Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jason Freeman, Founder of Farmer Direct Organic, located in Regina, SK, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Our company sells certified organic pantry staples to retailers and food service companies that are traceable back to the family farm and tested for pesticides, which include chickpeas, lentils, split peas, beans, and hemp.
Tell us about yourself
Our industrial food system is destroying the planet and our health. I cured myself of significant health issues by changing my diet to organic whole foods. That's how I got into the industry, through healing myself.
Our society is incredibly unhealthy, with chronic disease rates skyrocketing to epidemic levels combined with soil and ecosystem degradation from extractive systems. It doesn't have to be this way. The application of regenerative systems completely cures this. That's what motivates me each and every day.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
To my knowledge, we are the largest supplier of Regenerative Organic Certified grains worldwide.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The capital requirements are massive, especially in the agriculture industry. Raising and managing cash is always challenging, especially when the market is so volatile as it has been in the past few years with COVID.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Try to get experience in the industry you want to enter. It's always better to learn on someone else's budget.
- Know your market and your COGS and, therefore, your margins. You can work backward from the retail or wholesale price your potential competitors are offering to determine what your margins will be. You have to know your margins. Even if they fluctuate, you need to keep on top of what your gross profit margin is. If you don't understand your margins, you don't understand your cash flow, and you don't understand your breakeven point, you don't understand your business.
- LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCT. DO NOT LET OTHER PEOPLE EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATE YOU INTO MAKING BUSINESS DECISIONS THAT YOU DO NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH. AT THE SAME TIME, UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU ARE BEING PETTY AND EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE AND ARE IN THE WAY OF THE PROPER BUSINESS DECISION. Sorry for the caps, but that's really the biggest one.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://fdorganic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FarmerDirectOrganic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farmerdirectorganic/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-freeman-508950129/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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