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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] to hire, or not to hire?
  • Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2012 12:05:52 -0500 (EST)

We have been on the fence for awhile now about hiring some help for the production year.  Things came to a head this past weekend, when a good friend of ours, who has worked with us here sporadically in the past, dropped a comment at a Christmas party that she thinks we should work together during 2013 as partners, really rev up production, and go back to selling at the farmer's market.
 
A 15 second comment has proven to give me three days' worth of "should we or shouldn't we?"  And every time I think I've answered the question, I think of some new "angle".

We weren't planning to return to the farmers' market this year, for a few reasons which I thought were pretty solid.  Solid, that is, until I started to think about what I could do with a second pair of hands around here.  We also had figured on not hiring anyone "yet", but maybe in a year or two.  Her suggestion has sped up our deliberations, but I still find myself on the fence.  It's a Catch-22.  Looking at "what could be" through the optimistic lenses, I see some really nice improvements.  But looking through the pessimistic lenses, I see a lot of ways this could go south on us.  And I won't know until we commit to one or the other, but by committing, we set things in motion (or don't), which will dramatically impact what we do during 2013.  I can't put this off for two months and deliberate - we'll have missed some planting windows if I do.  But I can ramp up now in anticipation, and if things don't pan out then I'll have a nightmare schedule to maintain by myself for the rest of the year.

I know some of you have gotten along very nicely without any hired help.  Some have hired help, and tweaked things so that life goes on if that hired help doesn't pan out.  And some of you depend heavily on your hired help, such that you couldn't function without it.  How do you all know "now is the time" to hire, and/or when not to hire?  A big question for the last week of the year.  Thanks all.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA



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