Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Matt's marketing

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Matt Cheselka <cheselka AT freestateproject.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Matt's marketing
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 16:49:25 -0500 (CDT)

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Adriana wrote:

> Congratulations, Matt! Do you have any financial arrangement with the feed
> store owner? Or is it win-win? You get customers who might then buy stuff
> in HIS store.

To answer your question, I do have sort of an agreement witht he feed
store guy. He's very easy going, but I told him that I'd give him 10% of
my sales. I've offered him that every week, and sofar he's refused it
with a chuckle. Probably becuase it's so little. Which leads to my next
point...

Well, when someone tells you he "sold out", it doesn't say much about how
much he brought to begin with and how many people actually bought stuff.
Here are my sales for the past four weeks (laugh now if you want to):

3/20/04 $4.00 2 customers
3/27/04 $4.25 2 customers
4/3/04 $13.25 (sold out) 5 customers
4/10/04 $13.75 (sold out) 5 customers

I'm only bringing what I have, which at this point is about 6 heads of
lettuce (various sizes and types) and 4-6 bags (4 oz each in gallon
zip-lock bags) of spinach.

Not very much, I admit. But I'm starting with zero and going from there.
And $13.72 is certainly more than zero. Every dollar sofar has gone right
back into the operation either to buy more potting soil, more compost, or
whatever. My "off farm" income is more than enough to cover our bills,
but I don't consider what I'm doing a "hobby" in any sense of the word.
I'm putting in quite a few hours each day happily tending to my babies
with the intention of making growin' stuff not only my full-time
occupation but also my sole source of income. There are 100,000+ people
in my rural county and very few (if any) small vegetable growers. I know
that I shouldn't be making guesses, but if 5% of those people spend 10
dollars a year buying someing from me, I'll be doing just fine in terms of
income and paying the bills.

Matt





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page