A home based business is possibleStarting a home based business has been a personal goal of mine for some time now. Although still very much a 'work-in-progress' it is the progress I find encouraging. So here is the story behind what you see on this website. I hope it helps or inspires you in developing your own business. The information here contains all that I have discovered from personal experience, but it is also supplemented with some other stuff - feedback from readers and some links to places I have found useful, etc. After all, the things that work for me, may not suit you, but they may lead you on to something that does. Over time, I tried all sorts of things, such as consulting, investing, starting my own micro propagation lab, various MLMs and a few so-called "Opportunities" that turned out to be scams. I even tried starting my own website (before this one), with a view to reaching a broader market. No luck. The trouble was that many of these things were too dependent on 'Luck'. They were also restricted to a single source of income, whereas my current home based business aims to be built upon several parts (some still being developed). That way, I am less dependent upon any single thing. As it turned out, my first website was actually the best idea out of all my earlier attempts, except that there is more to creating a website that really works than just registering a domain name and whipping up a few pages. But while "agri-link.com.au" didn't work out, this one is doing a much better job. Largely because of things I have learned along the way. Of course, in my previous web efforts, I tried signing up for free email courses on internet marketing, went to seminars and studied just about every SEO website I could find. All of these gave only the tiniest taste of what they said they had to offer (once I paid them some amount of money). But all their promises left me cold - I wanted to make money not spend it! I was starting to think a genuine home based business was just a myth. Nevertheless, an effective website remains an important first part of my home based business plan. To move forward then, I needed to get some real help - from someone I could trust. This was easier said than done and in the end, it came down to simply taking the plunge with the one option that seemed the safest. At last, I lucked out! I found someone to teach me how to build a website that really works. His name is Ken Evoy and he runs a really unique service called Site Sell. With help from Site Sell, I was able to get started with the internet side of my business (more about that later). I chose to do things this way, because making money from the garden takes some time and an online business would get something happening more quickly. The Value in a BackyardAll this internet stuff is fine, but I'm happiest when out of doors. I like to have the sky above my head and fresh air in my lungs. This has always kept me busy with a veggie garden and the value of this sort of thing should not be understated. Whatever you produce at home represents money you do not have to spend. This makes makes food from the garden as good as a business - and so it is the second part of my home based business. Of course, the way to build on this as add earnings to savings is to find some good, high value crops that don't need much space, but ones that can provide returns from Farmers Market sales, etc. This is also something that has interested me for some time. There are actually quite a few things to fit this description, but few that have every been produced in a home garden context. A good example is Saffron - the stigmas from a Saffron crocus flower that are worth about US$300 per ounce. The plants are small and so are yields with nearly 2,000 flowers to produce 0.2 ounce of dried Saffron (over a season of about 2 weeks). 
These kinds of crops are often referred to as "Mortgage payers", but as you can see from the Saffron example, a home garden may not be the ideal situation for them. This means that two things are needed to move forward with my plan - a place to do garden-based research with some of these crops and (again) the ability to build a business from multiple sources of income. In other words, while Saffron may be good for two weeks of the year, what will produce my income for the other 50 weeks? I have started putting some information together on several of these "Mortgage Payers" on my Garden Profits page. However, as I already mentioned, good information that is appropriate to home garden situations is almost impossible to find. This is why I have decided to set up my own home garden research projects. The information from these will be posted on this website as it becomes available, so you can use it directly. Teaching and DemonstratingTeaching is also something I have enjoyed doing in the past and I have run courses on various horticultural topics at several Colleges over the years. Now, with research projects under way, there will soon be much more to talk about. For this reason, the next step in my business plan is to use the gardens where my projects are running, to present courses and workshops where others can learn stuff to help them develop their own businesses. Farmers MarketsNaturally, once you have grown something, it needs to be sold. One of the very best ways to do this (although not the only one) is through Farmers Markets and other methods of direct sale. This way there are no middle men or corporations looking for a share of your hard work, little direct cost, no advertising and lots of interested customers. One Food-from-the-Garden visitor who is doing this is Peter Schlumpp and he has been kind enough to share some of his experiences. You can find these posted on the Food Garden Photoblog. Other OptionsMore typical options for a home based business in the garden would be to run a garden maintenance or landscaping business from home, with your own garden as your biggest ad. These are not among the components of my home based business (at least not yet), but they are certainly valid options. One possibility of this kind for you to look into is Composting for Profit. I have known several people over the years who made a good income from making compost, bagging it and selling it locally through Service Stations and Hardware shops, etc. The link above will take you to a site where you can get a very helpful e-book on the subject. The Path to Building Your Own Home Based BusinessIf you have had any thoughts of starting your own home based business, then the first thing to do is choose a starting point that suits you. The key is to look for an opportunity with "Body":
From my point of view (given an easy and low cost way of doing it), the website option was the natural starting point. This is why I cannot recommend Site Sell too highly. All you need is the motivation to see the job through and have a subject you know and would enjoy writing about. Of course, I am not the only person who has ever done this. If you like, you can also read about the experience others have had. This is a video about someone who built his home based business in retirement. On the other hand, you may want to learn more before you begin. Use one of the following links to try one or more of the FREE Master Courses - I found them really helpful. The Webmaster Business Master Course Of course, you may prefer just to watch this very informative Video Tour. Further reading and useful linksOther people have some ideas about developing a home based business in the garden. Below are some links to other sites that are also worth looking at.
Creating passive income from the garden
|
