When you became a homesteader, you imagined you would run your property as a hobby farm. But as you grow more produce and improve your skills, you’ve begun to consider selling homemade products. The possibilities are endless - you could sell homeopathic products, start a honey stand at a farmer’s market, or even work as a butcher. Here’s how to set up an LLC for your farm, tackle basic marketing projects, and determine reasonable prices for your products.

1. File for LLC Status

When you initially invested in land for homesteading, you may not have envisioned running it as a business one day. But now that you’re planning to sell homemade products, you’ll want to form an LLC. With LLC status, your personal financial assets will be secure with limited liability, which is important for your economic stability as a homesteader. You’ll also get tax breaks, allowing you to invest more money back into your homestead. 

If you’re too busy managing your homestead to file on your own, you could set aside cash to hire a lawyer, or you could simply file your documents through a budget-friendly online formation platform. A formation service will ensure that you comply with your state’s requirements.

2. Design Your Brand

You’ll want to come up with a branding design scheme and overall strategy that reflects the artisan nature of your products. STIR Advertising & Integrated Messaging recommends telling the story of your business and emphasizing how you create your products with care. That’s what sets your offerings apart from mass-produced options!

As you develop more content, make sure that it is on brand and continues your messaging. Your content strategy for digital marketing should also extend this narrative, but also include SEO strategies to drive more traffic to your website.

3. Determine Pricing

Pricing your products accurately will ensure that you turn a decent profit from your sales. To figure out the right price points for your products, Team New Terra recommends researching similar products from local suppliers for comparison and nailing down your fixed and variable costs. This will allow you to determine your gross profit margin and markup, and in turn, your break-even point.

4. Marketing Your Products

In order to make your first sales, you’ll need to design marketing materials for your products. This can include eye-catching packaging, social media content, fun logos, and more! PDFs are a great tool when it comes to creating any of these (and more!) elements of marketing. You can use Adobe Acrobat to create flyers, coupons, social media announcements, and more, and then use their PDF editing tools to update the text, format, images, and layout of your materials when you want to make quick updates to create fresh new advertising products.

5. Choose Sales Channels and Platforms

You can sell your products online through an ecommerce website, register for booths at local farmers markets, or even invite people to visit your farm during certain hours so they can shop. Furthermore, you can connect with local restaurants and grocery stores seeking farm-to-table suppliers!

6. Operations Management

Once you monetize your farm, you might find yourself busier than ever. You’ll need to manage your time wisely to get everything done. You may want to use a planner to organize your to-do lists, get up earlier to give yourself an extra hour for work, and hire extra help for your busy seasons.

Although you don’t need to own your property to start a hobby farm, you might want to consider investing in real estate if you are currently renting and your business is growing. Depending on your landlord, you may have limitations on how much you can modify the property. It’s best to review your rental agreement before getting too invested in your hobby farm. 

Grow Your Hobby Farm Strategically

As a homesteader, you can monetize all sorts of products from your farm. Even if you start by selling only one product, you can always expand down the road! By implementing these tips, you can register as an LLC, start marketing your offerings using PDFs, identify the right sales channels for your business, and more.