always worked for small businesses - owned my own for the past 13 some years now.
Alas, photography is dying..some would say dead..as a way to make aliving. SO..i've got to find something else.
CAN you grow enough food to make a living a couple of acres? Yes.
Can you do that cheaply enough (labor and all)? Yes, seems it's possible
The question really is - can you SELL it?
There are many ways to sell it - I'm still doing research and working on the plans. No need to invest a dime till I"m sure, pretty sure, it will work.
As for '90% of businesses failing" - like most statistics, it's a lie.
50% of marriages end in divorce..technically true, but very misleading. 75% of FIRST marriages last till death. Some folks get married 3, 5, 8 times..THAT is what creates the 50% figure.
As for biz's failure- many don't do ANY research before starting a business. No clue if there is a market for their product, the price or volume of that market.
Much of the 'failure' rate isn't failure - businesses change what they do, sell to another owner, etc.
A big reason they fail is lack of liquid capital - go check into getting a BRAND NAME franchise - they want you to ahve a whole big pile o cash on hand 'just in case' - and most folks that start a biz start on a shoestring. I know MANY that have failed for that reason.
DId you know that 80% of farmers in teh USA gross less than $100k a year off farming? Yeah, sucks, huh? Makes me wonder how the hell they're buying all those big M tractors and implements!
My GF has chickens and we just got approached today by a 'whole food store' (local one) that wants 30 Dozen eggs a week...we can do 5 at the moment, at most (chickens kinda get lazy in the winter).
We could do beef -margin can be $800-1000 per steer - but we need a lot of new fencing, watering and haying, perhaps shelter...there are higher value alternatives.
Plan this year is to learn as much as anything else. Unfortunately, to learn at farming takes years - unlike say, making hamburgers or cutting trees or even building airplanes - can only make the tomatoes/cukes/sunflowers/gourmet popcorn grow so fast. And you lose a year for each failure...
LIke the eggs - start making it, make a surplus, and sell it - build a brand at it were. Selling to restaurants is on the possibilities list, as are farmers markets, subscriptions, local stores. this is a farming area..so to get good money one has to travel to the city (an hour away). The egg buyer is 35 minutes that direction for example.
BUT we ARE getting eggs in this stupid weather - we have a friend with DOULBLE the chickens and he's getting 2-3 eggs a day to our 10-12.
We're investigating meat chickens and sheep (no fence issues). Again, gotta find the MARKET first!!
And if a few hours builds me a mount for my tiller...then I don't have a 2 hour plus round trip, fuel, tolls and rental fees to pay , tax deductible or not, that's still money out of my pocket.
Been there done that prof,, rent everything you can to do what you need,, check with your tax guy and Im thinking you may be able to deduct a lot of the rental price or at least some of it. Look at it this way, you need something, why bust your stones to rig something up that will never do the job that you want or need to do. Second,,, when your done send it back and forget about the 1500 bill you have to pay for that tiller, no storage no up keep no nuttin.
And unless you have a good paying job to pay for the farming end of it you might be in trouble, ensure you have any kind of contacts set up before you start, unless you plan a road side stand. The OL had contracts with local eateries for X amount of what ever herb they needed each week. The pucker factor was pretty tight when something didnt grow,bloom or got ate by some bug and you cant deliver.
I'm not trying to bash a dream, just some of the down falls.Talk to your bank ,just wander in and as to see the business person sit down and talk with them. If I recall 90% of all business fail in the first year 60 some persent the following year.
But to get back to your question ,,,Yes you can build or make just about anything do anything,, but it aint gona do what you want it to do the way you want it to do and in the end cost more than you thought it would. So yeah rent one, check you "K" dealer most have stuff you can rent and a reasonable price or maybe have taken what you need in on trade or know where one is sitting.
Just some thought I wish someone would have sent our way before we started the green houses
