Introduction

If you’re interested in starting a microgreens business, whether as a side income or full-time endevour, you’ve come to the right place! This guide will give you the vital information you need to have a successful first commercial crop.

I have an Urban Farm in Bloomington, Indiana where I grow Microgreens year round. I grow just enough microgreens in the winter to help pay the bills, yet still allow me to rest and rejuvinate in preparation for the next growing season, which currently involves a 4-lights system capable of up to 32 flats per week.

I made some mistakes in the beginning, including starting with too many varieties and not focusing on the selling, so I decided to make this guide to help others take a simpler, more direct path to starting their microgreens business.

Before we get to the how to grow, let’s start with the why. Let me first explain why I think starting a microgreens business is such a good opportunity.

A Perfect Opportunity This is the absolutly perfect time to start a microgreens business for several reasons:

1. They are just beginning to gain popularity as an actual ingredient (rather than just a garnish) amongst both chefs and the general public

2. People are more interested than ever in buying locally grown food

3. Most farmers are not that skilled at business, so the competition is generally weak

4. Almost no one is delivering directly to customers homes on a subscription basis, so this is an untapped market with tons of potential for consistent, recurring revenue.

5. You can grow microgreens year-round indoors like clockwork, without having to manage the weather or many other variables

6. Microgreens return a higher profit per area compared to all other locally grown produce and vegetables I’ve worked with.

7. The University of Maryland recently released a study showing microgreens to be up to 40 times more nutrient dense than their mature counterparts. Basically, it’s a superfood!

8. By growing them, you will eat them too! It’s inevitable and your health will thank you!

9. You will expand your circle of friends and help support a community. 10. The startup costs are fairly minimal 11. You can utilize your customer base to launch a full-scale produce

farm at any time (or another venture) 12. I could list 20 more reasons, but let’s move on for the sake of

progress…

How Much Can You Earn? Generally, with the main varieties that I grow, you should be able to profit about $20 per tray on average, with a total time investment of about 20-30 minutes per tray, so we’re taking about $40-$60/hour.

And its fun work!

Plus, it’s easy to scale up as you go by just adding new lights and equipment as needed:

• With one 4-ft two-bulb flourescent light fixture, you can produce 8 trays per week ($160 profit)

• With two 4-ft two-bulb flourescent light fixtures, you can produce 16 trays per week ($320 profit)

• With four 4-ft two-bulb flourescent light fixtures, you can produce 32 trays per week ($640 profit)

And even at the $640/week stage, you will only need about 16 sq. ft. of your house setup to grow and a couple days worth of work. It’s pretty amazing! There are people making multiple thousand dollars per week selling microgreens out of a small space. It can be done, and you can be one of the people doing it!

All it takes is starting small, focusing on making sales with the right strategy, delivering a high quality product, and the business will begin to blossom and grow.

Getting Started So, does this sounds like something you might enjoy? Making money, getting healthier, connecting with your community, enjoying more leisure time, and building a business you can be proud of? I sure hope so! I really enjoy it, and think you will as well.

I’ve created this guide for the sole purpose of helping you start fast, with minimal expenses. Basically, I’ll lay out the path of least resistance. This surely isn’t the only way to start a Microgreens business – but I think you’ll agree that it’s simple and effective.

So my basic recommendation is this: Purchase the minimum supplies to do up to eight flats per week with two easy and profitable seed varieties, start tracking, get growing, and then get selling. As sales take hold, scale up and/or

expand your offerings. It’s really that easy when you look at it from the overhead view.

Now let’s zoom in on each of these parts and discuss some details.

Minimum Supplies Needed:

(Affiliate disclosure: I will get a small commission if you purchase through any of the Amazon links below – it keeps me going, Thank You!)

• Lights o 4ft 2-bulb T5 flourescent with daylight bulbs (6400k). I think these

ones are the best deal. (https://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTG-Supply-4-Foot-2-Lamp-High-Output-T5-Fixture)

• Shelf/table o I like these 6 ft floding tables for starting with a 4ft light setup as

they give you an extra 2-ft for flats that are germinating but not yet under lights (stacked 2 high). (http://amzn.to/1Nqueo8)

• Potting soil o Just purchase the best quality potting soil you can find locally

• Trays o 1020 trays with drain holes. Buy 20 minimum, so you can double

up for longevity and have a couple spares (http://amzn.to/1NqunIh)

• Scissors or knife o Get a really sharp kitchen knife or scissors

(http://amzn.to/1RpytUZ) • Packaging

o I usually package in large ziplock bags (http://amzn.to/1RpyZ5c) to commercial customers and then I recommend you experiment

with different size clamshells for residential customers and farmers market sales (http://amzn.to/1NquKCG)

• Scale o Digital Scale (http://amzn.to/1NquV0J)

• Fan o Any small fan to move air and prevent mold, I recommend quiet

ones. (http://amzn.to/1NquZ0y) • Timer

o Basic electrical outlet timer for lights and fan (http://amzn.to/1Rpzz38)

o Cord Splitter (http://amzn.to/1RpzJHN) • Paper towels

o I prefer heavy duty shop towels as they stay moist longer and cost increase in minimal. (http://amzn.to/1RpA0u4)

• Food Grade 5-Gallon Bucket w/ lids o 2 basic food-grade 5 gallon buckets for soaking seed (you can buy

on Amazon (http://amzn.to/1RTBRGW), but they seem much cheaper in home improvement stores.

If you’ve already got lights, stick with those. If not, purchase a light and the rest of the supplies above that you need as well as 1-5 lbs of each of these two seed varieties:

• Radish – Daikon or Purple Triton - https://www.mvseeds.com/radish-sprouting-daikon-organic-seeds

• Pea - https://www.mvseeds.com/pea-sprouting-speckled-organic

First thing I recommend is drilling a bunch of small holes in the bottom of one of the 5-gallon buckets. You will then place this bucket inside the other one and be able to lift it out to drain any seed you’ve soaked or sanitized.

Start this on a Saturday night and it should align your first harvest with a non-busy restaurant day for sample delivery to chefs.

The very first thing you should do is start a spreadsheet to record exactly what you are doing along the way. This will help you tune your system to produce very predictable yields. Do not skip this step!

Get Started Growing

Put the 5-gallon bucket with holes drilled inside the other bucket and add 660 grams of pea seeds (2 trays worth). Cover by 2-3 times the amount of water, cover with lid, and allow to soak overnight.

On Sunday morning, fill your 4 flats with firmed down potting soil about an inch deep and sprinkle out Radish seeds on 2 of the trays at 75g per tray.

Pull the 5 gallon bucket out of the other bucket to drain the soak water off the peas, and try to roughly divide them between the two trays and spread around with your hand.

Cover all 4 trays with paper towels and water thouroughly. Keep all flats moist and covered with the towels for 3.5 days.

I like to stack the trays 2 high on top of one another, and flip around the trays after the first 24 hours - especially with the radish. This allows all the seeds to get better contact with the soil and therefore faster growth.

In the meantime, Find a bench or table, or build a shelf 4ft wide by 2 ft

deep. Hang or mount the light fixture about 15-18 inches above the bench, table, or shelf and set up a fan to provide some airflow across the area.

After the 3.5 days of sprouting under the paper towels, move them onto the grow area and turn on the light. Remove paper towels when they dry out. Turn on your fan as well. You want the breeze to be just over the microgreens so it pulls out moisture and provides a very light breeze. Do not face directly at them or it will slow growth.

In the meantime, get on a computer and create a basic fresh sheet and contact card. See my video here for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDfM-ZL0y1M

The radish shoots should be ready to harvest in about 3.5-4 days under the lights, and the peas may need 1-2 days more. You want the leaves to start opening out.

Now cut the microgreens with scissors or a sharp knife. Get them put in labeled sample-size bags with the weight, harvest date, and your farms contact info. Compost the old soil and clean the trays.

Now you’ve got your samples, so its time to sell them. Don’t start growing any more greens until you’ve given away all those sample bags!!

Making Your First Sale

It should be around Tuesday at this point. Pick your 4 best prospects, the 4 restaurants you want to drop samples off to, and call early afternoon and say this:

“Hello, I wanted to drop by some locally grown greens for your chef to sample. Do you think he will be in tomorrow between 2-4pm (a good time to target because they are usually slow)?”

And see what they say. If they suggest a different time go with that if you can. If you can only do it after 5, say because you work full-time, then obviously check on that time. But do your best to target a slow time for the restaurant.

If they say yes the chefs typically in that time, say something like:

“Great! I’ll swing by to drop by the samples and maybe say hi if they aren’t too busy. Thanks so much!”

If they say no he’s typically not in, then either ask when a good time to drop by samples would be (ideal) or tell them you will just leave them with someone in the kitchen (not totally ideal).

Then, follow through on your comittment. If the chefs in, and has a minute to say hi or even look at the greens, that’s great. If not, leave your samples and fresh sheet/contact card with someone in the kitchen if you can, or just leave them with anyone.

If you score your first order on the spot, congrats!! If not, don’t get depressed!

If the chef said he wasn’t interested, try somewhere else and maybe follow up with them again in a month or two. If they showed interest but didn’t place and order, follow up with an email in 2-3 days (with attached fresh sheet again) and say it was nice to meet them, see how they liked the greens, and directly ask “would you like to place an order?”

If you don’t get a response – follow up in another week or so. Nothing again, follow up a third time. Chefs are busy and often operate chaiotically. It can sometimes take several follow ups before you get a solid response of a yes or no. If they say no, be sure to ask why, as that information can be very useful. Maybe you can come down on price? Maybe you can deliver fresher than their current supplier? Maybe you’ve got a cooler story than their current

supplier (bike delivery!)? Maybe you can think of some way to overcome their rejection point.

Hopefully you get an order, but if not, grow another round of samples and target four more commercial customers. Continue to repeat this process for all the potential commercial customers in your area.

Hopefully this results in several accounts and the demand to start scaling up your operation. If you went through all these steps – the growing, calling, meetings, giving out samples, and following up several times to all the potential customers in your area and you still don’t have any sales, then maybe the demand in your town just isn’t there.

If you get all no’s and you’re in a very large city, something’s not right! Maybe your pricing is too high, maybe your product quality is low, dirty packaging? By asking the chef’s why they don’t want to purchase, you’ll find out whats going wrong.

And that’s the basics of an efficient and effective Quick Start to the microgreens business.

I will be posting up additional info over on Youtube and also through the newsletter you subscribed to at MicrogreensFarmer.com over the coming winter (the slow time on my farm)– so keep an eye out for that content!

Thanks for reading and feel free to email any and all questions you have to microgreensfarmer@gmail.com and I’ll try and create a video or answer your question in a post or individually. Or let me know if you think something is missing from this guide.

My mission here is to help you be successful!

Best of luck,

Nate