A few weekends ago I was at a grand opening party for a local Sonoma Valley business, T.A.T. Gallery. I ran into friends and acquaintances, enjoyed tasty food, good music, even an amazing magic show. It was lovely to get away from the farm, on such a hot day.

For most of the party I found myself at a table with a couple of vendors from the farmers market. We don’t often get to meet up socially because we are all so busy running our own businesses. As we sat there chatting about how we prep for market days or what we expect this winter to be like. I realized that we all shared a similar business philosophy, to purposely be small. We are business owners who are not only interested in perfecting our individual crafts but we also designed our businesses to be small, micro really. We are not just the owners but also the only employee.

I never realized how much I would have in common with fellow business owners, who were not farmers. Personally I became a farmer because I wanted to farm not manage employees. As I plan for the future, I do look at how I can expand my business, my mantra is work smarter not harder. I believe you don’t have to get bigger to succeed in business. But you do have to be very thoughtful and passionate about your business decisions.
Beautifully said!