*Enthusiasm* and *reality* tend to be estranged from each other when it comes to the mushroom business. Being a decent *grower* and being decent in *business* exist on different continents.
The reality is that most small businesses fail, and myco-businesses are no exception. Every week there's a flood of people who are submitting posts to the sales/trading subs, trying to get their business off the ground. Just as many people are quitting in that same window of time because it didn't work out for them.
Growers fail because they're high in motivation, but low in knowledge about business ops. They jump right in and throw things at the wall based on what they're seeing in the marketplace, hoping that something sticks. They should be identifying market niches and local demand, developing a solid business plan, and learning how to operate quantitatively. Sometimes it works out and they make it through, or at least they manage to keep their head above water long enough to learn the ropes. Most of the time it doesn't work out and they burn through a lot of capital trying to make the leaky ship stay afloat. There's little difference between this and other sectors.
Running a legit business is *hard work*. The people who talk about it being 'easy/simple' have a survivorship bias, are being casual/small scale with it, or they're outright lying/misrepresenting their effort and success. It takes some doing to finally meet your ROI, and most people don't even account for their labor costs when they first start out.
The advice is the same for any business: business plan, market niche, demand, customer acquisition, marketing, continuing sales, QA/QC, scaling, etc. Once someone gets large enough to hire employees there are a host of other issues at play. Start with learning about business ops first.
I work on a farm that produces maybe 300 lbs of mushrooms a week, mostly oysters. The owner has put TONS of time and money into scaling up the operation. He works like a dog and has 1 PT and 1 FT employee.
He told me he worked half as much and made slightly more money working solo out of his basement.
Scaling is tricky. There are a ton of costs that go into daily operation that simply aren’t even a concern for most successful homegrowers.
I looked really closely at this about 15 years ago on the gourmet side. If you have a good source of material like logs, sawdust, horse poop, grains, you probably can make it work as a great side hustle or possibly full time depending on expectations. The restaurant and farmers market is viable on the side but it’s tough to make that full time. Grocery stores need huge volumes that small time growers probably can’t feasibly meet. If actives were legal they probably wouldn’t be a great market either. They are so insanely easy to grow at huge volumes, have such a short shelf life, and vary so widely with potency I think at-home grow kits will be what most people want. I’ve seen garbage bags of them going to the compost because they are basically useless. They are also not going to become something people just do on a Thursday night like alcohol so the demand will always be limited.
I had never eaten Lions Mane until I bought some from a local vendor at a farmers market. I bought about two servings for $10 and thought it was a good deal. I now realize what a tiny percent of a single yield that was for $10. I think this could be a great side hustle for markets like that one. That guy has turned into a full time business. Fun Guy John is the name, for reference.
I believe it all depends on the scale you wish to reach.
A "full-time job" could also mean very different income ranges for lots of people.
A single person with a home lab, for example, could turn this hobby into a side hustle but one person alone may have trouble turning the hobby into a full blown life-supporting job.
It also depends greatly on what you are selling. Actives? Totally different story. Gourmets? Quite a bit of work to go through to reach a decent enough scale to reach a steady production for solid income.
Me, personally, foresee mycology being an ample part of my income in the future. It's the only work that resonates with my humanity.
There *are* small mushroom growers who make a living doing it, but it's definitely not easy. I'd recommend reading business advice and books marketed towards 'market gardeners'. The term is used for small farmers usually on 5 acres or less, sometimes much less. A lot of the financial/business advice is applicable to small mushroom operations, since there is some overlap with small vegetablr operations.
Don’t see why not
*Enthusiasm* and *reality* tend to be estranged from each other when it comes to the mushroom business. Being a decent *grower* and being decent in *business* exist on different continents. The reality is that most small businesses fail, and myco-businesses are no exception. Every week there's a flood of people who are submitting posts to the sales/trading subs, trying to get their business off the ground. Just as many people are quitting in that same window of time because it didn't work out for them. Growers fail because they're high in motivation, but low in knowledge about business ops. They jump right in and throw things at the wall based on what they're seeing in the marketplace, hoping that something sticks. They should be identifying market niches and local demand, developing a solid business plan, and learning how to operate quantitatively. Sometimes it works out and they make it through, or at least they manage to keep their head above water long enough to learn the ropes. Most of the time it doesn't work out and they burn through a lot of capital trying to make the leaky ship stay afloat. There's little difference between this and other sectors. Running a legit business is *hard work*. The people who talk about it being 'easy/simple' have a survivorship bias, are being casual/small scale with it, or they're outright lying/misrepresenting their effort and success. It takes some doing to finally meet your ROI, and most people don't even account for their labor costs when they first start out. The advice is the same for any business: business plan, market niche, demand, customer acquisition, marketing, continuing sales, QA/QC, scaling, etc. Once someone gets large enough to hire employees there are a host of other issues at play. Start with learning about business ops first.
I work on a farm that produces maybe 300 lbs of mushrooms a week, mostly oysters. The owner has put TONS of time and money into scaling up the operation. He works like a dog and has 1 PT and 1 FT employee. He told me he worked half as much and made slightly more money working solo out of his basement. Scaling is tricky. There are a ton of costs that go into daily operation that simply aren’t even a concern for most successful homegrowers.
I looked really closely at this about 15 years ago on the gourmet side. If you have a good source of material like logs, sawdust, horse poop, grains, you probably can make it work as a great side hustle or possibly full time depending on expectations. The restaurant and farmers market is viable on the side but it’s tough to make that full time. Grocery stores need huge volumes that small time growers probably can’t feasibly meet. If actives were legal they probably wouldn’t be a great market either. They are so insanely easy to grow at huge volumes, have such a short shelf life, and vary so widely with potency I think at-home grow kits will be what most people want. I’ve seen garbage bags of them going to the compost because they are basically useless. They are also not going to become something people just do on a Thursday night like alcohol so the demand will always be limited.
I had never eaten Lions Mane until I bought some from a local vendor at a farmers market. I bought about two servings for $10 and thought it was a good deal. I now realize what a tiny percent of a single yield that was for $10. I think this could be a great side hustle for markets like that one. That guy has turned into a full time business. Fun Guy John is the name, for reference.
Check us out at Blue Thumb Farms LLC. On FB
Maybe a few years ago when market price was good but nowadays it’s a bit tough. You’ll have to grow 2-3x more for the same money.
I believe it all depends on the scale you wish to reach. A "full-time job" could also mean very different income ranges for lots of people. A single person with a home lab, for example, could turn this hobby into a side hustle but one person alone may have trouble turning the hobby into a full blown life-supporting job. It also depends greatly on what you are selling. Actives? Totally different story. Gourmets? Quite a bit of work to go through to reach a decent enough scale to reach a steady production for solid income. Me, personally, foresee mycology being an ample part of my income in the future. It's the only work that resonates with my humanity.
There *are* small mushroom growers who make a living doing it, but it's definitely not easy. I'd recommend reading business advice and books marketed towards 'market gardeners'. The term is used for small farmers usually on 5 acres or less, sometimes much less. A lot of the financial/business advice is applicable to small mushroom operations, since there is some overlap with small vegetablr operations.