Our very own Tim Flood just started his own website called What’s Up Daddio and here is his first article. I look forward to cross posting many more. Visit his site and follow his journey.
I have two major goals in 2016:
- Turn my backyard into a food production machine.
I’m well on my way to accomplishing this goal. I’ve got raised garden beds, a keyhole garden bed, rain harvesting swales, beehives, started strawberries and blackberries. The garlic will be ready to harvest soon. I’ve got the rest of the seeds ready to go as soon as we’re past the frost window. Plus, I’ve learned to make homemade yogurt, mead (honey wine), ferment vegetables, make bone broth, and learning to make wine from fruit. So, I think I’m well on my way to having a functioning homestead.
- Begin to supplement my income with a side business, with a plan to replace my primary income entirely.
I make pretty good money in the construction industry. I’m a Project Superintendent, which means I’m the guy that makes the jobsite run. It’s not quite six figures, but it’s well above the national average. According to Social Security, The national average wage index for 2014 is $46,481.52. ssa.gov. I make more than that. And I just got a end-of-project bonus that was pretty decent. So, the issue is not the amount of money I make.
I like my job, for the most part, even if I’m not “passionate” about it. Construction can be a fun industry. I like the aspect of being out on a project, and solving the problems as they arise, moving from one trade to the next to determine who needs to be where and when. The company I work for is fairly large within the State of Texas, with offices located all over the state. The particular branch I’m located in focuses primarily on big box warehouses. Which become boring to build after just a couple of them. And, I’m well beyond the point where I think that big boxes are a “good” project to be assigned to. But I’ve had numerous talks with the company executives about moving to different type of work, serving different markets. One exec even told me that if I’d hang on, his goal is one “sexy” project in five years. So, it’s not that I dislike my company, or even the work I do. On the whole, I rather enjoy it.
I guess my biggest peeve about what I do for a living is the time I put in. I leave the house at 6:30 AM, arrive at a jobsite by 7:00 AM, and work until 5:00 or 5:30 most nights. As I write this post, it’s 5:45 PM. And then I battle city traffic to get home, which takes 45 minutes to an hour. And I do this 5 and 6 days a week. And, if there’s a concrete pour to attend to, I may leave the house at 11 PM, or midnight, or 1 AM. So, I think it’s fair to say that I am away from my homestead, the place I want to be the most, 60-70 hours per week. I cannot envision doing this for the next 20 years.
Another reason to make changes to my income stream is purely financial. I’ve been a construction professional for about 20 years now. I have basically the same thing now as when I entered the industry fresh out of college. I make just enough to get by and very little to do anything extra with, including invest. Now, a fair portion of this is my fault. I know I have not been smart about our money management. I have not been the leader in our household I am supposed to be, when it comes to managing finances. Lots of the blame falls squarely on my shoulders. But, let’s face it, the game is rigged against us, the rank-and-file W2 earner. We don’t live extravagant lifestyles. I drive a paid-for 1999 Dodge pick-up truck. My wife drives a 2010 paid-for mini-van. We take our vacations to exotic places like Oklahoma and Six Flags. We’re not talking about Beemers and trips to Paris.
So, while I readily admit that I have not been the best manager I could have been with the money I’ve earned, I’ve also come to the conclusion that the system is stacked against us. Real wages haven’t risen, but inflation has risen. I think the abundance of homes where both parents work is symptomatic of this trend.
Also, I think it’s foolhardy to have all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak. All of my income rests solely on the success of this one construction company. Granted, they’ve been successful for many years. But to assume that they’re going to continue to be successful, forever, is a prime example of normalcy bias. “Things were ok yesterday, so things will be ok tomorrow, too.” I think it pays to look ahead. It’s better to have a 2nd income before you need it, rather than need it, and not have started.
To summarize: I want my time back. For the amount of time I spend away from my home, and not being able to devote time to the people, places, and things that are important to me, I’d be better off to take less compensation for a 40 hour per week job, closer to my home, and gain the time to devote to things that are important to me. I don’t love money. In fact, if I were a bachelor, I could easily get by on a tuppence. But I’m not a bachelor. I’m a happily married guy of over 20 years, with three great kids. None of them understand the ideas I’m proposing to you, the reader. My wife, as much as I love her, doesn’t understand the idea that I’m running in a hamster wheel for “The Man.” So, I’ve got to take matters into my own hands and devote some calories to creating something outside of my primary income. And therein lies the problem.
I’ve got lots of different ideas about “what” to do. Some of the idea I’ve already implemented. It’s a lot like the shotgun approach. With the amount of energy I am devoting to creating a working homestead, I don’t need a shotgun. I need a laser. Something that I can focus on, a little every day, and make progress. Right now, I’ve got so many ideas in my head rattling around, I’m paralyzed and end up not doing anything.
To that end, I think it’d be wise to evaluate each of these business ideas by a consistent set of metrics, and figure out which idea to devote the most time to. I think of a simple 0-5 numerical scale, with 0 representing the least desirable state and 5 representing the most desirable state. So, for instance, if I rate “Passion” at a 5, I am intensely passionate about that idea. If I rate “Passion” at a 0, I am totally cold to that particular idea. With that in mind, here are the categories I will include in my evaluation:
- Passion: Passion is the zeal, or the heart with which you are interested in something. I don’t think that passion should be the end-all/be-all of every business idea. I had a friend once told me about a lamp business he had. He would buy the components for the lamps from China, assemble the lamps here in the US, in his warehouse, and the sell them. He said he made money, hand over fist. Now, he didn’t say this specifically, but I have a hard time believing that this friend was passionate about Chinese made lamp components. Nevertheless, he made beau coup money selling lamps. But I do think that passion should be a large component of what we choose to do with our lives.
- Ease of Transition: How easy will it be for me to make a transition from full-time in construction (again 60-70 hours a week, as noted above) to full-time in a small business. In other words, I can’t just quit Plan A to start a dream of Plan B. I need something that I can work part-time until Plan B ramps up enough to quit Plan A. So, for instance one of my ideas is to start a podcast and monetize it. That would have a high degree of transition. I can record the podcast in my truck on the way to work, edit and upload it at night. Another idea is to start a small concrete company, picking up some small concrete jobs here and there around the city I live in. That has a very low degree of transition. It’s hard to get out and meet people and shake hands and search for jobs to bid, when I’m at work when all the other construction people are also at work.
- Income potential: How realistic is it that I can replace my current income? For conversation’s sake, let’s assume that my target income for a small business is $100,000 per year. I recognize that the taxes are not going to be exactly the same between a small business owner and a W2 employee, but 100 grand is my target number.
- Passive Income Potential: ANY potential income from a small business puts it in the category of being better than my full time job. If I can create an information product of some kind for sale on the internet, and let’s say that it makes $200 per month. Not a huge mount in sales. But the product is for sale, forever. So that’s $200 per month, every month for as long as the internet runs. And the more of these little income streams you can build, the more pressure that takes off you.
- Startup Capital Required: I don’t have a lot of money to throw at a business endeavor. And, again, because my wife and I are not necessarily in lockstep on the importance of starting our own business, I can’t just ask her for thousands of dollars to start an endeavor. She just won’t get it. I do have a little money squirreled away, but I need to focus on an idea that I can put my blood, sweat, and tears into, rather than a pile of money, at least up front.
There may be more factors which a business idea can be evaluated. In fact, I’m sure there are. Right now, though, these are the most important criteria to me. In future posts, I’m going to brainstorm and evaluate all the ideas I have through these filters. Also, I’ll include a summary of each of the business ideas and maybe some pros/cons or just some thoughts on each plan.
This blog, then, is going to document my journey from where I am right now, through the journey of where I want to be.
Hopefully, you’ll take the trip with me.
Good article and noble pursuit. I 100% encourage backyard chickens and a big garden, and have done so myself for 30 years. With a family of five, you will save thousands on your food bill and eat far better than buying from the stores.
However, making a living….not so much. At various times over the past 30 years, I’ve gotten the bug. To try and find dollars in the backyard and IMO, it is a fools errand.
There are some, maybe $10-12,000 if you really work at it, but obviously not a living wage.
Whatever net worth we have built up comes from rental property. Buying fixing and KEEPING duplexes up to about twenty units. With your skill set, the buying , fix up,and financial side is going to be easy. Dealing with the BS of tenants, evictions, only time will tell.
Buy them right, don’t over pay, insure properly against liability, put them on 15 year mortgages, and set your watch, as you will have many millions in 180 months. Do the gardening on the side.
Tim, congrats visited the site to comment but wanted to add a few here.
1) By producing your own food you reduce your your cost outlay. If you get really good at it- including long term storage; drying, freezing, fermenting, etc. you build up a larder against the future. If you get really good at it it can generate an income stream, even if small, it’s adding rather than subtracting from your budget.
2) The more you eat healthy, home produced foods in season, the fewer health issues, reducing health care costs.
3) the more your wife and you work in concert on something the more efficient and productive you become. Win-win for the two of you, excellent example for the children about what a successful marriage is all about.
4) You have a skill set that very few people have- construction management is a great money maker if you sub it out to, say homeowners. Side work can earn you additional income. If I can recommend a much needed and scant offered subset of the trades, become an expert on solar thermal systems. Lots of companies install them, almost no one maintains or trouble shoots them and in your region that’s a huge number of potential customers.
5) Become an energy producer. You live in a sunny region that generates a lot of energy, find a way to cash in on that while cutting your payments to utilities.
6) Focus on a crop you like and are good at that brings nice return- like garlic. $10 a pound for one of the easiest to grow crops out there that reproduces at a 10:1 rate is a good start.
You’re going to do great, I really wish you and your family the very best.
This sounds like something I would have written about 6 years ago. As J says, you will not make a living wage doing this. It’s just not realistic given the time you can put in or the scale. I have bees, chickens and several garden areas in which to rotate every basic crop we want on our dinner table. I also have large strawberry, blueberry and raspberry patches along with 4 diff kinds of apple trees. You should anticipate that you will learn by failures. And every year brings new failures. Enjoy both the rewards and the failures and expect only that you can teach your kids life lessons and self sufficiency while eating unbelievably fresh food.
I always encourage young people to find a hobby that pays.Doing something you enjoy & getting paid to do it….Is A Winning Plan….Having A Side income steam, even 200 dollars per month, is vital to staying in the middle class..I’ve given up on getting rich..Mike in Ct
As J, and others have commented, the folks I know that have tried to do this have to continue to work to make enough money. I only know of one person that isn’t retired (with monthly income) that was able to quit their day job entirely to micro-farm. But it’s because they started a successful micro-brewery and they make good money doing that now.
Clearly food prices are an expense that continues to go up and up. So finding ways to reduce this expense or potentially nearly eliminate it is a great thing. Next decade when the US’s largest phosphorous mine begins to hit the end of its shelf life, industrial farming is going to be in big trouble. Industrial food production is already seeing diminised returns with massive needs for petro-intakes, water issues, and utter desertification of the soil. Without massive amounts of phosphorous the dead soil is not going to do much without strong roots, so at bare minimum food prices will be going up big time next decade. So I see homesteading as a hedge against an expense that is a need not a want. As a gardener for a long time, every few years I see why so many people used to worship weather gods or the sun, b/c sometimes the weather just wrecks a lot of hard work. One mid summer day of heavy hail alone can do some serious damage. Interesting article, connecting with nature definitely makes you feel alive vs. the sterile drywall and pod life so many people endure–or even seek out.
Ditto what J, above, said. This is a well-written piece, very readable and your mindset is head-on, fully facing the facts. You will succeed at this as you already have the most important part covered – the analysis of where you are, how you got there, who’s with or against you and why, and keeping one foot in the existing career rather than plunging into a passionate but unprofitable change for change’s sake. The responsibility of 3 kids tends to do that.
That said, a quick analysis of your situation and constraints as laid out in your piece leads straight to your own construction business of some type. It hits most the constraints you mention, ease of transition, low start-up capital, income potential and – I’m guessing here – passion. There is no passive income potential until you hit the level of being comfortable with your employees working on your jobs without your immediate supervision, if ever. Nor does self-employment shorten your workweek. So, as Meatloaf sez, in fractional form, 4 outta 6 ain’t bad.
Construction also lends itself to home repair and home repair will go on when new construction isn’t. Establishing a minimum charge (like plumbing cos. do) and charging an hourly rate that the homeowner pays on site with a credit card, a smart phone and Square ensures payment and cash flow.
Other elements of construction that could be standalone businesses or parts of a whole:
Fencing
Concrete pouring you already mentioned
Roofing – One crew of Mexicans = one house/day but to keep the crew busy requires advertising
Pole barn construction – not just hay barn types but adaptable to commercial codes
Storage units – If you are in or near a large town building your own storage unit would use your expertise in construction AND provide an ongoing business with significant recurring cash flow. Drawback is the cost of acquiring land and construction. If your town would handle it – and you have to get that answer right – it’s the only way I can think of to reach the 100K within your construction experience on a recurring basis. The mortgage is the hurdle but you can’t get there from here without one.
Here’s another idea and it’s one I’m looking at myself. Like J said above, making money in the backyard is not easy. I have some land that’s a 30-min drive from my residence that I’ve tried to turn into an organic money fountain but so far I haven’t been able to change the direction of the fountain to OUT instead of IN. My body isn’t as forgiving as it once was so I am looking to reduce the amount of bendover work and physical work in general while remaining within my passion of growing good, healthy food. Just getting on and off a tractor several times a day becomes exhausting.
Freight Farms is the name of the outfit that has taken the ubiquitous 40-foot insulated shipping container (320 sq/ft) and turned it into an automated hydroponic farm-in-a-box. If you are not in a subdivision and your yard is big enough to set a container these things are turnkey units that you set off with a crane and plant the first crop the same day. Harvest in 8 weeks roughly 500 heads of lettuce/week. Labor = 15-20 hrs/wk. Initial cost is high (there’s that mortgage again!) but these things are generating over $1000 per week. This is a transitional opportunity for you seeing as how you could still work your full-time job while getting this up and running. Harvest day is the one day that is full time because of the harvest and delivery. If your wife and kids participate you could add a significant chunk of income to the household fairly painlessly. The software that runs the unit can be accessed from your smart phone so you can determine and control temperature, light level, etc. from wherever you are. There is a camera, too, that is remotely accessible. These insulated units are designed for 24/7/365, winter and summer.
Just putting this out here because you mentioned your interest in growing. I’m going to Boston April 1st to take the introductory tour and also tour some units that are in production now. I’ve shied away from hydroponics over the years for various reasons until I found this Freight Farms concept. In my opinion, the two guys that founded Freight Farms have covered all the bases and developed a turnkey approach that is nearly foolproof – just add customers!
Best of luck with your search and I’m sure you will find something beneficial for you and your family.
http://www.freightfarms.com/
Who is Tim Flood??
@ Stuck –
I’ve been a long time reader of TBP, but rarely post. I’ve never been a Big Dog, nor do I aspire to be one. I found admin’s site when I first started to explore the nature of our crisis back in 2008. I’ve been a daily reader for 7 years now. Only occasionally do I comment, as I find I have more to learn by listening (that is to say, reading) that by speaking. (That is to say, typing)
I’ve been around since AWD and the fat girls, Smokey and the barbed-wore fence, He should have ducked, etc. Sometimes, when I’ve had too much to drink late at night, I’ll post on a thread if it’s related to penis jokes.
I’ve written a couple of pieces about my transition to Dallas/Ft. Worth, including one on how I discovered, upon a hamburger and brew dinner, that my younger brother was a communist. You, specifically, commented on that one, as your sister is a libtard and you wondered how our siblings got so fucked up, when we’re so level headed and smart.
Also, if you’ll remember, I told you I have a book I was going to send you. A book I found at a thrift store; It is a tour guide book of Austria in 1963. I still have that book with the intention of sending it to you. I know you’re pending a move, so I haven’t asked for your snail mail address yet.
Tim…I remember that….don’t know why, but I do. Good luck on your upcoming efforts, I can relate to how you feel. I know that what I do won’t be around forever, but it’s funding my life now – I can attest to the difficulties of growing your own food. At first, and I still have not mastered it, it was frustrating because by the time I figured out the issue/problem – its too late to grow/replant.
But, I will say this. Don’t wait for ‘the big harvest’ as many plants need you to pick as the days go by. Even if you aren’t going to eat it, pick it – like green beans. Second, don’t wait for your stuff to look like the stuff at the grocery store – at least here it doesn’t.
Good luck, have fun.
Tim, great article, with a lot of useful information. I’m going to be the downer guy here. Not to discourage you, but to get your thinking more focused on the reality you face. First, you have a good job. Don’t fuck it up. You work long hours. Guess what, that’s what men do. You provide for your family, that is the most important thing in your existence. Don’t lose sight of that. Ever. Second, if the woman isn’t on board, anything you try is doomed. Spend as much time as you need preparing her head for the changes you want to make, before you commit
The backyard food thing is a great starter project. Keep a log of money spent, hours worked, and of your yields. You will probably be shocked at how feeble your returns are, but you are a problem solving guy, so it’s a perfect opportunity to wrap your head around how do you make this work. Llpoh wrote something some months back that stuck with me, make sure any business you consider can be economically viable, most aren’t, when you project numbers forward. Forget passion, that’s for women. Find something you can make good money at, and you’ll get plenty interested in the nuts and bolts of it quickly.
Plan B will never ramp up enough to step off plan A seamlessly. Remember, plan B can only grow by how much time and energy you throw into it, and you’re already working 60 hours plus raising a family. So there is always going to be the leap into the unknown at some point. Start becoming hyper vigilant at managing your money now. The skills you develop will be critical when you take the leap.
And tim, aren’t you the resident zeppelin guy here?
As a participant in, and survivor of the 60s and 70s back-to-the land movement I have a few comments. My wife and I gave up the pursuit of professional careers for the freedom to live in rural poverty.
We found a way to relative prosperity, but it was not easy and it took several years. What kept us going was the dread of having to dress up and go someplace where someone else would tell us what to do for the next eight hours. We actually managed to fulfill our childhood dreams of being artists, dreams that were early on discouraged by well-meaning parents.
Transitioning from a regular paycheck to running your own business at a profit will take a lot of time unless you get really lucky or fall into a big contract to get you started. Most of the people we knew who moved to the country eventually left to find work elsewhere. Some were able to find local jobs and only a very few started successful businesses doing what they enjoyed. You can earn some side income from farming/agriculture on small acreage, but not a living. I once attended a ginseng growers conference and one of the speakers was a buyer of medicinal roots and herbs. Dried ginseng root sells for $500 to $1000/pound, depending on the Asian markets. Not as high as primo cannabis, but legal unless you are digging in a National Forest or someone’s private plot. The buyer closed his talk with this advice: “Don’t give up your day job”.
Try to find a niche market which takes advantages of your own particular skills and interests. One of my friends ran a successful auto repair business, specializing in older vehicles. He took his father’s advice to get into repair work. His father told him that even during the Great Depression of the 1920s, a man with a tool box could always find work.
Tim
Ahhhhhhh!!!! THAT Tim!!! Yes, indeed, I do remember all our interactions. I just didn’t know your last name. Thanks for the great response.
If you want to send that book (I would love it, for sure), here’s my address; Nick K. 2125 Meadowview Road, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
I quick scanned your article. I was out all morning with my dad, and the rest of the day and weekend are jam packed with shit to do; birthdays, 3 house showings, gotta go to the police station in a few minutes cuz Ms Freud had identity theft … AGAIN!!. Anyway, not a lot of time to read or comment. But, I wish you much success with your website. Your article looks terrific, and most informative.
Be well.
I hope Stuckfuk doesn’t send me a bomb!!!!
It’s Stukfuk. I think that’s your very own BW although Stukfuk is not funny at all.
Hey Stuck, I found a gay porn magazine starring the Austrian Arnold’s chorizo that I would like to send you.
Stuck
Thanks for the info. We’ll be over later to question you about stukfuk’s formal complaint about your micro-aggression upon his character.
@ starfcker:
I don’t know about being TBP’s resident Zepplin guy. But, I can tell you, I hold Led Zepplin in pretty high esteem.
Stucky:
Ah, good. Because I just wrote a zeppelin article, gotta pretty it up and I’ll send it to Jim next week
Tim ,I’m so glad I was able to have such a profound influence on you .At first I thought you were a real mommy boy who was pussy whipped to the core.I’m glad you took my advice and threw off those yokes of oppression. Now you’re all grown up. My,My how time flies.
Tim, I recall your comments. Sounds like you’ve got a pretty solid plan. The most difficult part will be getting the wife (most difficult) and kids (less difficult if they’re still young) transitioned. Implementing and maintaining a few new ideas each year will likely bring them around. It should bring you closer together, make you healthier, perhaps wealthier and as the empire continues its long slow grind towards its inevitable fate, more self sufficient. Your construction background makes you a jack of a trades and is a perfect match for your future plans.
Post your progress and quandaries here. Many threads end up going off the rails but the comments can be like gold in many respects.
I must have missed the post about your communist brother so if you have a link handy I’d like to read it.
I’d would say best of luck to you but I don’t believe in luck…………so just get on with it!
What do you believe in, Infected? Ah, yes, death, glorious death.
If you had bothered to read Tim’s comments before, he said he left El Paso because you can’t grow shit in a city built around a mountain. Unless you want to grow rocks. Most farming occurred in the upper valley towards Mesilla, NM and in the lower valley where the American Canal, a man-made river, took water from the Rio Grande on the west side of town all the way to San Elizario. Elephant Butte dam killed all that. The Rio Grande used to be a mighty river known on the south side as the Rio Bravo. Even as late as the 60’s, the levee was a lush green with small trees, reeds and Californian burr.
@ I-S:
Here’s the link to my post about my dinner conversation with my little brother.
“Hey Stuck, I found a gay porn magazine starring the Austrian Arnold’s chorizo that I would like to send you.” ———— Dis Nigga
I’d love to see that. You have my address.
Thanks Tim. I did read that.
Looking forward to hearing about your new adventure.
Tim
I too plan to dip into pool of farming. I hope to document as well on a blog. I have no illusions about how much money i can make.Oddly enough I work in construction too. I am a rebar detailer. It is something I can do from my home and I hope will go hand in hand with transition in my lifestyle. I was looking around today at property.
At 170 acres I know it isn’t large by modern standards. But there is good land to grow food and a river running thru it. I hope that doom apocalypse doesn’t come but if it does it will be nice to know that I can feed my family rather than counting on a truck bringing food from 1000’s of miles away. Anyways good luck.
rob in nova scotia
When the SHTF I’m going to have to decide which TBP farmer to freeload on. Decisions, decisions. 🙂
Take turns maybe? Rob? Hardscrabble? Me? Whomever? I’m sure you can find us all without any problem?
In any case, I’m also sure everyone here will roll out the red carpet for ya’.
Just let us know when you’re ready to bug out.
The world is yours, Admin, my friend…
Stucky says: “Hey Stuck, I found a gay porn magazine starring the Austrian Arnold’s chorizo that I would like to send you.” ———— Dis Nigga I’d love to see that. You have my address.
Eh, why bother sending porn thru the mail? Just follow this link:
further to what Unaccountable said. Admin door will always be open.