Welcome to latest episode in the podcast series, 6 Base Principles for Starting, Running, and Improving a Successful Business. You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2 to get up to speed, but you can also dive right into the latest episode.
Part 3 steps back from design and marketing to focus on entrepreneurship. Whether you’re thinking about starting a business or are already running one, it should be a good listen. Javan and I start the conversation with Diego by looking at ways of applying the six principles before a business gets going and during. We begin by delving into the first principle, one so many of us grapple with:
Principle #1: We are profitable, we do not subsidize
The survival of any business requires profit. Being profitable requires a deep and truthful understanding of time, material and land costs on the farm. These hard costs allow you to set prices that make you money. These prices are likely going to be higher than your competition’s. Anything less than that and you are giving your life energy to your clients at a loss. You are not in business to lose money, you are in business to grow nutrient-dense food for awesome people at a profit.
It sounds so basic, but you’d be amazed at how many people who working in the regenerative business field feel bad about charging for their services or feel that they are charging too much. I know because I was one of those people. One of the reasons why Javan and I are so passionate about mentorship is that we both wish there was a program like the one we created when we were starting out.
There are a lot of soft skills needed to run a successful business – I hope this episode helps shed some light on this fact and provide some insights for all you potential and hardworking entrepreneurs engaged in meaningful work.
Stay tuned for the last part of this series next week. For more great listens, check out Diego Footer’s extensive archive of Creative Destruction podcasts here.
