Tuesday, April 1, 2008

A Proven Income Opportunity

What is the perfect "proven income opportunity"? What does everyone need that they will pay you a profit for providing? Would you agree it is Food?

I've been looking for the perfect, work-at-home business for years. I've found and started several, but they all had flaws. The more I thought and read about trends in our food production, the more certain I am that, using the right tehniques of farming and the right business model, growing food for your family and community is the perfect proven income opportunity for now and the future.

What's not to like about a business that is growing 17-20% per year, with its competition falling behind due to a rise in the prices of oil, plus the diversion of corn crops into ethanol production? Organic mini-farming, to be specific, will feel no direct impact from either of these two problems. And rising food prices in your neighborhood grocery stores are going to drive consumers into your arms, looking for quality affordable garden produce. Will you be ready?

To my mind, growing a big garden - enough for most of your needs and some to sell your neighbors - is the most sensible and profitable investment of your time. If nothing else, you will eliminate most of your food costs, get some healthy exercise, eat more nutritious foods - which is the equivalent of a tax free increase in income of more than $2500 per person in your household! Where else can you get a second work-at-home job that pays you tax-free income?

Now, most people will not start their own gardens, so you don't need to worry about a lot of new competition in the coming Recession. Most folks are too lazy and not yet hungry enough to willingly eat natural, unprocessed foods. Still, there is a growing market for organic, healthy food. I'm just telling you about it; if you don't want to take advantage of this opportunity to secure your family's food supply, that's your business.

I've looked at all the phony work-at-home proven income opportunities out there and I've seldom found any that were worth the effort. Many are outright scams. I'm tired of losing money - I have found a sure thing that a growing number of people will come to you and ask you to sell them. I know it works, because I've done it before.

If you want to learn more about how to create your own mini-farm and profitably market your crops, the best book I've found is Mini-Farming for Self Sufficiency, by Brett Markham. It is very well written, clear, and full of references. See the link on the right of this column.

The key to making this the perfect proven income opportunity is to market your produce by forming what's called a CSA. This means "community supported agriculture" and that means your customers pay you for your crops before you even plant them and come to pick them up once a week. Look into it. Obviously, it may take you two or more seasons of successful crops to prove you know what you're doing, so that your customes will trust you, but that's a worthwhile investment of time and effort. Every real business requires some start-up investment of time and money.

Read the book, it'll all make sense then.