Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
provide simple enterprise budgets for apples, apricots, nectarines, peaches,
pears, plums, and tart and sweet cherries.
Publicizing Your Enterprise
It stands to reason that if people do not know about your business, they are
not likely to become your customers. For most business owners, the obvious
answer is to advertise. While advertising may become an important part of
your marketing effort, it can be expensive. Fortunately, there are ways to be-
come known that will not cost you anything. When I started a bonsai nursery
many years ago, it was a novel enterprise in the community. My local news-
paper, which reached about 25,000 people, was so interested that they sent
a reporter to interview me. The result was a large front-page photo of me
training a bonsai tree, along with a quarter-page article. I could never have
afforded an advertisement like that, yet the tremendous publicity I got out of
the article cost me nothing but an hour of pleasant conversation. Particularly
in smaller communities, local newspapers are hungry for unusual stories. If
your enterprise is novel in some way, you could easily end up with an article
like the one I enjoyed.
In addition to traditional newspapers, chambers of commerce frequently
put out newsletters that feature stories about new members and enterprises.
Some chambers and other university and community groups also offer ag-
ricultural tours for the public. One chamber of commerce that I belonged to
put on a county-wide farm tour each year. If you were promoting a new orch-
ard, how would you like to see two or three busloads of people, anxious to
see and hear about what you do, pull into your farm yard? It is hard to buy
that kind of publicity, yet you can often get it for free.
Ten years ago, retail businesses could operate well without an Internet
website. That is no longer the case. If you plan to market retail from a farm
stand or U-pick orchard, you should have a simple website that tells who you
are, where you are located, what you have to sell, and when you are open.
You can easily find many examples, both good and poor, of websites for re-
tail orchards and farms. Model your website after the best that you can find.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search