Want to start a business in the country? Want to revive rural communities? Seeking to start a rural business as your first home business, a second stream of income, or an enhancement to a current rural business? Both men and women rural entrepreneurs are living the country dream again. 2009 is a remarkable year for those starting a rural home business or small rural enterprise.
Some of these include full time businesses for rural communities that capitalize on the rural and nature-themed atmosphere, such as the rural B&B, a country folk school, a quilt-making shop, a writers' retreat, or a healing center.
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Some folks want to operate them more like additional streams of income that allow country living and rural traditions to become more part of their livelihood. For example, tele-commuting is allowing high-tech business employees to operate from rural settings. But if a spouse or even the whole family wants an additional income that blends country living with small business, they'll create additional multiple streams of rural income that include more traditional rural enterprises like small farming.
Yet others want to enhance the income of a current agricultural operation to add variety and higher revenue, such as the wife of a corn grower who sold fresh produce from her garden, and eventually outsold the corn operation.
No matter which reason for which a new small rural enterprise is chosen, here are two very good ones to consider.
1. The Micro Eco-Farm. These tiny farms can enhance other rural enterprises or stand on their own. They produce substantial amounts of eco-friendly products for local niche markets such as selling fresh fruits and farm-made preserves to local inns.
They may stand on their own and be full time, such as the man who grows rare peppers for his farm-produced sauces on less than three acres and from that alone earns what he calls a "white collar income."
They may be part time and seasonal such as the summer u-cut flower garden or the fall rare squash patch.
They may be part time and year-round, such as the herb grower who makes custom massage oils for local massage therapists.
They may enhance other rural home businesses and make those even better, such as the micro eco-farm that grows the products needed for a country B&B, allowing visitors to experience a real farm and fresh-picked eco-friendly foods. Or, a full-time weaver may raise a few angora goats to make prize throws she sells locally and from her own once-a-year barn sale. Her customers know the names of the goats each blanket was made from and word-of-mouth promotion spreads like wildfire.
2. Agritourism, means hosting community and tourists on the farm or country home as a source of revenue. For example, you may want your rural enterprise to mainly be a small farm that grows rare herbs, or blueberries, or rare-breed dairy cows for artisan cheese, or rare-wool sheep for handspinners, or laying hens for local restaurants, or you may want to make candles scented from your own flowers to sell in town and online from your on-farm workshop. For these or most other small farm enterprises, consider adding agritourism as a supplemental income. Give tours to garden clubs, scout groups or elementary students for or more a head. You can earn 0 a day with two tours like this.
The Center for the Micro Eco-Farming Movement at Micro Eco-Farming, offers free how-to articles, stories of successful rural home business and countryside entrepreneurs, and resources for micro eco-farming and agritourism.
Start a Rural Small Enterprise
http://www.MicroEcoFarming.com
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