Everything Everywhere All At Once
You have to both run the business and make the business run
There is no such thing as specialization on an owner/operated farm. The farmer does it all. Urban farm pioneer Wally Satzewich says, “I used to get asked if farming was a 9 to 5 job. That was back in 2006 when I first launched the SPIN-Farming online learning series, and when my urban farm started getting attention.”
One of his big points back then was that on a Friday night, before his big market day, he knocked off around 5pm and went home to nurse some beers, unwinding from the week just like any other working stiff. For him, farming was not all-consuming. After 35 years, that’s still true for him today. “It’s probably why I am still in business.”
Sure in peak growing season he puts in long hours, but so does everyone else who is in business for themselves, he points out. “Instead of cutting hair, doing taxes, developing websites, or cleaning clothes, I’m growing food. I enjoy my work. What I’ve been committed to these past 35 years is being self-employed.” That means you have to both run the business and make the business run.
Wally says he has seen many farmers fail early because they can’t seem to figure things out in a broad perspective. “Being self-employed, you have to wear many hats,” Wally says. “Sometimes you have to sit down and plan. Then you have to actually physically get the job done, usually by yourself.”
A farm plan does not mean anything without numbers to back it up. As the Chief Executive Officer you need to track numbers — expenses, weekly sales and revenue targets — to know if you are on or off-track for the season, so you can make adjustments as you go. “That means you also have to be an analyst sometimes. Planning your production requires you to be a farm manager. Growing it requires you to sometimes be both a grow room manager, so you say to yourself, ‘the boss told me to pot up 50 spider plants and have them ready to go for tomorrow, and I have two hours to do it in.’
As Chief Marketing Officer, you might say to yourself, ‘how do I intend on selling those spider plants I just potted up? What are my projections on sales? How will they contribute to my bottom line? Can they cover gas and my stand fee?’ ”
It may sound frivolous, but too often when you are self-employed you can get overwhelmed and start to lack of focus and direction. Role playing can put you into the frame of mind you need to be to handle the diverse aspects of your operation. CEO one moment, grow room manager, manager of field operations, and janitor in other moments. Each role has a specific set of things you need to do and implement. Thinking of all the things you need to do as roles you play out can help more than you might think, Wally says. “Looking on it as a role-playing game you play with yourself can be kind of fun. And it forces you to think and act more business-like, rather than making it up as you go along.”
Wally uses another, more serious way to manage it all on an owner/operated farm. You can read about that in the articles below.
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SPIN stands for s-mall p-lot in-tensive.
SPIN Farming is a commercial production system designed specifically for growing spaces under an acre in size. It was developed in the mid-90’s by Canadian farmer Wally Satzewich. Those who practice it use gardens, community plots and vacant land to start and operate moneymaking farm businesses that serve the needs of local communities.
