farm cash flow

When we get to year 8 or year 10 or so, I have extremely grand plans for cash flow. Before that, I need to be thinking of the first three years will be the toughest.

I think the important thing is to set up 30 to 40 different income streams. Some are residual income streams that I already have in place. And I am currently setting up more residual income streams. And there will need to be even more.

Of course, I think others will be on the land and they will have their own income streams - and I have nothing to do with that. This thread is about my farm income streams, and a bit about the expenses.

Year 1 (and maybe year 2):

I have two big kickstarter ideas. And there will probably be more. I like the idea of having two or three kickstarters each year.

Workshops: I like the idea of having big name permies come in and lead workshops. And some people seem to think I'm pretty good at that too. I like the idea of having 25 to 40 people at a workshop. I think this can add up to a significant income stream.

I think that this would cover project expenses, plus provide cash flow for some of the people working on the land (both for the events, and for other general work on the land).

Note that there is no mention anywhere about selling produce. I do think a high priority is to feed all the people on the land and visiting the land, but producing food for sale would be something further down the road.

very cool. seems workshops will be very helpful to the farm and bringing income. as well if you make workshops out of things that need done on the land anyways its like people paying you to do work on the land! sounds great to me.

is there any idea of what the top ten or so workshops would be?

*edit* oops nevermind i see the threads now (:

thinking on cash flow and the thing with the locals running around the place on 4wheelers, etc i was thinking aloud with my dad and he suggested perhaps making a riding trail along the property line. people sign a waver (you will only ride on the designated trail, if you get hurt not my fault, etc) and pay some money to ride around for the day on the trail.
that gives them somewhere to ride, the farm some income, and you can do it for a year or however long and then close it to people for riding and it would be great for getting around to all parts of the farm.

I made mention of this briefly on another thread in this forum, but I'll give voice to it here, too, as here is where it belongs.

Growing citrus on The Land is a primary goal. This involves using tefa and other tools in the permaculture toolshed to raise the hardiness zone of The Land Microclimate to at least make suntrap formations on The Land suitable for overwintering citrus.

Does this not suggest a course of action to one with timber companies as neighbours? Any land forming and tefa done on The Land can be applied to willing neighbours. All that needs doing is to target the timber giants in the area with a land use plan that shows how to increase the overall yield with your methods.

If the earthworks and water harvesting aspects go over well, you could move into suggestions of understory species selection and paddock shift grazing for Land people in exchange for fertilization and nutrient cycling, and understory control (goats). Throw in some of Mark Vandermeer's slash pile soil restoration techniques, and you have given your potential clients a quantifiable financial motivation to go permie, at least in terms of the way they use the land around your Land.

If you reached neighbours in the right geographic location, I could easily see you promoting wind breaks and moisture trapping measures that amplify and add to the measures you are taking on your Land.

So we have, along with less tangible overall system benefits, money from design/advisory jobs, potential for land management pursuant to that, and whatever free grazing/browsing/wild harvesting/crafting you can stir into the mix.

All you need is a salesperson.

-CK