Community Supported Agriculture Webinar

37
Finding Your Markets Webinar Series “Starting a CSA” Sponsored by Bright Agrotech www.brightagrotech.com

description

Watch the entire webinar and download the CSA Resource Packet here: https://brightagrotech.leadpages.net/community-supported-agriculture-webinar-bright-agrotech/

Transcript of Community Supported Agriculture Webinar

Page 1: Community Supported Agriculture Webinar

Finding Your Markets Webinar Series “Starting a CSA”

Sponsored by Bright Agrotech www.brightagrotech.com

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1. What is a CSA

2. The Pros and Cons of

CSAs

3. CSA Sales

4. Getting Started

5. Finding Customers

6. The CSA Contract

7. Marketing &

Management

8. The CSA Season

9. CSA Takeaways

webinar overview

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Dr. Nate Storey

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1 CSAWhat is

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CSA is a contract between producer and customer by which “shares” of farm production are sold

community

supported

agriculture

What is it?

17%

17%

17% 17%

17%

17%

Your Farm

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History of CSA

Consumers of farm produce looking for better, more accessible, more affordable products would band together and buy a farm and hire a manager.

Each customer would get a “share” of the production from the farm correlating with the amount of the farm that they owned.

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The concept evolved, with established farmers offering CSA options to their established customer base, while eliminating the upfront cost of investing in a farm…

Sold production by shares for a set price Season by season- no long term investment Limiting large risks, sharing seasonal risks Arguably the ideal form of this type of arrangement Month by month or Season Lump payment

History of CSA (continued…)

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The Pros and Cons of CSA’s 2

Pros Cons

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The Pros

Producers get guaranteed cash flows (lump payment) Budgeting is easy Seasonal risk sharing with customers Niche market with higher pricing Strong customer relationships- marketing foundation Accountability and Connection

Community Supported Agriculture

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Must still be marketed- Fill those share slots! Must be able to deliver on expectations Must deliver quality Must have semi-established production before you start Must accurately predict production and manage crops for variety- keep your customer’s interest! Accountability and Connection

Community Supported Agriculture

The CONS

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3 Community Supported Agriculture Sales

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Growing area of sales for small farms

Offers incredible amounts of security through risk sharing with customers !Can be the single best way for small producers to gain a foothold in their local market

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4

Getting started

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! This gives you an accurate idea of what you can produce

Step #1) You must be producing.

This allows you to sell an appropriate number of shares

Once you know what you can produce you can sell the right number of shares

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you are producing, right?

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Disappointment in your product is destructive

CSA TIPS

Make sure your customers know what they’re getting. Don’t promise them something you can’t deliver

Word of Mouth is a great marketing too, but can also ruin your reputation

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Where can you find them?

Finding Customers5

- Farmer’s markets

- Local Health Food Stores

- Personal Connections

- Advertisements

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This often requires printed materials explaining what you’re doing , why you’re doing it, what crops you will be growing, what they can expect, etc.

This is an active process that requires you to seek, find and sell people on your product!

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Put together a contract & explain the relationship

the Contract6

Bright Agrotech

1938 Harney St. Ste 152 Laramie, WY 82072 www.brightagrotech.com

Email: [email protected] 308-249-2301

Community Supported Agriculture

2012-2013 Winter Contract

We believe that healthy, civically engaged communities are a powerful force in the fight

against hunger and the fight for fresh, healthy food. Because of this, we have designed our

products to strengthen the ties between people. Local agriculture offers not only a chance to

grow local economies, but the bonds between people within communities. We believe that

knowing the person who grows your food should be an important part of the American

lifestyle, and an important part of remembering where your food comes from. The CSA is

designed to both support local year-round growers and to provide local, nutritious, and

delicious greens and herbs to the Laramie Community. We believe that even small programs

can combat very big problems in the world and are very excited to invite you to embark on this

adventure with us.

This CSA will deliver greenhouse produced greens and herbs year round. All of our

products are grown within Laramie City Limits using sustainable and organic production

techniques and (mostly) renewable energy. All pest control is accomplished using OMRI

certified controls and methods. We invite CSA members to come and learn about our

greenhouse and our production techniques first hand on Farm Tour Days (Dates TBA).

PAYMENT POLICY

We expect payment due in full when turning in the contract. There will be two 6 month

CSA periods that will run on a weekly basis. The first CSA will start Nov. 1 and end Apr. 25. The

second CSA will start May 2 and end Oct. 31.*

Use our template

What do they get? What do you get? What are the risks inherent in the relationship?

The contract should explain EVERYTHING!

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- Term of contract - Delivery/pickup days/times - Days off? - Location - Introduction to Staff - Explanation of growing techniques/controls - Contact Information - How do you accept payment? Terms? - Any other relevant details (excess food, friends picking up, etc.)

The fewer questions you have to answer the better- eliminate your customers’ surprises

Other details to include:

the Contract (Continued…)

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Put together a contact list

Marketing & MGMT7

• Sally J. • Susan P. • Marky M. • Snoop D Oh Double G • Chett S. • Gary S.

• Nicky W.

CSA CONTACTS

* Primary marketing tool * Educational tool

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Figure out how to take payment, track members and subscriptions !

Managing members

Excel Recurly

!

Other online tools Good old paper books

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Take payment (sell as many of your available shares as you can) with signed contract

Managing payments

Check your emails for a CSA Contract Template

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Up Front is better - Limits your initial number of customers - Less expensive to manage, fewer logistic

costs - Guarantees payment

taking payment:Up front vs monthly

Monthly is more common, but more risky

- Collecting Payment/Follow up is time consuming and expensive

- No guarantee customers will continue to pay (defeats the purpose)

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You should have been growing in the meantime. . . !

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Budget your cash, month by month

Know your costs ! Know what your CSA will cost !!

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Plan out newsletters & educational materials

transparency & Communication

News-events, tours, information on the greenhouses, successes & failures What they’re getting that week Recipes to use with the weeks produce

Every week we email our customers & tell them:

*Marketing Note*Using sites like Yelp that help with “social proof” is important1

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The first day you deliver… Be on time Be friendly- shake all of your customer’s hands.

Plan on talking with as many of them as possible Remember that relationship covers a multitude of sins! Explain everything

THE CSA Season8

Do this every time you deliver!

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Start selling your next cycle midway through your current cycle.

Never stop selling.

mid-season

!

Keeping enrollment and expanding enrollment is a never-ending cycle. Don’t take your eye off the ball.

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Plan tours Plant “treats” for your customers Communicate!

Throughout

the season

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You will have a core of enthusiastic, dedicated, wonderful people, but there will aways be some folks that don’t appreciate or understand the value of what you offer !Do what you can to make things right, but if that’s not enough, know when to refund a customer !Fill their slot with someone who will be one of your enthusiastic core !Never stop listening to your customers, but sometimes all the changes in the world won’t make a customer happy.

csa takeaways9Firing customersKnow when to hire and fire new customers

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You will fail. !You will screw things up, forget people, lose shares, have crop failures, light baskets, bug problems, etc. !

Don’t be unsympathetic to your customers

Do what you can to make things right when things do fail.

They understand the risk ,but that doesn’t mean you can disrespect their money.

making things right

9 times out of 10, if you have a relationship with your customers, this process is much, much easier.

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remember

They’re the ideal market because they are relational.

CSAs are not traditional markets.

Never forget that!

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Webinar bonusesTo help you be as successful as possible…

CSA Workbook CSA Contract Templates

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Get Growing Today & Save

Save 15% on ZipGrow towers

Thru April

shop.brightagrotech.com“ZIPGROW04”

coupon code:

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The Bright Agrotech Team

Chris

Paul

Noah

Questions?