How Max makes over $100,000 selling vegetables other people grow. 

Illinois Elohainu I like that format

That's inspiring. Everyone take notes from Belgium!

how are orders colected? email? social media? website? phone? I'm curious because I make pre-built online stores for local businesses, including farmers here in Ukraine. Looking for abroad farmers' experience

We do this in Toronto, Canada but the concept is fairly new here. A lot of companies actually deliver directly to your home here. Its great!

I agree. Thinking the same thing

Hey, thanks for the comment. The roller conveyer is a great idea. It might not be clear from the video, but there is space on the table to slide the box along, and set it down as you move down the line, serving a similar purpose. We can't slide the boxes all the way down, because packers are frequently passing each other on the line, so they have to move their box off the table and around other packers, in order to get to an item they need further down the line. The setup we have for that table is very cheap -- plastic sawhorses with 2x2s accross, and old wax produce boxes on top of that! We are just about ready to form out the money for thin sheet of plywood to go over the studs, making it easier to slide the box along. I'm not exactly sure what you are suggesting for the product locations, but starting next week we are going to make signs for each box that have the printed name of the item exactly as it is named on the packing list, and any other useful info, like target size, approx number of fruits in a LB, etc. It's going to make finding the right item even faster, especially for new workers. Thanks for the suggestions, it's really helpful to hear other ideas.

High volume accurate picking is done by using Pick to Light Modules/Systems. Which are basically networked small displays with a couple buttons. The way it works, each product location and product are inducted into specific locations in real time. Usually done by scanning barcodes on the product (or a premade barcode products list) and then the location barcode. This marries the specific product to a specific location on the line. The line is completely dynamic and flexible. Once all products are inducted or located on the pick line, the orders are queued for picking. The computer will determine the fastest and most accurate method based on orders, products, shipping requirements, employees, box size... any criteria you can imagine. There are even wristbands that identify who does the picking in real time. Complete accountability. An employee starts the line with an empty box with a predetermined order number, just like your system. They walk down the line and if a light is ON above a specific location they read the display and pick that number of items or pounds etc... and then they hit a button to tell the computer pick complete. Next light goes ON, pick, push button and pick complete. When the employee reaches the end of the line the box is shipped. These systems are extremely expensive because the work is completed quickly without any human error. This is how the big's do it. A man I knew Patented such a system years ago. A Brilliant man! It wouldn't be practical to purchase such a system for your operation, but some of the concepts might be useful. I'm a techy and use to do this type of stuff before a bank stepped on my neck and destroyed my 21 year old business. Now I'm a Vegan, found health, learned aquaponics and about our toxic world. I want to grow veg for a living. I'm in NE Wisconsin.

Sounds like a fascinating setup, although our scale and budget demand a lower tech solution, as you mentioned. Curious to see what elements of that system could be adopted into a low tech setup. Food for thought...

I suppose you could also automate that process using bots *cheers*

Yes, but you have to want to do this. It's a retail store/customer service job, very different than farming which is what many people aspire to do.

From watching the video, and personal experience I'd say that produce is picked 48-24 or less hours before delivery. Greens should be picked early in the day and rinsed/soaked in cool water ASAP to take the field heat off of the greens. Spin and bag.

It's one part of his total farm enterprise. He also sells to restaurants and farmers markets. And he is doing more than $100k in sales on the webstore.

We are closer to 150 K in sales, and this is not our only enterprise. We also run a 1-acre market garden. It bears mentioning that a huge hidden value in this farm+store model combined is that we are not just making money selling other people's produce -- we have created a market for our own produce. I might be making 25% when I sell produce bought in, but when I sell produce that I grew on our farm, I am making that 25% PLUS making money "selling" my own product to my own store. We can sell as much if not more through the store in a week as we can at our weekend farmers market, basically doubling our farm sales. It's the synergy of the two that makes this such a great model for us. That being said, it certainly is able to make money without growing anything at all.

It averages out. Maybe a little over on tomatoes, a little under on squash.

The fact that the bins are sealed and kept out of the sun keeps them very fresh. It's difficult on 100+ degree days here in CA, but that is why we pack in the late afternoon / evening, and then get them delivered first thing in the morning.

We actually just started adding a stop number to the label last week! Even better, we found a way to create and sort our label report based on data from the route software, and put them in the correct order from the beginning, so now no manual sorting of bins within the route is necessary. We are continually refining little aspects like this to make the process flow better, and this was a good one.

www.ojaifarmstand.com/consulting.html

farmigo

@@youssefselkani thanks

As someone who has worked farms, it's probably off by an Oz or two. Depends on the apple and season

Hi Jamie, I currently use Farmigo, but have used Small Farm Central, and dabbled with shopify too. Nothing works perfectly -- I have to tweak all of them in spreadsheets to do what I want, as well as using route software externally.

Check out grazecart.com

My Route Online is the program

You are assuming that the stops are spread out, far apart, and the delivery day takes a very long time. If that was the case you are correct, but it's far from correct if the delivery time is short, which it actually is. The way he explained it to me was that one of his drivers does the route when she takes her daughter to school and brings her home, so she is driving in a direction she is already driving in anyway and ends up making a pretty good hourly wage since the delivery time and route are short and condensed.

I saw the part where he mentioned that driver, I agree, it seems to work well for her schedule. I don't think schedule always=fair value/compensation. The fact she's delivering those boxes in her own vehicle while running children to school seems to imply she is definitely not taking on all 104 boxes herself, and therefore making a (small) portion of that $300/wk? She may be "happy" paying for her commute, with the route for instance. He mentioned the bottleneck right now seems to be the drivers and their vehicle space/delivery capability. So it's safe to assume they are splitting that $300ish/wk, whether it be 50/50 or 25/75, regardless it isn't enough to even maintain their vehicles and pay as legitimate WORK, & isn't "right" imho. If they're doing it for work that is, and not as a way to pay for a commute they have to do anyways ect. In this case, I guess it may work out for this mother who like you said will already be driving that route twice a day for her children's schooling. I'd be really interested in seeing exactly how concentrated the routes are, I know with software like he mentioned it can get pretty efficient, but I've seen first hand the margins and costs these delivery companies work under and it isn't sustainable in most areas at that low of a price point. In the end, I'm not against the delivery, I think it's great and a valuable service to offer and even more so, to be offered. But to boast about how you've afforded extra cost into the delivery charge for extra totes ect. when you can't even, or aren't, paying a fair wage for the value your drivers are providing you is not cool. This all changes when you hire your drivers, and provide the vehicle, fuel, compensation, ect and realize the TRUE cost of delivery. Maybe consider charging your customers the TRUE value of the service you are providing them. If any customer doesn't want to pay the cost, politely remind them they're laziness costs $, and people's time, gas, tires, oil, ect does as well :) Sorry for the rant, loving the youtube content and podcasts! The math and morality of this particular bit rubbed me the wrong way is all.

The delivery model we have is working great, and the drivers are grateful for the job. I certainly am not ripping them off -- the lady mentioned above makes 30+ per hour AFTER deducting 50 cents per mile to cover vehicle expenses. This is not anybody's sole employment -- it works great for a mom, or younger kid who wants to work 2-3 hours a week and make some money. That's all it is, and there are certainly people out there who like that. If we bought a delivery vehicle, we would not use it enough to justify the expense. There very well could reach a point where that is the best thing for us, and hire a full time driver etc. But we are very far away from that now, and the reason I love the model we are using it that is provides a very flexible option to scale in between me personally using my truck to deliver (that worked great when we had only 30-50 stops), and buying a vehicle and hiring someone. There's a huge space in the middle, and this model fills the gap nicely. For weeks my drivers can't make it, I have back up drivers that fill their place. I am the driver of last resort, and the bins always get delivered. We are 100% consistent in our delivery record. We also give drivers anything they want from the store AT COST, so for a mom with 3 kids who wants to buy them healthy fresh food, she is able to make money while taking her kids in the car with her, AND save big money on her grocery bill by getting around 40% off her produce. We also give them a 50% discount at our weekend market booth, so all-in-all, they are getting a great value. We use our software to generate the most efficient route possible for them, and provide them with an app that loads them in the correct order, and brings up the GPS on their phone to find their way there. We stack the bins they need to deliver in the right order for them to just grab them and go, so we don't waste any of their time, and the whole thing gets done very efficiently.

Swifty FPV 50 deliveries in one day for $3/each is $150, sounds like a pretty good gig to me

TaylorMade - You bring up some important points we all need to consider. However, it sounds like Max Becher has put lot of thought into this, and is providing good value for his drivers. For many small and start-up farms and market gardeners, that 'gap' where the work is too much for one person, or that person and their family, to do - but the business is not yet big enough to hire someone... this is a brilliant idea! That gap is a huge obstacle for many small producers.

It kinda sounds close to a coop. Some farmers do form coops. I've seen farmers market stalls and farms that are coop

You wouldn't want plane cardboard. Waxed cardboard is better. However, you can't stack quite as high with those, and it sounds like over all it's only a bit more expensive for the plastic. I would rather use those plastic, I've used the waxed ones. He talked a little about that.

Have you ever worked on a farm? (It could take a lot of time and frustration to get squash and tomatoes to be exact on the weight. Really it averages out. It's not dishonest, it was probably off by an Oz or two . Trust me it isn't laziness) Waxed boxes are okay, I've used them, and honestly these totes look like a great idea, especially since he wants to pack high with them.

Honestly, I don't know. Between the video and the podcast you can get a lot of the basics.

I understand the logic. Problem is if you don't make a profit of some kind, if you have a loss on that product for some reason, then you lose the profit on your money makers. Most business owners can not stomach this. Truth is, in business you know that now is the only time you have. You don't have tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Stuff happens.

It makes sense. I would think as long as he is atleast breaking even on the meat, bringing in new customers, and selling more vegetables it would be worth keeping the meat. Maybe an increase on the delivery cost could help profit on the meat? Meat would take a bit more care and preparation and probably a cooler to deliver in as well.

We didn't get into this is the video, but the real problem with the meat was delivery logistics. If we had been making a great margin, I might have been more motivated to stick with it, but when I realized we were making almost no money, and it was so much extra work, I just dropped it, and our life got WAY easier. I was initially very excited about offering meat, because this farm is 100% grass fed and pasture raised, and I thought customers would love it. I thought it would be a great diversification of our offerings. Very few customers ordered it though, and we offered it for about 2-3 months before ending it. We are thinking about starting to sell meat again, but only once every month or two, and only in packs of 10 lbs or more, and customers will be required to pick up. Meat delivery is a whole different game than produce. There's more liability, and you have to keep it frozen. We had to pack it separately from the rest of the order, which created tons of room for error. We asked customers to put coolers on their porches to receive the meat, but they repeatedly forgot. We could have invested in insulated packaging, but we would have needed to require a minimum order to justify the cost. The decision to cut it out for the time being was just to focus on what was really working for us, and really paying, while we still build and perfect the whole model. I'd love to do it again, but only once we've tackled other problems first. And it certainly was not getting us any new customers! I actually lost a couple customers who were vegans, and were very offended that I started selling meat. That is certainly not why I stopped, but it was not bringing new people in!

Thank you for the clarification. I hope you got the vegans back. Picking up meat at your place makes so much sense.

Max Becher thanks for joining the conversation! It's not often I get a reply from the actual farmer, I sincerely appreciate the reply. The explanation of why you dropped it makes sense and I figured it was logistically heavy, especially since you're off grid. I think you've got the right idea to only offer larger quantities and once a month. Will the meat producer deliver to your location to reduce travel time?

Farmigo.

On the delivery side of the business, but from listening to the podcast Diego did with him this is just a part-time enterprise. He's also farming his own stuff, selling at a farmer's market, etc.

Correct, this is only one piece of his overall farm business. And he is grossing more than $100k.

Diego is right, this is only one leg of our business, and we gross closer to 150 than 100.

@@maxbecher4864 Congrats Max! 😄👏👏

@@BeeryByTheBay Yes, and he also gets to eat all the local produce he could ever want :)

90% + of our lettuces, greens, herbs and other highly perishable items are picked the morning of the day we pack, or the day before. We sometimes pick lettuces earlier in the week, but they are crisp as can be in our coolbot trailer, and customers rave about them constantly. They last all week after they get them. If the customers love it, that's good enough for me! Our stuff in certainly delivered in better condition than a lot of produce sold at Farmers Markets that has been sitting in the open air for a while to wilt. Our product goes straight from the harvest box into the customers' box, and never sits out exposed to sun and air.

I drive a truck cross country from California to Florida delivering everything from fruits to vegetables they sit in a cold storage then loaded on my truck then 4 days later unloaded at the receiver and then they ship it out to the stores where it sits again for however long till they sale it

No where in the video did I see or hear they sit for a week.

Thats why they probably put it under a cover porch when possible. Also, eggs don't need to be refrigerated. And there are other items in there to help cool, plus a white lid and a carton....

@@erincarr9411 I know that eggs do not need refrigeration but when u put them under the sun or in a hot environment you are calling for trouble...so that is a no no... For safety eggs must be kept in a cool environment and away from heat sources...aka sun, stove, etc. even when they are in a carton.