How to Make $100k Farming
Every Farm is different, selling varying products, serving different markets and establishing their own, unique business plan. However, to scale and increase sales for your Farm business, it is important to implement tactics that have proven successful across the country.
To begin with, your Farm must streamline your operations and automate tasks with Farm software to better serve local Buyers. Focus on convenience and building a consistent loyal base of Buyers, instead of competing with the local Grocer or other Farms. Follow these 5 best practices to increase your Farm sales to 6-figures (and beyond):
Offer Simple Pricing & Packaging
To scale your business, it must be simple for you to fulfill orders. You cannot spend hours every day packaging ala carte orders. Ensure that you are packaging Farm products together to move more inventory, and sell all your products (including those that are less popular). You can pair niche products with your best-sellers in a bundle box to increase your average order value.
Keep your purchase options limited to 50 items in your store, to increase conversion and avoid overwhelming Buyers. Ensure that you offer a range of purchase sizes to accommodate households of 1, 2 or 4 people (especially for bundle boxes/subscriptions).
Save time with Farm Software to automate your Pick and Pack Lists, making the process swift. Simplify tasks to streamline your operations, save time, and make it easier to manage your business.
On all your Packaging, be sure to include your Farm logo, a QR code, contact details and your website address. Any friends, family or community members that see your Brand on your packaging will be exposed to your Farm business.
When it comes to pricing, know the value of your Products - don’t price them to sell (in a race to the bottom). 9 out of 10 Buyers are willing to pay more for local, sustainably grown Farm products that are better than grocery store alternatives. Price your products based on the Buyers’ willingness to pay for their value, while covering all your costs to grow and harvest them. When you build personal relationships with your Buyers, and educate them, they will find your prices worthwhile.
Listen: Pricing Farm Products for Profit
Tactics to Implement:
Charge a premium price that reflects your Brand value and high profit margins.
Offer bundle boxes with a variety of sizes to increase your average order value.
Drive brand awareness with marketing assets on your packages and regular communications.
2. Capture Recurring Revenue with Subscriptions
The average person has 7+ Subscriptions to the products and services they enjoy regularly. Your Buyers subscribe to music, television and mobile phone services. Subscriptions offer convenience to your Buyers, who can place orders months in advance, while providing recurring revenue for your Farm business.
Subscriptions provide your Farm with more predictable orders, harvesting dates, consistent fulfillments and stable income every month. You may choose to offer Pre-Orders on your products, to secure cash flow in advance and move more product before harvest.
Offer pay upfront or pay-as-you-go Subscriptions to provide Buyers with an option to lock-in an upfront discount, or spread their purchases over a period of time. Offer a ‘subscribe and save’ discount on your Subscriptions to further encourage more Buyers to sign up.
Tactics to Implement:
Flexible schedules & payment options to entice Buyers and increase conversion.
Accept Pre-Orders to increase cash-flow and secure purchases ahead of season.
Reward loyal customers who subscribe by giving access to ‘gated items,’ or limited products that are in high-demand.
Offer convenient fulfillments by offering local pick-ups (<5 miles from Buyers) and/or direct delivery to delight customers with products on their doorstep.
3. Implement Consistent Email Marketing
Email is 40x more effective than Facebook to spur new purchases and retain existing Buyers. For Farms looking to increase sales, email is non-negotiable. Build your email list with local Buyers through in-person relationships (QR codes, sign-up sheets at markets, church schools) and convenient online access (pop-up form on website, link to sign-up in social profile).
Regularly engage Buyers with relevant content that will encourage purchases. You must have targeted communications for emails to be effective. The Barn2Door + Mailchimp integration allows you to segment Buyer types into groups and send a series of email campaigns best suited to their needs and routine shopping habits. ProvideBuyers with regular updates about Farm events, product availability, seasonal promos and order reminders. Targeted email campaigns generate +30% larger order sizes.
Tactics to Implement:
Automate welcome emails to draw in new subscribers and educate on your Farm practices and spur first-time purchases.
Automate product recommendations with Barn2Door + Mailchimp to enjoy up to a 30% increase in average order volume.
Automate customer journeys to send tailored communications to specific Buyer types based on past purchase history.
4. Serve Retail & Wholesale Buyers
To improve resilience, diversify your Farm business across multiple segments of the market - both Retail & Wholesale Buyers - to increase revenue predictability. Offer convenient online ordering for all your Buyers, including multiple price lists. With a simplified order management system, you can better manage your inventory, and offer a unique store front for different Buyer types.
Farm software from Barn2Door allows you to segment pricing, packaging, inventory, fulfillment and payment options by Buyer type (different for Retail and Wholesale). Your Farm can readily serve more Buyers, support multiple lines of business and grow your revenue, without the hassle or unnecessary stress of managing it by hand. Let Barn2Door software do the work for your business.
Tactics to Implement:
Diversify your Buyers to increase orders, move more inventory and improve resilience.
Leverage Pick and Pack Lists to gain more visibility managing your orders and fulfillments.
Track sales by Buyer type to better understand which Buyers are driving your Farm revenue.
5. Convenient Access to your Products
Make it easy for Buyers to shop from your Farm store and they will buy more products. Sell your products online to attract purchases anytime, anywhere. Sell in-person to capture every available sales opportunity during Buyer interactions at markets, pick-ups or your Farm store.
Implement simple fulfillments, including pick-ups in your community’s local loop (schools, your Farm, neighborhoods) and/or direct deliveries (where you can charge a fee of $5-10). You may also choose to ship shelf-stable products or items that offer higher margins. Multiple fulfillment options will ensure that Buyers can secure a purchase that suits their needs.
Start local with your fulfillments, make it profitable and expand from there based on what works for your Farm. Every business is different, and you may find that one fulfillment option works better than others. Uncover where your Buyers frequent daily or weekly (aka the local loop), and build a route based off of their routine locations.
Tactics to Implement:
Offer local pick-ups within 5 miles of the majority of your customers to increase convenience.
Consider direct delivery to maximize convenience and attract more Buyers and improve loyalty.
Charge delivery & shipping fees to ensure all your costs are covered.
Use fulfillment apps to save time and take the manual work out of planning routes and tracking shipments.
Conclusion
To scale your Independent Farm business and make a 6-figure income, you must streamline your operations and leverage software to automate self-serve order management. It is difficult to serve more Buyers, if it requires more hours to manage the business in the background. To scale, you must make it easy and convenient for Buyers, while simplifying your business with software to save time.
Start small, make it profitable, and determine what works best for your Farm business. Many Farms across the country have built 6-figure businesses by implementing these best practices to increase sales, access more customers and save time. Read the eBook to learn more: 5 Farms Making 6 Figures.
Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to create and promote their brand, sell online and in-person, and save time managing their business. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.