Post by dirtsunrain on Feb 25, 2010 20:25:33 GMT -5
My website guy drives me nuts but he is a good and creative business partner.
The Island that I live on has a strong Farmers Market network. The whole Island is farms, mostly cattle, but there are some growers like me and some cottage industries. Problem is, we're all Luddites and nobody seems to have a good website to promote either the markets or their farms. My solution to this problem is to create an internet food coop to complement our market sales.
We will create website with a paypal ordering system. The ordering window is a week at the beginning of the month. Producers and buyers pay a lifetime fee to join (maybe $50/ $100), people order and pay, and a delivery date is set for later on in the month. I plan to coordinate orders with anyone else near to me and have a pick up point at my market stall on say, the third saturday of the month. Or we could use the township hall on Monday evening etc. My neighbours sell lamb and beef, the fish farm is in my backyard, another neighbour sells raspberries and jams. We can sell livestock at market here so I could sell my heritage baby turkeys and ducks....
Each farm will have its own page to inform people of how they produce their food, etc. Each product category will list who supplies that item and whether it is available that month and the price each farm is asking. We could expand it to include the craftspeople around here. I know 2 spinners, webguy does calendars, childrens books and greeting cards, I make soap etc. As long as it is Island produced, we'll sell it. People will still have their farmer market booths as usual, this coop just picks up the traffic from people who want things but dont get to market. The producers would have to commit to keeping thier product lists up to date, and make sure they have what they say they have, but geeky webguy could stay in his little office tower and do computery things to his hearts content and I'd be free to be out in my gardens.
The business model for this is the very successful Oklahoma Food Cooperative (www.oklahomafood.coop/) There is a similiar coop running in the Ottawa area as well. The Island is so distinct that I think we have a good chance to create a brand and catch up on some sales that we are missing.
It will be a coop, but webguy will get paid and it will need a board of Directors.
Does anyone see any huge flaws in this idea?
The Island that I live on has a strong Farmers Market network. The whole Island is farms, mostly cattle, but there are some growers like me and some cottage industries. Problem is, we're all Luddites and nobody seems to have a good website to promote either the markets or their farms. My solution to this problem is to create an internet food coop to complement our market sales.
We will create website with a paypal ordering system. The ordering window is a week at the beginning of the month. Producers and buyers pay a lifetime fee to join (maybe $50/ $100), people order and pay, and a delivery date is set for later on in the month. I plan to coordinate orders with anyone else near to me and have a pick up point at my market stall on say, the third saturday of the month. Or we could use the township hall on Monday evening etc. My neighbours sell lamb and beef, the fish farm is in my backyard, another neighbour sells raspberries and jams. We can sell livestock at market here so I could sell my heritage baby turkeys and ducks....
Each farm will have its own page to inform people of how they produce their food, etc. Each product category will list who supplies that item and whether it is available that month and the price each farm is asking. We could expand it to include the craftspeople around here. I know 2 spinners, webguy does calendars, childrens books and greeting cards, I make soap etc. As long as it is Island produced, we'll sell it. People will still have their farmer market booths as usual, this coop just picks up the traffic from people who want things but dont get to market. The producers would have to commit to keeping thier product lists up to date, and make sure they have what they say they have, but geeky webguy could stay in his little office tower and do computery things to his hearts content and I'd be free to be out in my gardens.
The business model for this is the very successful Oklahoma Food Cooperative (www.oklahomafood.coop/) There is a similiar coop running in the Ottawa area as well. The Island is so distinct that I think we have a good chance to create a brand and catch up on some sales that we are missing.
It will be a coop, but webguy will get paid and it will need a board of Directors.
Does anyone see any huge flaws in this idea?
