Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sadie Craig, owner of Craig Family Naturals, located in Bellflower, MO, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Our business is regenerative farming. Were we build life back into the soil and, in return produces nutrient-dense, clean meats for Missouri families! Our goal is to make finding clean, healthy meats for Missouri families easy and convenient. Readers should support our farm and other farmers like us that are using regenerative practices to preserve and build back the land to what it was before commercial farming practices began.
Tell us about yourself
Josh is a third-generation farmer Who grew up on a conventional commercial farming operation and started his own cattle operation at age 23. I was raised in the city and was a city girl when I met him and has since then fully adopted the rural lifestyle. Josh and I were the first to question the conventional farming practices we were doing with our own cattle after seeing a functional medicine doctor while trying to get pregnant with our first daughter Hadley.
After learning how important are nutrition was, I quickly realized how hard it was to find clean, healthy local meat to purchase! So we decided to start raising our own meat and really got into homesteading. We bought 20 meat chickens and butchered them ourselves and really adopted a self-sustainable lifestyle. After telling everyone what we were doing, we quickly saw the need and demand for that kind of meat production. We then started moving our cattle into a more holistic grass-fed program. We really dove into learning about soil life, holistic grazing, and raising healthier animals without the drugs! Building a life and being good stewards of our land God blessed us with is our driver each day and producing families with meat we are proud to feed our own family. We will never ever raise something we wouldn't feed out our girls!
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
The biggest accomplishment for our farm was when our cattle started making us money vs. costing us money; switching to holistic management practices and learning about soil life has made us able to produce way more forage, so we were able to increase our stocking rate (more cattle) and graze year around. That was our biggest cost cutter because it removed the need for outside feed purchases. We also started direct marketing to consumers instead of commodity marketing.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
One of the hardest things we feel about owning two businesses is balance and knowing when to shut it off. For anyone that has a business knows you n really never "shut it off," we try to be intentional about spending quality time with family, and sometimes that means getting away from the farm to relax. Lol. Another thing we've learned is not to compare your beginning to someone's middle! It's so easy now with social media to start comparing everyone else's career or journey, and we have intentionally remembered that it's ok to be newbies and not have it all; just staying content is key for us.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Make sure you have a passion for whatever you are doing, and it's not just about money because money won't be enough in the hard times!
- Know your strengths and weaknesses and delegate out your weaknesses because the reality is you can't do it all. If you try, you won't be successful at any of it.
- Go against the grain and don't care what other people say; being weird is so much better than being "normal" we are definitely weird farmers in our area when it comes to our practices and farming logic, but we love it, and wouldn't change a thing!
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
We feel the way we are raising our animals is the future. Don't be afraid to get out of your box and try something new even if everyone else is doing it one way and thinks you're crazy; it's ok, just do it anyway! If you are considering holistic cattle management, we would love to share our ideas and what has worked for us with you and have you out to our farm!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: http://www.craigfamilynaturals.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Craigfamilynaturals/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craigfamilynaturals/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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