I like to go on about the opportunity that owning a homestead brings, so here it is! The list of ways to make money from your homestead. Some of these ideas require a bit of capital outlay, while others can make use of existing outbuildings, equipment or space. Some ideas I have covered separately in this post about tourism.
Utilizing that old garage
You can utilize a large-ish space like a barn or garage for these ideas. In my small town, there are a lot of entrepreneurs. One guy has a home gym and works as a personal trainer. There are artists, photographers, accountants and massage therapists all working from home. So if you have a decent-sized space of your own, you could try one of these:
- Home gym- you might need to train as a personal trainer for this, or you could rent out your gym to others.
- Sports lessons/ coaching- are you highly skilled in a sport like dance or martial arts? Why not start teaching others from your renovated space?
Make a commercial kitchen
Again, if you have a decent sized space, or even a trailer or shipping container you could kit-out, you can make yourself a commercial kitchen. Once you have the right space, you could hire it out for a daily fee to other entrepreneurs, or you could make your own products:
- Home made jellies, jams, chutneys, sauces, home baking, fudge, candies, breads to sell at farmer’s markets.
- Ready-made freezer meals for the elderly and new moms.
- Some people even make dog food meals that look like human food. There’s a market for everything!
Workshop
If you have a workshop space and the skills and tools, you can branch out and try these ideas for making money from your homestead:
- Building animal shelters, cages and kennels
- Fix things- offer services fixing other people’s tools, small engines, sharpening chainsaws, axes and hand saws (think competitive wood chopping).
- Lease out tools and equipment to others- especially handy if you live far from a main center.
- Fixing saddles, horse rugs, canvas. You’ll need a commercial sewing machine for this.
Homestead services
It makes sense that if you have a homestead yourself, there are other homesteads around you who need services. If you need hay cut and baled, so do your neighbors. It can be difficult finding a reliable contractor and beating the weather to get hay baled on time, so if you own this yourself, you’re one step ahead. Here’s a few homestead services you could offer:
- Wool washing, carding and spinning- you’ll need specialist, often antique, machines for this.
- Growing seedlings or nursery plants to sell.
- Cleaning houses, landscaping and gardening- especially for elderly neighbors who might struggle to maintain their homes.
- Animal husbandry: trimming feet, worming, vaccinating, ringing, tailing, shearing.
- Animal breeding: if you have a good eye for quality livestock, you can own and lease out your bulls, rams, roosters, bucks, boars etc. You can choose breeds that are sought after in your area or are particularly useful for homesteads.
- Bale hay for others in summer and fix fences the rest of the year.
- Own a sewing machine? You could make clothing alterations for others or make to order if you’re clever and talented!
Health and beauty
If you have a nice room in your home or in a studio on your homestead, you can make money offering the following services if you have the right skills:
- Offer wellbeing services like reiki, massage, aromatherapy, sound and light healing.
- Hairdressing or beauty therapy. Rural folks still want their hair done and want to be pampered with a facial treatment or waxing.
Using the whole homestead
Some home-business ideas utilize a large outdoor area of the homestead to make money but also require little set-up. Have a look at these ideas:
- Selling veges, herbs or eggs at market
- in-home childcare or nannying
- dog day care- likely more in demand near a town or main center
- enviro schools- offer your land for local schools to bring children for one day a week to explore and play outdoors.
- Rent out paddocks to horse owners. You can charge based on what they have access to: an arena, a lock-up shed, a hot walker or round yard, a river to ride down. You can also add value by arranging farrier visits, charge extra for feeding out and taking rugs on and off or exercising the horse on behalf of the owner. Make sure you have contacts in place and have no liability for any damage to the horse or your infrastructure if anything goes wrong.
A bit of capital
These ideas require a bit more capital outlay before you can use them to start making money. Rural people still like to go on holiday and want to put their pets in a kennel or cattery. You could build the necessary outbuildings to code and then set up a business. Or you could lease the buildings to someone else to run a business.
How many of these ideas could suit your homestead? Which ones appeal to you? Let me know by adding a comment!