Ep. 416 - The ONLINE STORE launches in TWO WEEKS

In today's episode, you'll learn what we're doing with the online store, what we wished we'd have done differently, and how we're going to incorporate some of those changes in the future.  

Join Rob has he provides the backstory to the online store at York Meadow Farm - and what is going on behind the scenes to prepare for the launch of the online store in two weeks.  

Be sure to sign up for the newsletter for updates on the online store and stay tuned for future episodes on how All Around Growth Podcast listeners will receive exclusive savings as well!  

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Connect with York Meadow Farm on social media! 

• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/yorkmeadowfarm
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/yorkmeadowfarm
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/yorkmeadowfarm
• Telegram Channel - https://t.me/yorkmeadowfarm
• Flote - https://flote.app/user/yorkmeadowfarm
• Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1315009008651464
  • It's small...but it's there!

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Discussion Links:

York Meadow Farm: Lacto-Fermented Foods
Rich in probiotics, our fermented foods are also paleo and keto friendly. Eat a proper human diet.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

If we stand together, we'll never fall. We can make a difference. And answer the call.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Well, hi there and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser and I am your host. Today is Wednesday, September 7th, 2022. And this is episode number 416 of a show that provides insight and tools to build the life and homestead of your dreams. The title of today's show is The Online Store Launches in Two Weeks. And that's right, we're going to talk about the online store, and I'm going to share with you what we are doing and the buildup to it as we launch the store. So here is a little bit of background. Now, for those of you who don't know, I left my day job in earlier this year in April and did some side work in actually, I guess I left in May, uh mid-May. I did some side work for a couple of weeks and officially started full-time here on the farm, primarily working with my dad in the commercial kitchen, scaling up this the fermented foods operation. And I started doing that in June. For the first few months, June, July, and August, I was really just learning the ropes, learning the recipes, learning, uh were working with him rather to actively scale up because it in June we had one five-gallon bucket in production, which is roughly about 30-35 pounds of sauerkraut. And uh the last time we did a complete inventory, we have 25 of them or rough of roughly uh half a ton of fermented vegetables in production. So we have been actively scaling up over the past few months in preparation for not only the online store, but a new market, a new farmer's market that we will be attending uh later in the season, and I will be talking about that in another dedicated episode. So stay tuned for that. But with regard to the online store, this has been something that we've actually had in the works for quite some time. Um I experimented with this years ago, but since I wasn't really working full time and uh wasn't working on the farm full time, I you know, I wasn't as motivated as I am now to get that online store up and running. So that has changed, and the online store has been we've been talking about it for months, and I've been working on it for a couple of months, getting all the products lined up, getting all of the product descriptions lined up, and I've been hinting about it in our email newsletter for a couple of months as well, especially over the last month. And in addition to the email newsletter, I've taken to writing, or basically taking the email newsletter, putting it in a blog post, trying to increase our blog activity and um created events online to promote the online store and really just engaging more with social media to to get and promote this. Okay, so we have a we did a monthly, we do a monthly newsletter that goes out generally around the beginning of the month. Uh I've been able to stay on top of that more since working full-time here. And this is the first time that we will be sending additional emails besides the monthly newsletter update. For example, today we are sending an email titled The Online Store Launches in Two Weeks, and it's just a simple email. We are operating through MailChimp and we are running the online store through Squarespace. I don't believe either of those platforms are optimal, but it is what I began using here on the farm and homestead because that is what I got the day job set up with years ago when I was, I think I began utilizing MailChimp and Squarespace to build out the website at the day job in 2017. That was around the same time that I began building out our website for the farm and homestead. And for the long game, what we are going to do is operate through WordPress. I've tried to do so myself, but the reality is I perform better as a content creator writing articles, doing podcasts like this, and interfacing with the front end while someone helps manage the back end. In the past, I've tried to do it all because I thought I should, but the reality is that I just didn't do a very good job managing it, and all of those WordPress endeavors never really came to fruition. So luckily, my brother has expressed some interest in that. He's begun doing some work on his own, building his own sites, and over time we will be transitioning to a WordPress-based site, which will likely coincide with some rebranding things that are going on here and some discussion about that. But in the interim, we are starting with what we have and not making any excuses for things that we wish we could have done differently, things that we wish we could do better, because we are actively working towards that, but we are not letting that prevent us from getting started now. So, why did we choose the first day of autumn as the the day to launch the online store? Well, the the simple reason is I work better with a deadline. And the first day of autumn seems like uh uh a day that that that that that stands out, a day that most people remember, you know, uh a day of significance, a seasonal transition. And it's also a day that is several weeks before the end of the traditional farmers market season, and that's going to give us a few weeks to talk to customers about the online store that is actively operating as the farmers markets come to a close. And that will especially be nice since the second farmer's market we will be attending on the last day of this month and the two first weeks in October before the closure of that season is up towards the big city. And customers up there, I'm sure, will appreciate the fact that they will have the ability to obtain our product as easy, well, quite frankly, more easily than they can at the farmer's market because there's an online store which gives them the opportunity to have the product delivered to their door. Okay. So what we are doing is to promote to further promote and to incentivize people to promote for us. We're we're giving people an offer that we'll announce next week that's going to be 20% off. But right now, I've kind of included some uh some images. I'll share these in the telegram group. I will also share them in the show notes, and I will link to the newsletter in the show notes, and I will also link to the blog post which I will be creating uh shortly that uh after recording this episode before getting to work in the kitchen today. I will link to that in the show notes as well so you can see the images that I am talking about today. But it's a very brief email, big savings. Wow, online shop coming soon, and then two weeks from total recall. I don't know if you remember that image, two weeks. How long will you be staying on Mars? Two weeks. Um, anyways, um I hope that some of you get that reference out there. But basically, the email just says the grand opening of our online stores in two weeks. That's right, on the first day of autumn, Thursday, September 22nd, 2022, our online store will be open for business. Email subscribers get a special discount. We're offering a special discount for our subscribers and would encourage you to share the offer for savings with your friends and family. Share the online launch on social media, tag us in your post. Encourage everyone to subscribe to our newsletter for the discount. And um let me update that as I speak. We will be announcing the big discount in next week's email. Okay, I've got to change that or something, modify that somehow. But basically, two weeks from now, online store launches. One week from now, I'll launch another, send another email indicating what discount people will receive. Give people another week to sign up for the newsletter, and newsletter subscribers only will be receiving the special discount. And as we launch the online store, we will then encourage people to sign up for the newsletter in order to receive the special discount. So, email subscribers now will get it, and that will hopefully incentivize people to sign up for the newsletter, which is ultimately going to help us build the business down the road for various reasons that uh I won't get into now, but reasons that I think you know are uh pretty self-explanatory. As you build a business, you want to have an email list. This is one way that we are looking at doing exactly that. So, guys, it's a short episode for today. Um got a lot of work in store. Uh, we might not get into the new market tomorrow, in tomorrow's episode, because later today we will be breaking down uh a used high tunnel, Cody and I. And it looks like we've got weather on our side for that. So the uh batteries are charging. I've actually gotta need to swap out a couple other batteries because we are leaving at one o'clock to do that. Hopefully, I'll uh that goes smoothly. I'll be taking a lot of pictures of that today, but we will be talking about that tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. What the use of that will be, what we'll be doing with that here on the farm, and um, yeah, what Cody will be using that for in future seasons. So that's it for today, guys. Thank you for tuning in to today's show. I look forward to catching you in tomorrow's episode. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you.