a farm is one of the hardest things you will ever do. In addition to being responsible for producing many varieties of fruits and vegetables, you will need business acumen to market and sell your products successfully. Deciding where to sell is as important as deciding what to sell.
By Thomas Moore, NC Food Systems Coordinator
Ready to expand into grocery stores? Run it through the SMART test first.
Photo by Anna MacDonald Dobbs
I work with a lot of new farmers who sell their products at multiple farmers’ markets, and are eager to add restaurants, grocery stores, local distributors, and a CSA program to their marketing channels. While I applaud them for wanting to diversify their customer base, I do caution them that sometimes utilizing different marketing channels requires adjustments to their business plan, or in some cases a different business plan altogether.
by Erin Kauffman, Durham Farmers’ Market Manager (more…)
by Emily Lancaster, Animal Welfare Approved (more…)
