Your roadmap to €1.000.000 in yearly sales growing microgreens
If you would like to know what it takes to get to €1.000.000 in yearly sales growing microgreens then this email is for you. Our microgreens business hit €1.000.000 revenue every year, the last 3 years now. Besides our own farm, we have helped 3 other microgreens businesses scale above the €100.000 per year mark. After getting here and being consistent for a couple of years, we have identified 3 levels to get to 1 million. We choose to focus on our businesses until we succeeded before starting to consult other businesses and that has made all the difference.
- €10.000 yearly sales
- €100.000 yearly sales
- €1.000.000 yearly sales
During this email we will go into each level and what it takes to go through every step, so you can identify where you are and what it takes for you to get to the next level.
When we began our journey we watched people on youtube clear $100.000 per year growing microgreens, so we started watching more videos with microgreens and we got really excited, it looked super simple and easy to get started with little equipment. If they could do it in their basement, we could begin growing in our living room. We thought wow! It would be so cool to create our own farm and create a business like that! It took us only 2 years to do that and even surpass their business. Now almost 7 years after we started watching microgreens videos on youtube, we are having our own farm and have grown our operation to over 50 employees.
Keep in mind that when you go up a level, your profitability will go down since there will be more expenses that you have to manage in order to keep being profitable, the level of difficulty will also increase as you get bigger and the stakes become higher.
Keep in mind that costs can be measured in more ways than in money. There is also the cost of time and effort it takes to make something work. Time is your most valuable resource, since you can never get it back, therefore measuring costs is also an important aspect in the time you “invest” in the learning process. If you see it as a hobby like we did, then the time will be well spent, learning the process little by little, because it is something to enjoy.
When it comes to building a company then we have to be real about being able to generate profits, since the world we live in demands us to be able to pay our bills.
Level 1. Growing microgreens as a side hustle
Skills needed: Microgreens growing, sales
Time needed to operate per week: 1-2 hours daily (30 min daily growing, 1 full day of selling)
Time needed to setup your growspace: 2 hours per growkit you setup
Capital needed to invest: €1000-€4000
The first step is to get started from home, here you have almost no expenses. Quitting your job at this level is not a good idea. Here you want to learn as much as possible about the growing, how to minimize mold issues, contamination, make as many mistakes as possible and learn from them. The first 2-3 months will go with this if you are completely new to it. After you successfully grow your first trays and the quality is consistent you should be ready to go out and find your customers. Farmers markets, retail stores, people you know etc. can be a great place to go and get your first customers.
With a small setup of 120x60x200cm you should be able to generate your first €10.000 in sales the first year. At this level you have no rent and minimum utilities to pay for, so your profit margin is about 50% at this level. This is a great way to enter the market, because you will learn who your main customers are and what prices you will be able to sell your products at. At this level you can grow and sell how you like, because your customers will come and go and not be dependent on you.
Completing level 1 getting your first €10.000 in sales will take you between 5-12 months depending on how fast you want to grow into a business and your willingness to invest your own capital.
Just for your comparison we did €35.000 in sales the first 12 months of our operation.
Level 2. Growing microgreens as a full time income
Time needed to operate per week: 8-12 hours daily (3-4 hours daily making trays, 1 hour administration, 2-3 full days delivering)
Time needed to set up grow space: If you build a growroom in a commercial facility while operating your business and taking care of your regular job, it takes on average 3 months to get this finished from when you get the keys to you can begin growing in your new facility.
Skills needed: delivery planning, planning growth cycles and delivery routes, communication, marketing, social media, accounting, knowledge of regulations, business administration, construction of a regulated indoor growth facility, economic projections, minimizing distractions and keeping your focus.
Capital needed to invest: €10.000-€100.000 depending on quality of equipment, levels of automation, how professional you want it to be, the size of your indoor facility and how fast you want to grow your business.
We saved up our profits from operating in level 1 and saved the profits without putting in additional capital. If you are willing to invest your personal savings you will grow faster but will also need to invest more money. If you don't have the money to spend you will need to invest your time into building up your profits before you are able to move to level 2.
Going from microgreens as a side hustle at €10.000 per year into €100.000 per year requires much more time invested from your side, here you will likely have to find a smaller warehouse to rent to be able to grow the products needed to scale 10x from the small setup in your home. If you are lucky and you have the space available yourself, your profitability goes significantly up because you don't have expenses of paying rent at this level either. It will be necessary from your side to go fully into your business as a full time income from this point. I would advise you to build your growroom first while still having your regular job. As soon as your facility is finished then you are ready to quit your normal job and go full time into the business.
At this level you will have a much better idea about your market size, who your customers will be and how much competition you will have in your market.
The size of your facility in level 2 can be as little as 30 m2 but you can also go all in and go for 300-500m2 which can make you ready for level 3 in the same facility without needing to further expand or move. This decision is dependent on the market potential and if you want to go in smaller or bigger steps. The bigger you build your facility, the longer you will be able to grow without needing to move again. There can be advantages to building bigger or smaller facilities but it depends on your market, your time horizon and how much you are willing to risk and invest in both time and money.
Completing level 2 getting to your first €100.000 in sales will take you between 18-30 months after learning how to grow a consistent product and getting your first customer. Your speed is depending on how fast you choose to go full time, how big your market potential is, how fast you will be able to build your facility and acquire customers and if you do it alone or with partners involved.
Our 2. year we generated around €160.000 in revenue for your comparison. This was around the time when the pandemic hit, but with the proper strategies we steered clear of this and survived through the hard times.
Level 3. Growing microgreens for commercials success building an organization
Time needed to operate per week: 10-12 hours daily 5-6 days (depending on how fast you want to grow your business) until your people and standard operational procedures, training of staff are set up correctly.
Time needed to setup grow space: 3-6 month of construction while you are still operating at level 2
Skills needed: Organizational structure, managing employees, training employees, working with wholesalers, negotiating, legal frameworks with bigger customers, structuring procedures, automating procedures, quality control, branding your business on a national scale.
Capital needed to invest:€150.000-€500.000 depending on levels of automation, quality of equipment and size of your facility.
Going from level 2 to level 3 is going to be very difficult, but the rewards will also be amazing, if you are able to complete this level. You will be able to structure your business in a way where you are able to “get out of the equation” and let your business operate without you. Not only will you have more encounters with competitors at this level, you will also need to create the proper strategy for going national with your branding, your procedures in training employees, minimizing mistakes in quality control, learning how to work with bigger clients and maintaining good relationships to ensure long term growth of your organization.
At this level there can only be a few winners in each country, at some point the market will be saturated with efficient companies growing microgreens who have mastered this level. The time it took us to achieve this was 5 years of dedicated hard work, but if you build your business with the proper strategy and are able to stay competitive, it is possible for you to become a leader in your market.
For your comparison we achieved this in a market with 6.5 million people, but keep in mind that all markets are different. Your market can be bigger or smaller but anything is possible with the right mentality, strategy and work ethic.
I hope you have a better understanding of what it takes to build your microgreens business, and what steps you need to take in order to build your business with a profitable foundation. This is a simplified version, because we can go much deeper into each level, however now you have a better idea about what it takes to go from simply growing in a smaller setup into creating an entire organization.
If you are experiencing challenges in your business and need our help with expanding then let´s have a chat and discuss the possibilities of working together. We have chosen to partner with only a few companies in each country. If you have gone through our 3 step consultation process, we are very open to considering a partnership where we can help you expand your portfolio with other products like mushrooms, edible flowers, strawberries, salads and herbs.
You can find more information about our consultation models if you go here: https://nordichydro.com/collections/mentorship
