2019: A Year In Review

WOAH, THIS WAS A FREAKING YEAR YA’LL! IT’S THAT TIME WHEN I SIT DOWN TO REVIEW MY PAST YEAR AND START TO PLAN THE NEXT AND, BECAUSE WE’RE AN OPEN BOOK AROUND HERE, I THOUGHT I’D LET YOU IN ON A FEW OF MY SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF 2019.

Success #1: Business Growth

So this one landed on my list in 2018 as well and for good reason — In 2018 we attended 121 farmers markets and doubled our sales from 2017. Now we didn’t double our sales this year but we did, with 6 days left in the year, hit our stretch sales goal for the year… nothing like waiting until the last moment! Now the exciting part for me is, this year we saw a great level of growth but here’s the key: we did it while attending significantly less farmers markets. Cue crazy, happy-farmer dance because there’s no way we could have sustained the number of markets we did in 2018. Now as much as I’d like to pretend that sales figures don’t matter because it takes away from the romance of farming, the bottom line here is that farming is incredibly difficult and on smaller scales in BC, it’s typically not financially sustainable. So it’s important for me, if we want to continue the good work we’re trying to do, to also focus on becoming financially secure as a business otherwise we’ll join the growing stats on small scale farmers going out of business.

Failure #1: Not Outsourcing Our Books

Yup, I literally just hired a bookkeeper for the first time ever… let’s file that under massive failure. It was ok when farming wasn’t the runaway train it became but let’s just say our new bookkeeper is working like a crazy lady to get everything caught up for me for 2019 because there’s just no way I can handle all the paperwork associated with Central Park Farms while still farming, attending markets, and doing everything else I’m responsible for around here. It might be an expense I’d much rather not have but for the sake of my sanity and to allow me to focus on what I do best on the farm it’s time to embrace a bookkeeper.

Success #2: Investing In Myself

In 2019, I put more focus on investing in myself so I could get equipped with more skills to grow both personally and professionally. I’d say for 2019 the learning opportunity that had the greatest impact for me was my trip to California to join a group of female farmers to learn all things business from the insanely talented Mary of Five Marys. I’m pretty excited to have my trip booked for February to head to Palm Springs to join Mary and some of my M5 sisters for a little workshop reunion. Aside from my trip to Five Marys, I also did monthly online business coaching with Rachel Hollis that covered everything from social media to finance.

Failure #2: Cancelling Our Events

Ok so I’m really not sure if I should even be considering this a failure but in 2019, following a very significant cardiac issue that led me to a 6 day hospital stay, I was left with no other choice but to cancel all our 2019 long table dinners and on farm events. Part of me sees this as a business failure because I felt like I was letting people down, but the other part feels a little proud of myself for making a very tough call and prioritizing my health. Our concern at the time was I’d have another issue down the road and have to cancel close to an event when it was too late to recover any of the associated costs. As Jay put it, without me leading the crew on these larger scale events, it just doesn’t work. Plus cards on the table, we don’t make money on our events, at least not enough to make it worth all the effort. And, when you take into account that we don’t have staff to run our markets on the event weekends, it’s pretty safe to say we actually lose money on them when you take into account lost market sales. That said they’ve always been something I’ve greatly enjoyed as a means to bring together our community and celebrate local food. Will we be back to hosting events in 2020? At this point, it’s really tough to say.

Success #3: Opening The Teeny Tiny Farm Gate Shop

Truth time, I absolutely thought I would be opening an on farm store in 2016… to the point that I started building it. Or, more correctly I started to demo the area I thought was the future home of the shop waaaaaay back in February 2016 but then farming got in the way and I never did get it built. So the fact that I opened the Teeny Tiny Farm Gate Shop in early 2019 absolutely gets a place on my list of successes this year. Looking back, I’m so glad I didn’t finish that store in 2016 because the new set up works so much better for our farm. The fact that we can work on picking orders, washing eggs, prepping for markers, and pricing meat between customers while the store is open means we don’t have to stress if it’s a slower day with customers because we’re still getting all our work done. Extra bonus, no expensive stall fees like at market, no gas for the generator, no drive, no big pack up and set up… just turning on the light, opening the gate, and welcoming customers. Shout out to all our farm gate shop customers, we so appreciate that you take the time to come out to the farm to do your shopping. It’s a game changer for our farm and allows us to continue to feed our community.

Now there’s a million more failures and a few more successes I could share but I make a habit of leaving my yearly review blog post on a high note. If you want to hop in the old time machine, check out our 2018 review and see what’s changed for us here on the farm.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart for your support this year! If you’ve shopped with us once, shared one of our posts on your social media, referred us to a friend, or if we’re lucky enough to call you a regular customer, you are all part of our farm-ily and all play a part in helping us continue this journey.

Thank you for choosing our family to help feed yours. It’s something I don’t take lightly.

Kendall ~ Boss Chick at Central Park Farms