So you’ve chosen rural life. Perhaps you were tired of the rat race of the city, or you simply wanted to slow down and get back to nature. Whatever your reason, you're about to create your own homestead farm business. Here, Montana Farm Life guides you through the process of turning your hobby into a money-making venture so you can achieve financial freedom using the land you love. With a few simple steps, you can create and manage a thriving homestead farm business.

Choose a Niche

It’s important to come up with a niche — something that makes your homestead business stand out from the crowd. You may be growing great produce, but if no one is interested in buying it, your hard work will go to waste. But don’t choose to narrow a specialty — choose one that allows for growth as your business matures.

Define Your Brand

Once you’ve figured out your niche and unique selling proposition, it’s time to create a brand around that concept. Every brand needs a name, logo, slogan, color scheme, and tone of voice. Spend time designing these assets — try to be original in your concept to stand out from the crowd.

Once you’ve settled on a brand design, you can try an online tool to create a business card. It’s easy to import and incorporate your logo and color scheme.

Plan for Cross-Promotion

Cross-promotion can be a great benefit to all sorts of businesses. Think of other interests your target market has and how you can address both together. Popupsmart notes that cross-promotion of your homesteading business can take a variety of forms. You might, for example, promote a colleague's website or social media page. You might also sell a product together as part of a kit or a limited-edition item that will appeal to each other's customers.

Get Your Business Online

If you’re serious about starting your own homestead business, consider developing a plan for online marketing (including a social media strategy) that can help you reach new customers. As Optimizely points out, in today's world, online marketing is essential, and it's even more critical for those in rural areas who may not have a large local customer base.

Attend Farmers Markets

Once you’ve built a great relationship with your online customers, it’s time to take things to another level. Farmers markets are ideal places to meet new people who may also be interested in buying your product. Use these outings as networking opportunities, and spread the word about your business through flyers and business cards. Keep your display neat and attractive so potential customers will want to buy from you.

Manage Your Supply Chain and Operations

Once you start selling, you’ll also need to manage your supply chain. Managing involves ordering enough inventory for upcoming sales, reordering when your stock drops, and setting up a system to get timely feedback from customers on how your products are doing. HelpScout suggests several different ways to collect feedback depending on what you want to learn. You can use customer surveys, email feedback, social media, or even usability tests.

Manage Your Finances

A solid bookkeeping setup is essential to keeping close tabs on your finances. Using accounting software will make this task easier, and will help you automate quite a bit. Look for a platform that simplifies expense tracking, invoicing, inventory management, bill pay and tax filing.

It’s also important to keep tabs on your credit score, especially if you need to get a small business loan or other financial support. Lenders will pull your credit report to see how responsible you are with money, and to determine if they believe you are a worthwhile investment to support. If your score is too low, consider waiting on your business plans or pursuing other financial options.

Choose a Business Structure

Setting up your own business means you’ll be in charge of everything from its branding and marketing to its legal structure. If you’re a small business, an LLC is typically the best entity structure as it comes with asset protection, flexibility, and tax benefits. To start an LLC, file for your own LLC or use a formation service to save money on lawyer's fees. There are several services that can help; read LLC reviews to explore your options. Every state has different requirements, so do your research before moving forward.

Begin Your New Homesteading Venture

Creating a homesteading business is an exciting venture. With proper education and preparation – including branding your business, managing your supply chain, and setting up your LLC – you'll be well on your way to running a successful farm-based business in no time.