Setting up goals is supposedly an exciting and fun process when starting a business…at least according to every book and overly optimistic YouTube Video.
1. Define Your Vision: Start by defining your vision for your farm. What do you want to achieve? What are your values and priorities when it comes to farming?
Answer: The end goal is provide a supplemental Income for later stages in life. We want to be like the old family farms of Appalachia where they supplied the majority of their needs…. Food, lumber, fiber, and daily essentials. All the while selling any excess off to help fund our growth.
I have long been in love with the way the old homestead around me used to be set up…. I grew up playing in the ruins of a farm that on a small scale had the ability to provide for itself at its height… and when I was younger provided a sizable portion of its own food. A two hour drive from us is a state ran site on the Blue Ridge Parkway called Mabry Mill (pictured above)… the original family made this site everything I want to be. The original mill is still functional and used to grind grain (at least as of my last visit some years ago) but that one wheel didn’t only operate the grist mill, the other side if the mill has a saw mill, and a wood shop where all the “power” tools are powered by that same water wheel. They diversified further into growing their own grains to sale, as flour, feed, or as liquor made it there still, they raised their own food crops and live stock and processed fiber for clothing. While I am unable to capitalize on a still I want to branch out amd provide as many different products as I can.
2. Set Specific Goals: Identify specific and measurable goals that will help you achieve your vision. These could include goals related to the size of your farm, the types of crops or animals you want to raise, or the level of self-sufficiency you aim to reach.
Answer- the main goal is to take this project on in a manner that allows us to avoid taking on any unnecessary debt. We will tackle one project at a time as well as putting a certain amount of money aside for “marketplace buys” I developed a wishlist of higher cost, or hard to locate items and constantly stalk places like craigslist and Facebook marketplace for prices on these items to good to be true. We also focused first on easy projects with potential to have a return first.
Another goal is to be as healthy as possible. We won’t treat an animal with medications it doesn’t need, however of it needs treatment we will certainly provide for it as best we can. Ingredients for baked goods that we can’t harvest from the farm will be sourced
3. Break Down Goals into Smaller Tasks: Once you have your main goals, break them down into smaller, actionable tasks. This will make it easier to track your progress and stay motivated.
Answer- every project gets mapped out as completely as possible before hand… before I start building anything or tearing anything apart I have a drawn out diagram, a cut list, and written plan along with a budget….
4. Prioritize Your Goals: Prioritize your goals based on what is most important to you and what will have the biggest impact on your homestead/farm.
5. Set Deadlines: Assign deadlines to your goals to create a sense of urgency and accountability.
Answer- I currently have the next 10..ish “large” projects mapped out and sorted into the order I’m most likely to do them. Some of them have to happen before I can work on another project, others will be relatively quick and just wait for the next free day I have. Supplies are purchased in batches as I find the best prices
6. Review and Adjust: Regularly review your goals and progress. Be open to adjusting your goals as needed based on changing circumstances or new opportunities.
Answer- some goals have had to be adjusted along the way… a few emergently, a few to make my wife happy. We have been blessed with the ability to be flexible enough to meet these evolving needs.
7. Seek Support: Consider seeking support from other homesteaders/farmers, joining online forums or local farming groups, or attending workshops to learn from others and stay motivated.
Answer- the Ag. Extention office is a wealth of knowlage and information, hosting classess and making many resources available for free online. We also have a “local” (hour away) co-op the Rockingham Cooperative and they host a ton of classes, some free and some for a fee just big enough to cover their expenses.
8. Figure out your cost and charge appropriately.
Answer- we arent paying a staff…it’s just us and moderately forced child labor from our kids. Occasionally we have something we need help with and a contractor has to be paid… but it is far from a regular expense. I keep very detailed records on an excel speed sheet, and in general we charge 2 to 2.5 times our cost when we sell something. For some items this may seem expensive but when you break it down to how much you make per hour it really isn’t that much. I shutter to think how much time my wofe spends on her sourdough bakery, just maintaining her starter… much less all the work involved the week before we go to market.
Using this basic outline we pushed forward into our new business.
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