10 Success Tips to Scale Your Farm to 6 Figures
Every Independent Farmer knows the weight of a long workweek, where the demands of the daily chores often leave little room for retrospective, strategy and routine office work to manage operations. Building a successful, sustainable Farm business shouldn’t be a solo effort.
In a recent podcast, Barn2Door CEO Janelle Maiocco and Account Manager Ryan Grace discuss how the right expert guidance can catapult your Farm operation from a basic setup to a thriving, professional business. Dive into these top 10 Success Tips to learn how a dedicated team can help you reclaim your time and scale your Farm with confidence.
“I think one of the coolest parts about what we get to do on the success side of things is we get to be a part of that journey with the Farms. Helping them blow well past six figures and able to quit their full-time job, and farm full-time.”
- Ryan Grace (Barn2Door, Account Manager)
Making More Money
Setting up for success
The Barn2Door software is designed to do the work for you. From setting up your Farm for sales Online (web, mobile, social, newsletter) or In-Person with the Point-of-Sale (POS), to Taxes or Accounting integrations, the Barn2Door Success Team provides your Farm with the resources to set yourself up for success.
Success Tip #1 - Value-added items
Upselling value-added items creates additional lines of revenue, complement your Farm’s core product offerings, and helps fuel consistent demand. Automated Order reminders and prompts (e.g. “add additional items to cart”) entice Buyers to increase their cart size and complete larger purchases to fulfill their needs.
Success Tip #2 - "Bundle Box" Strategy
Stay out of the freezer business and move more products in Bundle Boxes. Barn2Door recommends rebranding slow-selling stew meat as Kebabs and re-package during summer months as a “Grill Bundle”. With bundling items such as burger patties and ribs, Farmers can create an all-in-one package for Buyers. Save Buyers a trip to the grocery store, while turning over more of your Farm inventory.
Read: How to Package Your Farm Subscriptions and Bundle Boxes
Success Tip #3 - Subscriptions
Offering subscriptions is mutually beneficial, giving you consistent cash flow and converting customers to regular Buyers. Barn2Door recommends offering a “Farmer's Choice” Subscription box for a given category of products. This works especially well for Produce and Flower subscriptions, where Buyers appreciate seasonal variety, creating interest and introducing new products they come to love.
Ditch the Office Work
Success Tip #4 - Fulfillments
Create a “hassle-free” fulfillment process by scheduling pick ups or deliveries for the same day as your processing operations. By picking up from the processor, packaging and making deliveries the same day, you are reducing your labor costs, saving time and making your operations process more seamless.
Success Tip #5 - Pick-Up Locations
Convenient pick-up locations simplify purchasing for Buyers. Survey data indicates 80% of Buyers will travel up to 5 miles to a Farm pickup. Barn2Door recommends leveraging local partnerships to offer a variety of local pickup locations that are within the weekly routine of your Buyers (local business, churches and schools). If your Farm is limited on time and unable to invest in direct delivery, then pickups are a great option that will consolidate your work load and help you save time.
Success Tip #6 - Automating Email Marketing
Collecting emails is critical to the long-term success of your Farm to ensure you have a healthy base of customers for your products. Barn2Door integrates directly with Mailchimp, automatically syncing your contacts and purchase history, which can be configured to automate email campaigns to your Buyers (first-time, loyal and lapsed customers). This integration helps your Farm save time, increase sales, and reduces your office work, while providing better messaging and calls to action for different Buyer audiences.
Look like a Pro
Success Tip #7 - Know your ‘Why’
Buyers spend 43% more with Brands they trust. While your Farm grows and harvests local food, ‘why’ you do it is different for every Farmer. Communicating your ‘why’ to Buyers across all your channels, online (website, social media platforms, email newsletters), and in-person (farmers markets, local events, pop-ups) will inspire Buyer trust and confidence, attract more customers and encourage them to purchase your products.
Success Tip #8 - Ideal Customer
Understanding the likes, preferences and language of your Ideal Customers is important when it comes to building a strong go-to-market strategy. Knowing who you're trying to sell to will help you remove as much friction as possible for your existing and potential Buyers (e.g. selling to Suburban Soccer Moms v. Urban Farmer Market attendees). When you have a new customer, ask them how they heard about you. This will help you uncover strong avenues to market and identify areas to improve your efforts.
Success Tip #9 - Building box descriptions
Keeping your Ideal Customer in mind, be sure to package and describe your Products in a manner that is more appealing and creates an emotional connection to attract recurring Buyers. Barn2Door recommends simple box descriptions that convey the intended purpose (e.g. “Family Meal Prep Box”, “Perfect for Small Families”), or upcoming events (e.g. “Game Day Grill Box”, “Couples Date Night Box”). Consider also attractive value-added products to spice it up.
Success Tip #10 - Website & Marketing Toolkit
Buyer expectations are high when it comes to Brand loyalty - they expect consistency across all channels. Barn2Door works closely with each Farm to create a website custom-tailored to reflect your brand, vision and values. The Marketing Toolkit includes 50+ images, graphics, and sample prompts and content for email, newsletters, and social media posts to ensure your Farm stays top-of-mind. A professional presence, consistent messaging and seasonally relevant content will help your Farm build trust with your Buyers and create sales urgency across every channel.
Conclusion: The Power of Having a Team
Whether you're just getting started building your Farm business, or if you've been at it for decades, Barn2Door provides a team of people and resources to help you at every stage. By partnering with Barn2Door, your Farm gains a passionate and well-versed Success team with data insights, domain experience and a support system ready to help 7 days a week. Their expert guidance in a variety of strategies - pricing, packaging, customer rewards and automation - will help elevate your Farm to confidently reach its full potential.
Barn2Door offers software for Independent Farmers to make more money, ditch the office work and look like a pro. If you’re curious to learn more, watch this 5-minute video.