Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jeff Raymond, Chief Operations and Technology Officer of Eden Grow Systems, located in White Salmon, WA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

We started Eden to provide sustainable food and energy independence to local communities around the world, and one day, off it. We believe that food and energy independence leads to happier and more fulfilling lives for humankind. We want to enable that through the selective use of technology. We serve anyone who cares about food. We want to make the growing of food as easy and accessible as possible so that people do not have to depend on others for their food security.

Tell us about yourself

I'm a senior leader who thrives with opportunities to build and lead diverse cross-functional teams and take on new and complex challenges to pioneer results that make the world a better place. I have over 23 years of experience leading, managing, developing, motivating, & training teams. I've been with Eden for three years as the COO/CTO. I have nine years of commercial aviation program management experience across the product development lifecycle. I served five-and-a-half years with the USAF, where I helped develop space-based systems. And I have three-and-a-half years in customer service and sales.

I decided to leave my primary career path in order to pursue the work we do at Eden full time due to the world's instability and ever-growing food security challenges. I started off doing basic research into the area of food and energy sustainability over ten years ago as a passion project. I then took a few years while I was working full time to design a system that produced enough energy to grow the food needed for a family of four. My wife and I then took three more years and self-funded the development of a commercial-scale prototype that we called Hab 1. We documented this journey on our YouTube channel www.therealmartian.com. This gained us exposure to larger organizations, including Bart Womack, who eventually became my business partner. I now wake up each day and oversee a growing team of professionals who are passionate about what we do. Everyone one of us faces a challenging learning curve, as startup life demands maximum flexibility and effort.

Our company is founded based on our Christian principles. We believe that helping people grow their own food and have their own source of energy will lead to a better world. It's completely fulfilling to wake up each day and work on something so meaningful, both for others and for ourselves.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Each day is an accomplishment...as a startup, simply being is a victory. Paying the bills, making payroll, and getting the work done. That said, I think the thing that we are most proud of is the delivery to our first customer. This customer was a local church who are using the towers to help teach STEM to a young men's group, which is hugely gratifying, but in addition, the young men group is planning to take the tower to a local retirement home to bring fresh food and activities to those in the facility. It's amazingly rewarding to see our ideas and hard work move into the community to help in such positive ways.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

In any business, the most important resource is the people. In a startup, this is especially true; thus, the most difficult thing about being a startup is making payroll. The stress of ensuring that we can put money in the pockets of our team members so that they, in turn, can put food on the tables of their families. I love our team like they were my extended family, and that stress is the most difficult thing to deal with. To say the least, we pray a lot, and so far, the man upstairs has seen fit to answer those prayers!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Be flexible, have faith, build a team. If you are starting a business in today's world, you need to be highly flexible. Be prepared to do it all and to react to being pulled or directed in multiple directions at one time. New regulations, supply chain issues, weather events, funding, pandemics, etc., etc...anything that can happen probably will...so be flexible and then line up the issues and knock them down, one at a time... that's all we can do. Have faith and a positive attitude that things will work out. I've experienced the negativity that the stress of startup life can provide, and ultimately it becomes toxic to you and to your team. Instead, have faith and keep a positive attitude. Have a person you can turn to, so you can vent, and then come back in and keep fighting. Understand that the romantic idea of building a business by yourself is simply that...an idea. It can't be done in today's world. You need a team; you need partners.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Before I took the leap into startup life, I did my homework...reading books about it, understanding what it takes, and most importantly, what you can expect. I came in with eyes wide open to the challenges, and so far, I can say that most of those books are right about the experience of startup life. It is hard! and it's getting harder. But with persistence, patience, partnerships, and faith...you can do it. Don't be afraid to fail...failure is the greatest teacher.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.edengrowsystems.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edengrowsystems/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edengrowsystems/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eden_grow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eden-grow-systems/

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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