After working 5 years in IT software services. I decided it was time for a change. I no longer felt connected with that branch, the way it treats its employees and its customers. I wanted to change my occupation and do something with sustainability on organic farming (Green Revolution) . But I didn’t know what exactly. So, I decided to begin with change my network. Because I strongly believe in: It’s not what you know, but who you know. That choice eventually led me to start a mushroom farm based on open source principles in the beginning of 2020.
Change your network
Urban farming is bigger than you might think. It is practiced by over 800 million people. According to my personal experience, most modern urban farmers and also the urban mushroom farmers, where not trained as farmers. Some had well-paying, but not satisfying jobs, at big companies. But most where basically not trained to be farmers. Their education teached them nothing on how to grow crops or produce food.
So how do you make that career jump to become a mushroom farmer? You start by changing your network. When I decided to quit my occupation in the IT software services, I had over 300 contacts on my LinkedIn profile. Over 500 of them connected me to a branch I wanted to leave behind. So, I took on a broad range of volunteer work and board positions within networks and foundations related to the business I wanted to move towards.
Bounce your idea
I believe creation in all parts of life, so also for business concepts, goes in three stages. First you are inspired and think about an idea. Then after that idea has matured in your head for some time, you might tell a friend about your idea, that is the second stage. Then the last part is to manifest your idea in the physical world by acting on it, for example to write a business plan or to have someone make a logo. Think, speak, act. I think that too much ideas stay in someone’s head either indefinitely or to long. Weather it’s doubt, insecurity, shame or any other reason that keeps you from speaking out, GET OVER IT. Share your thoughts, talk about your ideas.
A quote that is commonly attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt says: “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
There are many reasons to speak more about your ideas, matching this quote to become a great mind is not one of them. When you share your thoughts and your ideas, you are already two thirds on the way of creating it, making it happen. The sooner you start sharing, the sooner you will realize your project and maybe will find yourself a team member or two.
Team
And that brings me to the next item on the list on how to start your own mushroom farm. When I was working to create my dream of building a business model out of collecting coffee grounds from the city center and turning it into mushrooms, the place I was located in attracted a lot of people from my network and beyond. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We run the company with the two of us, but I have seen groups of up to three founders. Why is this important? Not only is it on tremendous added value to be able to bounce ideas, but investors, generally, tend to support companies which are run by a team than those who run solo. Having a good team is a great way of sharing responsibilities in different areas of your company. For example, a team with skills in mushroom cultivation, marketing & communication, sales and someone with some graphic design skills are of great benefit for start ups.
Start small
It might be tempting to start big, but I recommend you resist that urge. Most successful farmers I know, started small. By starting small you also eliminate a lot of risk involved with having a big agricultural company. Your production, marketing, financial, human resource management plus your legal and environmental risks are all at the lowest level. How great is it be able to learn and grow in an environment that is not riddled with the tension that comes with high investments and loans?
Location
Next up is to find a location for your farm. We get a lot of questions on what is cost to start a mushroom business and that depends to a large extend if you own the land that you want to start to grow mushrooms and if there are any structures on this land. It’s simple, all the money you are spending on rent, you are not earning. It will be big advantage if you own some land. When using a basement, you need to be sure you have access to fresh air to ventilate your growing units. If you do not own any of these, we recommend that you invest in something that keeps its value over time. Something that is modular and mobile. In our experience the container is the ideal candidate for that. You also need to take your relative location to your market and your raw materials into consideration. Lohaghat chose to be an urban mushroom farm. We grow mushrooms on a substrate of wheat straw that we collect in the city. Next to that we are delivering mushrooms to restaurants and we host workshops and tours on our farm.
Knowledge
Although I strongly believe in: It’s not what you know, but who you know, you need some basic understanding of the mushroom cultivation process. You will need to know how spores influence the health of the people who are interacting with the mushrooms. How to prepare your substrate and what kind of ingredients you should use. What the local legal requirements and regulations are. How to respond to contamination with green mold, bacterial infections or fungus gnats. When we started there where hardly any trainings aimed at small scale urban mushroom projects. That’s why we decided to started sharing the stuff we learned. Some for a fee and some for free.
Market
When you have decided what type of mushroom farm you want to be, you also know who your main target audience is. This is a great moment for your co-founder to step in and show sales and marketing capabilities. We distinguish 5 types of mushroom farms. Each has a specific earning model.. For us in the Uttarakhand , I find it easier to sell to local restaurants than to supermarkets with branches all over the State. The buyers that work for those supermarket chains and the intermediaries that operate between farmer and supermarket are always trying to get a better deal. Margins remain low in these kinds of environments where a lot of parties need to earn a living. Having a lot of small customers also makes you resistant to shocks.
Mushroom species
It is time to make a decision on what species of mushroom you are going to grow. The species you choose need to meet up with some requirements. We expect a growing demand for these mushroom species.
Cultivation method
When you have decided on a mushroom species, it’s time to look at the different cultivation methods. But these logs need an outside environment, they prefer shady areas and need to be partially buried. We could not provide that in our swimming pool, so we abandoned this cultivation method. In traditional agriculture, oyster mushrooms are grown on straw. We picked coffee grounds instead. The yield tends to be lower when you grow on coffee, because of more contamination with green mold, but we like the idea that we get paid to collect it. This way we can afford the loss in yield. Typically, there are three remaining options for making a container to put your substrate in.
Benefit society and the planet
Allow yourself to be led by the interest of this one planet we are living on. Don’t copy and paste a cultivation method from across the globe put check what is locally available. Don’t import substrate bags when you can make them yourself with some research on YouTube. Look into ways of giving your spend substrate a destination that benefits the soil. Educate your local community about the benefits of eating less meat and show how mushrooms can fit that lifestyle. Create employment and give your employees the room to develop their skills and the freedom to discover how you can make your mushroom farm more profitable by eliminating the waste you find in every production environment. Don’t forget to innovate so you can grow your business organically and help other mushroom farmers apply your insights.