Being adaptable and finding a Niche; thoughts from a small farmer entrepreneur how earn by blogging blog

Wanted to start a discussion on the importance of finding a "niche" for overdone/common business models and being adaptable with your concept and implimintation

Background; I spent four years in South Bay coast of SF working on a couple farms. The area was amazing; over 30 small farms owned by 30-something year olds in a fertile and beautiful coastal town. I later returned to my home, a small town an hour or so north of LA, and started a 2-acre farm with my business and life partner.

The area I was living and working in before has a very different climate that allows a greater variety of plants that I could grow and I wouldn't have to battle against the weather that I have now. Drought, heat, and clay soil can be daunting adversaries. I always imagined having a vegetable farm that also grew some flowers so that is what we did for two years. You quickly learn what grows best and although I really wanted to grow X, Y and Z it just wasn't feasible with our climate.

There are only 2-3 local farms in our town that grow produce, and have been doing so for 15+ years and are /really/ good at what they do. It quickly became apparent that our biggest issue was going to be distribution since many of the restaurants already had contracts with the other farmers and weren't able to buy the quantities that we needed to offload from our farm. However, there are no local, small flower farms in our area and we had a lot of interest in our flowers and would end up turning down jobs because we didn't have enough product.

Although I had spent so many hours dreaming and creating a diversified produce farm we quickly realized it would not be feasible in our area and was not constructive in spending so much time on trying to make a few sales here and there. We converted our two acres into solely flowers and now market ourselves as "farmer-florist", designing for events and weddings in our town that is quickly becoming a destination for such things for the big LA money. It is also a burgeoning industry that is being quickly made popular by the Field To Vase and Slow Flowers movement and by people such as Erin B. At Floret Flowers.

It was difficult letting go of our original vision but now that we've adapted and are currently the sole business in this "niche" market in our area, it has done amazing things for our business in such a short amount of time. In our town there are so many new coffee shops or Italian restaurants that I see open and shut because they didn't take in to account of the community that they were opening up in and didn't have anything different to offer. But by just changing your vision a little bit while still holding on to your original ethos (I.E providing our community with fresh, local products that are good for our environment) you have a higher chance of lasting success.

We are now opening up a brick and mortar in our town (instead of being lonely and removed at the farm!) That we are hoping will bring in more business and events for us, while also allowing us to be the face of our business and help with marketing.

How have you adapted your business or found the niche market you are in??

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