I'm currently riding the high of my very first real sale on the farm; i sold some chicks today! Now, to be fair, this isn't technically my very first sale on the farm. I did sell some young ducks in late spring and some laying hens in early summer, and I periodically sell a dozen eggs here and there. But today's sale was the first Dragon Way Farm sale. It's official.
Before today, I was hopeful that I could do this, but I don't think I was fully committed. As of this moment, I am all in Baby!
How do you know if you're ready to make the jump from Hobby Farm to "for profit" farm? For me, it's easy; I've always known that I wanted to be in business for myself. This current incarnation of Dragon Way Farm is actually the second: We started as a horseback riding school. For almost six years I rescued horses and used them as lesson horses to teach people how to ride. I loved running my own business, but while it was extremely rewarding (unfortunately not monetarily though), it was also incredibly stressful. I've come to realize that most of the stress of my previous business came from my inexperience and lack of business know-how.
I am an extremely hard worker and an asset to any company I've worked for, but I've always known that I didn't want to work for "the man". When I landed back here on my grandparent's old property, I knew that I wanted to make use of the land to make a living and work for myself. The biggest reason is purpose. I don't really feel full-filled or that I am making a difference in the world at my current job. I want control over my life: my finances, my time, my job. And I feel the need to make a difference. I can't do that just being a cog in the wheel.
Homesteading or "living off your land" isn't a new concept. Pre-Industrialization, more families farmed than didn't and lived exclusively off of what they grew, raised or sold on their property. They relied on their farm for their very survival. A hobby farm is defined as "a small scale farm used primarily for pleasure rather than a business venture. A hobby farmer frequently has another source of income and does not rely on the farm as a source of income".
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most homesteaders start out and end up as hobby farmers. The Rat Race is a rigged event. You need to put in your 40+ hours a week to pay the bills and (in most cases) maintain your employer provided health insurance. Add in commute times and that doesn't leave much time to start a new business. If you do manage to carve out enough time to begin a new venture, profits are likely to suffer due to lack of time to effectively run the business.
It's easy to get into the trap of just farming as a hobby. Work 40 hrs a week and garden on the weekend while keeping a handful of chickens in the backyard for eggs. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and I highly encourage everyone reading this to do what you can to grow or raise your own food however you can. Start where you are and if what I described above is what you do, I salute you! You can help offset your cost of groceries by growing your own fruit and vegetables and by raising your own meat animals if you consume meat.
But for some of us, hobby farming is just the beginning. We crave the freedom that working for yourself brings. Don't get me wrong, owning your own business is HARD work. People that want to own their own business think being the owner means that you work when you want to and sit back and collect a paycheck. The reality is that you will work harder than you've ever worked in your life before. You will work countless UNPAID hours while you build the infrastructure and client list of your business. You will likely lose money (sometimes years on end) until you begin to make money. There really isn't much of an in between. But the freedom that comes from being in control of your financial destiny is priceless. I believe it's what the American Dream truly is.
Here at Dragon Way Farm, we are just in the beginning stages of starting a for-profit farm. Because we are still currently caught in the Rat Race, progress will be slow as we grow our farm business little by little. Because education is important to us and helping our community succeed in gaining food security is one of the pillars of our business model, we will be sharing the steps of our journey of transitioning from a hobby farm to a for profit business in regenerative farming. We now have a Farm Based Business category in our Forum that I encourage you to join and post your questions or experiences of starting or running a farm based business. It is also our intention to post more videos on our YouTube channel about our journey into a for profit business so that you can follow along and learn with us.
If you are currently growing some, or most of your own food, and you're considering taking the leap from being a hobby farm to a for profit farm business, I encourage you to do some soul searching first. Why do you want to live off of your farm? Are you someone who will be content to spend all of your time on your own property? Are you someone who is capable of managing their own schedule in a productive manner or are you someone who prefers the pre-set flow of an already established schedule of tasks set by a business owned by "the man"?
Business ownership isn't for everyone, but it is my own personal belief that it's the only way to truly be financially free. It's not the safe route though. There isn't a safety net. You have to have guts and take calculated risks to win the glory. Here's hoping we will make it in the long run, and I hope that we can bring quite a few of you along with us!
