Farmer Tip: How To Use Live Sales To Scale Your Farm

Chris Lukenbill is now the Director of Software at Bright Agrotech, but he started as a farmer. He learned the needs and pains of farming on a local farm called Fresh With Edge.

Like any farmer, Chris had to get strategic to grow his sales and expand his farm.

Chris’greatest advantage as a local farmer was his ability to use live sales to stand out from the crowd.

Fresh With Edge was an aquaponic and hydroponic ZipGrow farm in Rochester, Minnesota. Chris started out with no farming experience and borrowed some greenhouse space as a side job. He built an aquaponic system with 60 ZipGrow Towers.

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At first, Chrissold just to farmers markets. Then, he expanded both his farm and his markets and dove into direct sales. Over time he got introductions to chefs. To do all that, he knew he needed to stand out. His solution was the live sales model.

“I had live sales at the farmers market – people harvest their own food. That brought in a lot of new people that were already buying their produce from somebody else.”

Standing out is especially important for new farmers to establish themselves. They don’t have the reputation yet to inspire loyalty purchases. If they produce the same thing as everybody else, their sales will suffer.

“When you start out as a new grower -especially at a farmers market – you’re replacing somebody else’s product. You have to find a way to make a connection with people. And that’s what I used live sales for.”

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(Learn more about live sales here.)

Live sales created doors into new markets; it allowed Chris to connect with chefs and local food co-ops.

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The second year, he expanded into those markets, built his own greenhouse, and hired a few farm hands to help out. (At the time he was still full time working for the Mayo Clinic.)

The third year Chris expanded his farm to 300 ZipGrow Towers (he started with 60), started a CSA, and added a few more restaurants.

Eventually, the lessons he learned through Fresh With Edge motivated Chris to quit the Mayo Clinic and partner with Bright Agrotech to create a comprehensive farm planning network.

After all: who better to build a farm solution than a farmer?

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Now Chris works with his software team to empower small farmers.

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