Saturday, March 22, 2008

A Proven Income Opportunity

Sometimes the most sure-fire proven income opportunity is when you take an old, old business model that works and make a small improvement, making a big change in the profitability. That's what we have here.

I've always had the feeling that life shouldn't have to be hard. Of course, I grew up in semi-tropical Miami where food literally grew on trees. Palm trees, avocado trees, orange trees, papaya trees, etc., right in our back yard. All one needed was a bit of land: grow what you need and sell the rest to pay for expenses like property taxes and whatever else you desire that you can't grow or trade for. Okay, I was young and idealistic and my tastes were simple, but there still is a lot to be said for farming as a lifestyle. It's relaxed, if you do it right.

When I first arrived on a real garden-fed homestead in New Hampshire, lo and behold! the model still worked! It was a proven income opportunity that was better than a job - Growing your family's food around your mini-farm or on a suburban lot is better than working a job to pay for your groceries because IT'S TAX FREE! I like tax-free. Adam and Eve didn't pay taxes - Why should we? (Let's not discuss all he compulsory services our governments offer us right now, okay?)

Here's the business opportunity: Sales of organic foods have increased 17-20% per year over the past five years. With increasing costs for fuel, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer due to increased demand, and shortages of key staple foods, due to biofuel subsidies, localizing our food production - and doing it without oil and chemical additives - is going to become more and more in demand.

I found a book that lays out a systematic plan of how the average person or family can grow 85% of their food needs for the year, plus grow an extra $10,060 worth of food to sell on just 6300 square feet of garden patch! "When the cash income is added to the economic benefit of drastically slashing food bills, the minimum net economic benefit of $14,920 exceeds the net economic benefit of average job by nearly $2000 per year."

The author, Brett Markham, goes on to say "Instead of working 2116 hours per year in order to net $13,092 after taxes and commuting like the average wage-earner, the mini-farmer has only worked 360 to 440 hours per year in order to net $14,920!" Do I have your attention now?

Now, I always had the impression from growing a lot of gardens in the various places I've lived, that farming organically on a modest scale would provide a comfortable life - and without all the hassles and expense of driving round in city traffic dressed in a suit and tie - but now, I've found the best manual on how to do it most efficiently and profitably, complete with exciting proven projections of how much you can earn.

I just never sat down and figured out how much I was saving when I had my other gardens. Now, I don't have to - Brett Markham has done it for me!

Like a lot of you reading this, I've lived in the big city, so I know what people have to put up with to earn a living in that context. To some people, it's worth it, perhaps. But to many others, it just doesn't pencil out. Once you find a proven income opportunity like this that can be done at home, with low startup costs, in your or your spouse's spare time, then you have a viable alternative to taking a second job. The wife can stay home to raise your children or even home-school them.

If the economy throws your family a curve ball, you will have a second income that you and the Good Lord control. No worries, mon, as they say in the islands.

The blueprint is in the book "Mini-farming for Self-Sufficiency," by Brett Markham, an electrical engineer and third-generation farmer, which gives me a lot more confidence that here is a guy who's crunched the numbers and come up with a new and improved way to bring in some extra tax-free income.

Aside from the tax benefits of growing your family's food, what really excites me about the "mini-farming" business model is this: 1) You don't need to wrestle with rototillers to do this; 2) There is no need to buy expensive gas-powered tractors, etc.; and 3) You can sell direct to the public, eliminating the profit-destroying middlemen. Once you're established, you can set up a CSA(consumer supported agriculture) in which your customers pay you in advance for a weekly box of your season's crops.

Let me repeat that last point: Once you've proven your competence as a mini-farmer, your customers will pay you up front and share the risk of weather or bug damage to some of your crops! They may even come out to help you weed and pick the crops, depending on how the CSA is set up.

If you want to earn more, then you can plant more and find more customers and hire helpers (or your kids) to do the extra work. This is the ideal home business or second income source! Of course, you are required to pay taxes on your profits from what you sell to others.

Check it out. I have placed the Amazon link to the right. If you decide to buy a copy, I'd appreciate if you buy it through my site. Thanks!

The simple food-production system described in Mini-Farming for Self-Sufficiency will be the basis for my dream venture: Common Wealth Farm. I want to show a lot of hardworking Americans who are unemployed and even homeless that there is a way to create your own proven income opportunity - a home business that will never go out of style - and earn a good living in an enjoyable way.