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Cultivate Simple 34: Open for Business

June 17th, 2013

On this week’s episode we discuss some tips for starting a small business. While these things may not work for everyone, they have continually worked for us.

Elderflower Fritters from Nigel Slater
Duck Breast Prosciutto how-to from Salted & Styled

Snug Harbor Farm in Kennebunk, here’s Pickle’s Pick of the Week

  • Be Unique. You have to have a unique product or service or provide the product or service in a unique way.
  • Figure out how to creatively market your product, don’t be satisfied with the status quo, get a website and facebook page.
  • Make wise decisions and consider alternatives. Think things through to their logical conclusion.
  • Be frugal. Try not to buy stuff you don’t need, for the business and personally.
  • Be willing to invest lots of time and effort for a while without much return.

Books of the Week

9 Comments to “Cultivate Simple 34: Open for Business”
  1. Deb on June 17, 2013 at 9:35 am

    Can this be seen to read? My computer doesn’t do podcasts well. Very interested in this though. Thanks so much. Can’t really ever see and hear podcasts. tried once and it wasn’t well.

    Reply to Deb's comment

  2. Mr. Chiots on June 17, 2013 at 11:18 am

    No Deb, we don’t have transcripts of the podcasts, sorry. If you click on the download link you can try to listen directly to the MP3 file bypassing any podcasting software.

    Reply to Mr. Chiots's comment

  3. Misti on June 17, 2013 at 8:05 pm

    I’m glad y’all mentioned Ben Hewitt. He came to my attention after I Googled his name after reading an article he wrote in Taproot magazine. I love his blog, he’s an excellent, thought provoking writer.

    Reply to Misti's comment

  4. amys on June 17, 2013 at 11:12 pm

    loved the podcast this week. my husband is wanting me to build and open an assistive living facility since I’m a RN but it really sounds like my life would be more hectic than it is now. I haven’t totally counted this out but maybe later in life. I would like to build one in a log cabin theme. He has it figured out to be our accountant, maintenance man, and grounds keeper lol. I personally would love to have a greenhouse and sell in a CSA but that is not a popular concept in this area.

    Reply to amys's comment

  5. Mich on June 18, 2013 at 4:42 am

    As you said anything you love doing, when it becomes a ‘job’ it does change the way you feel about it!
    I wanted a change so took a year of on the job training combined with a year of college to do horticulture/botany.
    I did enjoy the work but my own garden suffered a lot, 4 years in I quit as I really had enough by then (lucky enough to be able to to that)
    Now after a break I am loving being back in the garden….but it did surprise me how long it took to find my garden vibe again!

    Reply to Mich's comment

  6. Elyse on June 19, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    This was so interesting, to understand more about the thought processes behind your businesses! Someday I’d like to start a piano studio from home (that’s what I’m trained in, and I have several years’ teaching experience in a school), but it’s not practical right now in the baby years. If I were to start a business now, it would be with handcrafted items – I like to sew. But as you said, being unique is the challenge!

    Reply to Elyse's comment

  7. Pia on June 27, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    I listened to this episode yesterday and loved it. It was so timely as I opened up my own micro business today. I have been working on a couple of knitting and crochet patterns since April and finally finished the second and third today. Only one of my three published patterns is for sale at the moment, but I hope to create more as time goes by.

    The goal of this micro business, love that term, is to one day earn enough to support my own pattern buying and maybe in the far future pay for some yarn/fibre as well. Knitting patterns is a very competitive field as anyone, including me, can be a designer these days.

    I started this process after blogging consistently for a year and I am/ will be using giveaways to promote my patterns as well as luring people in by the aid of the free patterns.

    I have yet to make my first sale, but my two free patterns have been downloaded jointly over 200 times already, so here is to hoping.

    Thank you for always making me think and dream and wonder, I have loved every single one of your podcasts.

    Reply to Pia's comment

  8. Pia on June 27, 2013 at 4:27 pm

    p.s. I shared you podcast on my blog back in may (http://weirdbecause.blogspot.dk/2013/05/sharing-is-caring-2.html) because I love the value for value concept, but money is tight so I did what I could for free :)

    Reply to Pia's comment

    • Susy on June 27, 2013 at 8:34 pm

      Thanks!

      Reply to Susy's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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