Labor — Many small business owners (not just ocean farmers) forget to account for their own labor when planning their business. We recommend assigning yourself a living hourly wage rate and taking a guess at how many hours you’ll spend setting up and maintaining your farm. Once you have a year of farming under your belt, you’ll have a better idea of how much labor is required and whether you can bring in employees to help with some aspects of the work.
Lesson 5
Using the Farm Design Tool
Back to: Farm Design
Startup Costs
Gear Selection
In the Farm Design Tool, you can indicate some of your gear selections in the Anchor Details and Gear Selection tabs. If you don’t make any changes, these fields are pre-populated with industry standards. One of the goals of the Farm Design Tool is to help you better understand how the myriad of farm inputs affects your final design and, ultimately, your startup costs. We’ve included info bubbles within the tool to give more context on each individual gear item. For a deep dive into the common gear types used in ocean farming read the next course on Gear Selection.
Gear and Setup Budget
The Gear and Setup Budget of the Farm Design Tool gives you a general idea of how much it would cost to build your farm if you were to purchase all of the equipment new and apply for a lease and permit in your state. The itemized gear costs will update as you change your site factors or gear selections on the left-hand side of the tool. You can download the Gear and Setup Budget into an Excel document and update it to fit your exact needs.
Where did the prices come from?
The prices displayed in the gear list are an average of listed gear prices at three large, reputable marine supply stores in 2020. Bear in mind that, due to supply chain challenges in recent years, many prices, especially for anchors and metal gear components, may have increased.
What other expenses aren’t included in the budget?
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Anchor Installation — Many anchors will require some form of assistance to install, either because they are too heavy to move by hand or because they require special machinery or skills to install. These costs will vary depending on the number and type of anchor and what resources are locally accessible.
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Boat Purchase, Maintenance, and Gas — If you don’t already own one, you’ll need to buy a boat! Read more here about making that choice. Also, consider that your gas expenses will vary as a function of how far your farm is from the harbor or marina and how often you go to the farm. You’ll need to maintain your boat, as normal wear and tear do eventually take their toll, and have some savings in case of extreme weather events that might cause damage.
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Insurance and G&A Expenses — The setup budget is intended to reflect the costs to deploy the farm itself, but there are other general and administrative business costs to consider. These include things like insurance, business formation costs, legal and other professional services, accounting software, web presence, and marketing materials.
These operational expenses are not included in the setup budget. However, they are included in the Ocean Farm Basic Financial Model we introduce in the course Build Your Business. To get a better sense of the full costs of starting and operating your farm, jump ahead to Build Your Business.
A Note on Finding Affordable Gear
If you looked at the budget tab in the Farm Design Tool, you might have been surprised by the cost. The sticker shock of purchasing all these items brand new can sometimes be overwhelming. Starting a farm is a big investment, but it doesn’t need to break the bank. Often, you can source used gear to help bring your costs down. Many farmers acquire lines, anchors, or buoys second-hand and work backward from those items to build out the rest of their arrays. Although we might recommend a specific model or gear type, there are often several alternatives that would work just as well. Ask around, and get creative with what you can repurpose.