Build Community and Sell More Microgreens
Never underestimate the power of community. It’s supportive, motivating and will give you an enormous sense of wellbeing and belonging. It’s also great for your business’ bottom line!
Time to start building….
There are two different communities I highly recommend you start to find and be an active part of from Day 1 as a microgreens farmer:
1. Your local food lovers community.
2. The UK’s small-scale commercial microgreens growers community.
My own microgreens business certainly wouldn’t be thriving today, 7 years down the line, without having built and being a part of both of these along the way.
1. Your local food lovers community
This can include: your neighbours, friends and family; chefs, cafe owners, other food business owners, health conscious locals, shop owners, farmers market organisers…I could go on. It’s all the people who live in your local area and love eating and sourcing excellent quality, locally grown food. Sharing what you’re doing from early on in your business will draw these people towards you. You can do this through social media (the most far reaching way), leaflets and word of mouth. You then make connections (virtually and in real life) and then continue to support each other going forwards. It’s a great feeling! And this support can be invaluable, especially when you’re just getting started in this very niche industry. Community support can be anything from just having another food business owner to chat things over with, to people loving what you do and your product so much that they place a regular order with you.
How my community started
Very early on in my business planning I was chatting to one of our cafe owners in Leeds City Centre about my microgreens farm idea I was developing. She insisted I set up an Instagram account for it and said I’d struggle without one. My instant reaction was, “no way!”, Facebook already does my head in and I don’t want another thing on my phone that I have to check and look at all the time! Anyway, she was of course right and Instagram (plus cross-posting everything to Facebook) ended up being instrumental in the building of Nell’s Urban Greens.
Love or hate social media, it’s essentially your Shop Front. It’s a free and very accessible place where you can show off the incredible fresh produce you have to offer, share your story and give people the opportunity to follow along with what you’re doing. And it doesn’t cost a penny! It’s where the majority of my customer base still comes from to this day and it’s where I make the majority of connections with fellow growers, food lovers, and just lovely people who are doing great and interesting things in our local (and global) communities.
Suprisingly, I decided to only supply chefs when I first started out. Surprising as I didn’t know any at all, I was completely new to the industry and I’d never stepped foot in a commercial kitchen before! Anyway, at the time (2017), the independent food scene in Leeds was thriving so I had a hunch that at least a few places might be interested in using my microgreens. I initially contacted places I liked online via email and Instagram and asked if I could drop some samples in. Because I’d already set up my ‘shop front’ on Instagram (obviously a website is your ultimate shop front, but I was starting out and didn’t want to pay for my marketing), I was able to direct any potential customers straight to my social media accounts that I’d already filled with great photos of my microgreens! Being able to see what you do, not just read about it, massively helps potential customers remember you and decide if they want to buy from you.
I’ll also mention that my friend had been supplying lots of cafes around Leeds for years with her incredible vegan bakes at the time so, as I got started, she was able to give me some massively helpful advice as I crept into the unknown (Thanks lots That Old Chestnut!). Again, the community helping out the community.
Anyway, the chefs loved my greens and later down the line, so did the public, and my business continued to grow. Oh and if you’re friendly, grow great quality microgreens and are super reliable, word of mouth then also kind of takes over!
Get out there! Make connections, have lovely chats, and enjoy all the amazing food on offer whilst you’re at it!
So whatever stage of your business you’re at, always find the good people, tell them what you’re doing and start building those connections! People like buying from people, so the more you can get your face, story and microgreens out there, the better. Also share who you’re supplying on social media, that will give them a boost and will also help pique the interest of other potential customers out there, including other chefs, local shops, home customers and wholesale distributors.
Offering a home delivery service massively connects you to people in your local area. And when you start to build community, you might even get featured in your city’s local indie businesses publication :)
2. The UK’s small-scale commercial microgreens growers community.
Finding community in the industry is invaluable. I started planning my own business at the beginning of 2017 and there were two others (that I knew about) who were operating as a teeny-scale microgreens business in the UK. They were great to occasionally message, but other than that, there was nothing online specific to running a microgreens business in the UK and no-one else was sharing their experiences.
Luckily for all of us, times have now changed. I recognised early on that us all coming together would make us so much stronger. And I was desperate to geek out with others who were doing the same thing I was! A tight knit community in our industry would provide motivation for all of us to grow and thrive, as well as being a comfort blanket of support when needed.
That’s why I set up Farm Microgreens UK back at the beginning of 2020. I wanted to chat with others who were doing the same thing I was doing, share experiences and tips and just keep each other going. Fast-forward 4 years and our community continues to grow. If you’re not in there already, I highly recommend joining our ridiculously supportive Facebook Group - Farm Microgreens UK Community and signing up to Micros Weekly - my bang up to date and extremely useful weekly mailout :) They’re both free resources and could be just the inspiration you need to start up and/or conitnue to grow your microgreens business.
Your business will always be stronger being part of the community, as will your feeling of belonging and wellbeing.
If you enjoy the processes of runnning a microgreens farm, feel supported by and connected to a like-minded community AND are making a healthy income doing it…… then, in my opinion, you’ve cracked happiness!
Running your own microgreens farm can give you all this.
