Farm Small Farm Smart

If you are a single worker farm then you only have so much time and energy to spend on the farm. If you spend a massive amount of that working with weeds then that's time take away from other farm tasks or other non-farm tasks like spending time with your spouse or kids.

What are the weeds worth?

For most people, they aren't worth enough to deal with when you zoom out, and take all of the factors into account, and therefore the weeds get cut, literally.

That's the focus of today's show. Weed management, where we discuss various methods of preventing weeds from establishing themselves on the farm in the first place, and how to deal with them when they do.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

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Farming, it truly is a lifestyle. And one that a lot of people seek out.

This leads people down the road of thinking about how can they start or transition into small scale farming.

And when they go down that path they inevitably run into issues. Because startup isn't always clear, or easy, and there are always unique challenges.

Today we will take take a look at one listeners plan to transition into farming and startup an urban farm of his own.

This is the story of Michael from LA, and Michael wants to be a farmer.

He has a lot of resources, constraints, and questions.

And that's what we'll be digging into today, in Season Two, Episode 19 of The Urban Farmer.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

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This is Part 2 of that series and today we specifically focus on the pro's and cons of selling to restaurants taking into account high maintenance versus low maintenance. Given that this is Part 2 it probably makes more sense to listen to Part 1 first, Episode 17 - All Customers ARE NOT worth Selling To, An In-Depth Look at High Maintenance versus Low Maintenance Customers. But you won't be totally lost in this one if you haven't heard that episode.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

"Put another way, you are more upset about losing $50 than you are happy about gaining $50," the paper states. In addition, bad events wear off more slowly than good ones." Hopefully know this can help you do a few things. Try to force yourself to really think about the positive things more and have more gratitude for them, bounce off of the negative situations quicker, and rid yourself of the negative relationships that produce negative emotions. That's the focus of today's episode as we explore the differences between high maintenance customers and low maintenance customers.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

Heat causes issues on the farm.

Not just with the farmer, but with the crops. Crops bolt quickly, pest pressure increases, water usage goes up, seeds dry up, transplants fry.

How do you deal with those issues?

How do you raise the crops that your customers want in a way that works and gets you a saleable product, and in a way that doesn't cause you to burn out?

There are a whole bunch of active and passive strategies that you can employ to

From harvesting early in the morning to harvesting and late in the day, there are options, and this episode is all about dealing with the heat on the farm for the farmer and for the crops...

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

Today's show is all about farmers markets. And a big part of the conversation is dedicated to free samples.

Are the beneficial or are they a waste?

Do samples work in every case, with every product? No, but they are one way of tackling issues that every product has.

Highlighting product quality, unique product attributes, getting feedback, and telling your story are all things that you need to figure out to do somehow.

Free samples are just one of the ways to do it.

Samples aren't without their negatives either. They cost money, they take up time, they get in the way of doing transactions, and they may require additional levels of compliance if you are handling food.

But like anything and everything, it comes down to do the positives out weight the negatives for your particular context.

If they do then free samples might be the way to do. And as you will hear today, for some farmers market vendors samples work really well and they are one of the many tools in the salesman's toolbox to help you sit back and count the money.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

We all have this great chance to go great places. Yet we all don't take it. Today's episode is a look at the opportunity and why some people squander it, and why some people don't.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

Think about an established farmers market with an established customer base. Everyone shopping at that market has their preferred vendors. They buy lettuce from this guy and they buy tomatoes from that girl week after week. They don't switch it up. If you then enter that market as a new vendor, how do you knock someone out of the preferred vendor spot in a customer's mind? How do you get the customer to switch to buying lettuce or tomatoes from you instead of that guy or that girl? Because that's really what you need to do. Either you need to get existing customers to switch or you need to pick up market share from new customers. The bad news is that once a person commits to a particular product or brand in their mind it's very hard to get them to switch. Look no further than you own habits. How often do you go to different grocery stores or gas stations by your house or how often do you change brands of laundry detergent or ketchup? Probably not very often. You made a decision long ago, and as long as things do change, why switch. Given that, how do you compete in a crowded farmers market? Why is a farmer's market customer going to choose your booth versus the booth that they always shop at? You have to be unique.. Again, look at the landscape of the market, if there are already 5 vegetable vendors at your market more or less growing what you grow, and they are established, then you either have to be unique enough to go in and compete with them hand try to knock one of them out of the top 5 in terms of market share, which is hard, or you have to be unique enough so you don't actually have to compete against them. Instead positioning yourself in the customers mind as the preferred choice. How do you do that, make yourself unique? One way is to specialize in something. Part of that specialization might mean differentiating your product so you position yourself as the category leader; a category that you own; one that you create. For example, say a lot of vendors are selling loose leaf lettuce. There's already an established hierarchy there in terms of market share for the category of loose leaf lettuce. How do you compete? You don't, avoid competition, and you create your own category. Maybe that category is head lettuce or romaine. Or maybe it's organic lettuce. Or living lettuce with the roots still attached. You differentiate your product just enough to move it to its own category. Then you become first to market in that category and have an competitive advantage. That's a far cry from going into a competitive market and competing on price. And when you think about it it wasn't really that hard. You didn't have to create or invent anything new. You just supplied an in demand product to a market that wanted it, but didn't have anyone to buy it from. That's one of the many benefits of specializing in a product. And it's that benefit and the many others that we will be talking about today, on The Urban Farmer.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

Today we will be looking at 17 different things that you think you might need or might need when you start your business.

Even though we will be looking at each of the items on this list through the lens of someone in their first 6 months of farming, this information extends to established business owners.

Maybe you have been in business for a while and you are thinking about redesigning your website. Should you? And does that matter? Our analysis and methodology for breaking down each of these items can be applied to many aspects of business at any time, regardless of how old the business.

There are a lot of distractions that come into play when you are running a small business, hopefully this episode will help you focus on the distractions that matter, and forget the ones that don't.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

It seems like a lot of people that get into farming and starting their own business are busy, all the time.

Is that a good thing?

Is busy a sign of success or is busy a sign of planning?

I think it's more the later, than the form.

"To me, 'busy' implies that the person is out of control of their life." - Derek Sivers

Some of you might here that and think, what, that's crazy. I am in control and I am busy.

Are you really?

After all, what is busy in the first place.

Is busy really a think or is busy a state of mind or is as Derek Sivers says the inevitable result of losing control and poor planning?

If you consider yourself someone who's busy a lot think about that.

Are you busy because you actually have a huge list of urgent and important things to do, or are you busy because you are just doing a lot of stuff.

Outside of the Emergency Room most of us are more likely are the latter. Not many of us have a lot of urgent and important things to do each day. We might have a couple things that fall into that category and then we have a lot of other stuff that we do because we need to, because we think we need to, because we've never really thought about it, and because we don't have a plan in place.

Busy might actually be in your control.

As Henry David Thoreau said, it's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

If you find yourself constantly busy. Ask yourself why. And ask yourself what are you busy about?

Remember, it's your life, and being busy all the time might not be optimum. Is that you really signed up for - being busy all the time? If not, then this episode may help you reframe what you are actually being so busy about.

Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast

Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/

Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ