Hello Everyone,
I hope the autumn has been enjoyable thus far for all of you. It hasn't been too cold of an autumn for my liking, and I've enjoyed the time I've been able to spend out of doors.
This week has been extremely productive for me. I accomplished some huge administrative tasks that I have been worrying about for a little while. For me, it felt a lot like I was standing on the edge of a very cold pond knowing that I had better jump in and get it over with. And I did get it over with. It was slightly unpleasant and more time consuming than I had hoped, but not nearly as bad as I had fretted it would be. But here I am today, happy to announce that Hoppy Mountain Farm is officially registered as a business entity. I can say with unabashed pride, that I now own my own business - and that is so awesomely amazing.
What's next? Well I'm glad you asked. I've been learning through Annie's project about business management and start up - and our next task is learning about book keeping. While I have studied accounting through our local community college, it will be wonderful to see some examples and get some guidance on best practices for agricultural based business. It will certainly help with the development of my business plan and my balance sheets.
I've also reached out to some other fiber farmers and English Angora breeders to see if I can network and learn from those with experience. Even if I only get one response, it will be such a huge help to get some professional insight into all the behind the scenes administrative business management.
I suppose that is enough about the drudgery of the administrative duties for a businiess, so lets move on to some different subjects!
Hydroponics - This experiment has been going so much better than we had hoped. It has only been three weeks and we are ready for our first harvest. I'm hoping I can find an interested market, but first I need to crunch some numbers based on the data we have. I'm thinking we will expand this project just so we will have fresh greens throughout the winter!
Bunnies - Princess Floof and Prince Stormcloud are doing great. I'm fairly sure they have reached their full weight and are done growing. They still have the child-like curiosity and I'm glad they haven't grown out of that. I caught Stormy chewing on some loose leaf paper this week, which was unexpected, but I caught it soon enough so as he only swallowed the corner of it. I don't know how he managed to get on top of the coffee table where the paper was stacked. Tricky tricky! But to get back on track - we are on schedule to breed next week. They have passed all the benchmarks that I know of, and I have no reason not to breed them at this point. Lets keep our finger crossed and see where we are at in two weeks time!
Bake Sale - I've developed some packaging ideas that I'm hoping to test out next week (It may be a little further out depending on shipping times). My husband suggested that we market our baked goods by offering a 'farm stand' at our home each Saturday morning. I'm willing to try this idea for a while and see how it goes.
Other fur-babies - Panda, Mandy, and Sophie are all well and hale. Now that the weather is turning, the animals are much more in the mood to snuggle. It seems like this week I've had to share my lap space with all of them. The only problem with that is it tends to be so warm and comfortable, I end up struggling to stay awake!
Fiber Sales - I'm developing a sweater pattern (knitting) that I'd like volunteers to test out. If there are any interested parties, or any interest in creating a fiber arts club - I'd very much love to hear from you!
I'm toying around with a few other ideas but for now I need to stick to my outline so I don't get overwhelmed!
I hope that, for those of you dwelling on a project, you get the courage to 'get your feet wet'!
~Ms. Dom