Yes you can make money farming. Easy, not usually. Market gardeners, like most entrepreneurs and farmers, put in many hours of work each day. In fact it’s common for small business owners to work more hours in their business than they ever did working for others.
When you’re doing work you love, it doesn’t feel like work. The other advantage is that if you’re growing food to sell, then you’re also feeding your family as well as your pocket.
Entrepreneurship is on the Rise
Entrepreneurship… owning your own business, is on the rise.[1]https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8346-entrepreneurial-optimism-growing.html People are starting their own businesses in all areas of interest, today more than ever before.
We’re seeing a keen interest in how to make money farming specialty crops and backyard gardening, as well as related kinds of small business endeavors. Folks of all ages and walks of life are becoming increasingly interested in growing their own food. Some are taking it further by going off the grid toward energy independence.
In Search of Freedom and Independence
People from all walks of life and professions are seeking how to leave their “9-5 job” in order to work from work for themselves and be their own boss. And today, there’s more opportunity to do just that than ever before in history.
We’ve all heard the terms “homesteaders”, “preppers”, “survivalists”, and “doomsdayers”, and many people are interested in these concepts. But there are also lots of folks just striving towards greater self-sufficiency.
People want greater independence and less reliance on the whims of the market and high prices for less nutritious, contaminant laden foods. They want to have ready access to healthier organic food for less. You know… normal stuff…. stuff our grandparents and great grandparents took for granted.
Millennials, Boomers and Seniors
Millennial families and baby boomers alike are interested in homesteading and learning how to make money farming. From small family farms to urban farming, from artists and crafters, soap and candle makers, people are seeking to make money creating and growing in their own gardens, yards and homes.
In fact, we’ll created a Planting for Retirement Facebook group and website (very much a work-in-progress) specific to the interests of supplementing and earning retirement income through growing plants.
The are many reasons people are choosing to work for themselves. Most choose entrepreneurship for the freedom to do work they enjoy.
Creating your own successful business is no walk in the park and can be incredibly stressful because there’s no steady paycheck with benefits. However, for anyone who’s ever been laid off knows, jobs are not guaranteed.
Working hard doing work you love is putting your future and fate into your own hands. Even when it’s tough and not yet paying enough of the bills to quit your full time job, you’re building job security and retirement income into your future.
For many baby boomers and seniors, it’s about supplemental income and creating their own retirement. They get to cut way down on food bills, while staying healthier, both from the exercise of gardening and farming as well as the best nutrition of home grown foods.
To make money farming provides for your family while doing work your love.
The New Family Farm
Many parents of young and growing families, it’s about being able to be home for the kids while also earning a living. Some start with one parent at home, while the other continues to bring in a paycheck at a job and works to make money farming on weekends and evenings. Once the family business is sustainable, both parents can work from home.
Children Included
It’s not unusual for families working from home to choose homeschooling and education through their family business endeavors. Children can typically become viable contributing members of the family business, which is an awesome way for kids to develop self esteem.
Families working together provides opportunities for bonding while incorporating valuable life and business education skills for the kids and parents alike. You know… practical life skills they probably wouldn’t learn in school.
Many discover they do not need to go on to college. Instead, they enter adulthood as entrepreneurs and either continue in the family business or create their own. Those who decide to take jobs working for others enter the job market with viable, hands-on skills that out-perform a degree without practical experience.
Families that work together tend to stay together.
A Return to the Family Farm Roots
The family farm is not obsolete. Today there’s a resurgence of the family farm, where the entire family pitches in to make it work. There’s a rise today in young people—millennials—choosing to go into urban farming with aspirations of raising their family closer to nature and “back to the earth” living.
In 2014, 89.7% of farms were small family farms, according to the USDA.[2]https://blogs.usda.gov/tag/small-farms/
Family Farm – Family Unity
Families that work together around a common goal, tend to thrive in family unity. They develop a “team” mentality that’s often lost when everyone in the family goes their separate ways to their separate interests day after day.
When the family culture is an environment of learning and growing together, children—and parents—thrive.
Family Legacy – Lasting Bonds
Families who work together in this way form lasting bonds that can serve for generations and build more than a family business: They can build a family legacy.
Children are learning in real time in real situations how to work through problems together. In this environment, the burden is not all on dad’s shoulders, and home responsibilities are not all on mom. You know… the way it used to be but with a new consciousness of learning together and the value of each member’s contributions.
The family farm, with everyone pulling together and all contribute.
Hands on Education for Children
Children naturally grow in responsibility and self esteem through their contribution to the big picture of the family unit, pulling together as a whole. Working together can be so healthy for the entire family that to write about it could be a book unto itself.
Here’s an article on kids gardening that you may enjoy.
So for now, back on topic toward crops you can grow, but first, the most important bit of advice.
Don’t Quit Your Job (Yet)!
So how can you get started? First, our best recommendation is don’t quit your job…yet. Whether it’s farming or any other business venture you wish to start, if you’re still working for others and earning that steady paycheck, keep it up for now.
Since growing things and learning anything new does take time, even if you hate your job, look on it as a means to a better end goal. Be grateful that you have an income you can count on, and that can finance your start-up costs while you study, plan and prepare your new business endeavor. Devote evenings and weekends to building your family entrepreneurial enterprise, and if you have a family, make it a family affair so that you’re not divided between learning how to do this to support your family over spending time with them.
Building your business should be an exciting process you look forward to.
The Questions to ask Yourself
If you’re taking on this new venture as though it’s a chore, then likely this is not for you. So ask yourself, if you love it.
Are you always thinking about the new endeavor? Do you enjoy brainstorm and planning around it. Does working on it energize and excite you? If you answered a resounding ‘YES!’ to these questions, then you’re probably right on the right track.
