Farm business literature is full of memoirs offering entertaining stories with some basic cattle or produce advice but no real substance for the reader. Big Ideas, Small Farm is not another feel good farm memoir devoid of authentic advice, hope, or insights. This book is different; it is about results. Big Ideas, Small Farm is about growing small farm profitability.
This book is part self-help and part marketing strategies because marketing tips and theories are effective when the people implementing them believe in them. Small farm marketing is a mindset as much as it is a practice. This mindset requires believing big ideas create big results.
Effective marketing turns small farms into sustainable businesses. Small farms are declining. This is not new; there are several reasons for this decline with plenty of blame to go around. Reciting those reasons will not reverse the trend; placing blame on other people, groups, or organizations is not going to grow your farm. The good news is there are successful small farms, and your farm can one, too. The key is developing an effective marketing strategy that builds on quality products that enhance the customer’s experience while creating value.
Big Ideas, Small Farm is for the people who want to grow small farms into highly profitable businesses. This book includes 39 broad strategies broken down into 376 best practices that will turn any farm dream into a business reality.
Too many farm business books are written by farming aristocrats who inherited their success and whose greatest claim is to be a fourth or fifth generation farmer. While there is nothing wrong with inheriting a farm, building a farm business requires different skills, expertise, and ways of thinking.
The author, Jason McClure, was forced off the family farm due to economic, social, and family pressures. He spent 20 years trying to get back to rural America. He knows firsthand the pain of loss, being disconnected from the land, and what it takes to build a successful business. To get back to rural America Jason earned a business degree, Masters in Communication, MBA, and a graduate certificate in Applied Statistics. He has broad interests and has earned certificates in various fields such as culinary arts, real estate, and HVAC.
He has had successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurial adventures and worked in leadership positions in corporate America. Jason believes in the economic power of rural America, homesteads, and urban gardens. He left the corporate world to build a legacy in the Ozarks. He and his wife and children are doing their part to make rural America more economically viable by owning, operating, and building Ozark Family Farm. The ideas, techniques, and strategies included in this book are the foundation of his farm business.