How to Make Money Homesteading
When Mark and I first started sharing Microbusiness Independence with the world, I was surprised by how many readers came back to me and said one of two things. First came: "Can we sell your chicken waterers for you?" I tried to explain that it was the uniqueness
of our product that helped our microbusiness grow and thrive, but then I
got the second comment: "I can't think of a unique product to make and
sell!"
For me and Mark, ideas
have always been the easy part. I probably come up with an ebook idea
every week, only a small percentage of which I'll ever have time to
write. Meanwhile Mark dreams up a similar number of undeveloped product
ideas. But if you're among the multitude of readers who got stuck at the
"What can I sell?" stage, Tim Young's How to Make Money Homesteading is the solution to your problem!
Tim splits his book up
into three types of money-making ideas --- ways to make money from the
land itself, ways to use your skills to make money, and ways to produce
products to sell. There are probably hundreds of ideas scattered
throughout the relevant chapters, including gems such as making chicken
tractors for your neighbors, becoming an artificial insemination expert,
and hiring others to provide classes on your land. There's also a stern
admonition to eliminate your debt before embarking on your homestead
microbusiness, which I thoroughly agree with, along with a chapter on
saving money on the homestead and one on rethinking retirement.
My only complaint with How to Make Money Homesteading
is that Tim doesn't separate the wheat from the chaff when presenting
his money-making ideas. In my experience, unless you scale way up and/or
bring your wares to a big-city population, selling farm-fresh eggs and
similar products won't even pay minimum wage. But a
chapter near the end of the book on marketing helps you disentangle
some of the pros and cons of different types of businesses.
Plus, the eighteen profiles of homesteading families (including one on
us) show what's worked for other people on-the-ground, giving you an
idea about the advantages and disadvantages of each money-making
endeavor suggested in the book.
Which is all a long way
of saying --- if you're scratching your head about how to make a living
off the land, you should definitely read this book as part of your
brainstorming session. And you're in luck because Tim has kindly offered
to give one of our readers a free paperback copy of How to Make Money Homesteading. Enter the giveaway below for a chance to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I have followed your blog for two years now, daily faithfully and when I saw this book I was excited because I thought it was written by you. A little disappointed because I have learned a hundred fold from you and Mark. Sometimes you two have me in stitches as to the things you are doing, but a whole other post. All said I would love to read this book.Please put my name in the ballot.
Marlyn