Everyone starts their homestead journey with a desire to be more self-sufficient, live closer to the land, and carve out a little place for themselves. One of the things that is important to remember is that in the past, people relied on one another and didn’t do everything themselves. Whether it was trading garden produce, animals, or skills, you had a whole community of people working toward a common goal of not just surviving, but thriving.
In the modern times, that means selling things from your homestead to people in your community to cover the costs, so you can become self-sufficient. If you have goats, that might mean selling goat kids, goat milk, or the knowledge of how to raise goats.
You need to have a real, tried and true plan to get to a place where you are covering some or all of the costs of homesteading. We have been helping small businesses to thrive for over twenty years.
We have applied this experience and knowledge to create this Homestead Business Success Path, so you can clearly identify which stage you are at and have an outline of what steps you need to take to move forward.
Phase 1: Hobby
This is the phase where you are paying to play with your goats or chickens. You likely have to work a full time job in addition to taking care of your homestead. You might have a Facebook page where you mostly post funny videos of your animals for friends and family.
How do you expand your hobby into a side hustle? You need the right tools for the job. You need a way to reach out to potential customers and tell them about what you are doing. You need...
- A professional website where people can find your information and learn about what you are selling. Click here to learn more about our Homestead Website.
- A logo so people recognize your business. People see your logo as the face of your business.
- A business card is the staple marketing material needed to be taken seriously as a business.
- At least one social media account to get in front of new people.
- A newsletter list so you have a way to talk to your customers that you can control.
Phase 2: Side Hustle
In this phase, your homestead is covering some of its costs. You are being paid to play with your goats or chickens. You have a website, social media presence, and spend time marketing your business. You may still have a full time or part-time job to cover the rest of your bills.
If you are in phase 2 and need to get more sales in order to quit your job and homestead full time, you need to look at creating a plan to consistently post marketing content on your website, social media accounts, and newsletter list.
Your website should be the home base of your content marketing plan, so you are able to gain momentum. In this phase, you will get lasting traction when you invest in your website and newsletter list.
A professional optimized website will allow your articles and posts to be found by customer searching for your products and services on Google and Bing. A well-maintained newsletter will make sure your posts are seen by more of your subscribers.
Phase 3: Homestead Business
In this phase, your homestead business is your primary income, paying all of your bills, and making a profit. Your goats and chickens are paying for your homestead. This is the phase we want to help all homesteaders to get to.
If you want to continue to grow your homestead business, you need to consider adding an ecommerce shop to your website, and utilizing more advanced marketing strategies to see what is holding you back from reaching your fullest potential.
Ready to start expanding your business? You are in luck, because we have made a free checklist with for the Homestead Business Success Path, so you can analyze where you are at and what you can do to become more self-sustaining. Sign up here to download your free checklist.
