Homestead Business Ideas

Thinking about starting a business on your homestead? Homestead business ideas often take the form of traditional farming operations, value-added products and agri-tourism, but they don’t have to. Many small farms and homesteads find that non-traditional ideas help diversify their income streams and reduce risk.

In the simplest terms, making money on your homestead really comes down to offering goods or services that are appealing to customers.

Let’s take a moment to address the growing popularity of homesteading lifestyle blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels. From a business model, the content is not usually the product; it is a marketing tool used to drive traffic to the website or video where the income is generated – either from selling products or ad space.

So what makes a business idea great?

There are a few things to keep in mind. It may seem obvious, but you want an idea that can be converted into money. Then you need to find the right audience and pitch.

So how do I get started?

The best business ideas are feasible, profitable, and persuasive. Let’s look at a few questions to ask yourself:

• Feasible – are you able to start a project that earns money in a short period of time? Is this something you have the background knowledge to start – or can you learn quickly? Will it require a large amount of specialty equipment?
• Profitable – can you easily build the idea? If you have a hard time explaining the primary benefit of your concept in more than a sentence or two, you may need to rethink the idea. Being able to clearly and concisely explain your idea is key. If the primary benefit is unclear to potential customers, they won’t pay for it.
• Persuasive – what is persuasive now? Some ideas you should hold onto until the right time.

When you’re brainstorming ideas, the goal is to find high potential ideas. When testing your idea, here are a few simple things to think about. The more “yes” answers you have, the better the idea.

• Is there a simple path to turn the idea into reality?
• Can the business idea be explained in one sentence?
• Does it solve a problem, or makes someone’s life easier in a specific way?
• Is it low maintenance and/or easy to deliver without a ton of preparation or follow up?
• Is there potential for recurring income?

In our next post, we’ll focus more on how to refine ideas for your new business.

Previous posts in series:

• Making Money on Your Homestead
• Starting a Homestead Side Hustle