This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
What's up, what's up? Welcome to Recital School, Chris Guillebeau here. Today we're gonna hear from a caller whose idea might sound a little buggy at first. And what do I mean by that? Well, what I mean is he's been reading about the benefits of eating insects.
People do this, you know, it's a thing. And he thinks that starting an edible insect farm could be a great business opportunity. Now our caller has got a background in agriculture. He is eager to learn more about the industry, such as it is, and how to get started. So can we help him out with some tips for starting that insect farm and finding the right customers?
That's our challenge. Also, don't you want to sign up already? Aren't you ready to commit to a subscription package perhaps? Well, hold on, let's talk about this guy's idea. I'm starting an edible insect farm.
That is the topic detailed question. My answer coming up right after the quick break. [Music]
Hi there, this is Sam calling from Denver. I've been reading about the benefits of eating insects. And I think starting an edible insect farm could be an interesting business opportunity.
I have a background in agriculture and I'm eager to learn more about the industry. Do you have any tips on how to start an insect farm and what to focus on in terms of marketing and customer acquisition? I imagine that some people probably think it's weird, but I think it's the future. Thanks for your time. [Music]
All right, Sam, let me begin my answer with a bit of a disclosure, disclosure slash disclaimer.
I think it's actually a disclaimer. I always get those words confused. The disclaimer is I don't know much about this. Okay, I don't know much about this topic actually. But that's the cool thing about South coastal school is we get to explore all kinds of different ideas.
I've learned so much since starting the podcast because you all, our listeners are so creative. You're doing so many interesting things. So starting an edible insect farm, definitely a unique idea. In doing a bit of Googling, I found that there are others doing it. So maybe that's the opposite of unique, but I guess I'm still gonna go with unique because it is unique to me.
So before you start your farm, so let's say again, I don't know much about this for somebody else who doesn't know much about it, but has perhaps a background in agriculture, thinks this could be interesting at least. What would you do? Well, you would want to learn as much as you could about this industry. So that includes understanding the different types of edible insects, their nutritional value, the regulations around producing and selling them. So a bunch of research.
Then there is like, let's assume that there is a growing market for edible insects. Is it a buzzing market? I don't know, but the market is, I don't know. There's hype there, but it is still a relatively new industry, right? So to stand out, you could focus on a specific type of insect or cricket, let's say, or focus on a specific type of buyer, group of buyer.
You want to build relationships with suppliers, right? Because I guess you just reach out to other insect farmers and see what they've done, perhaps see if there's any opportunities for collaboration. So you're not starting everything from complete ground zero. Then of course, you have to find those customers. Like you've thought about who your specific group of buyer, your ideal customer is, how are you going to find them?
What are you going to do, again, that's different. So that's probably a bunch of online ads, could be some trade shows. Again, let's see what everybody else has done first and then let's see what we could do better or different, or at least in our area, if there's not somebody in your area. That's kind of the starting path that I would go down. Again, not an expert in this field, but I do think anything is possible in the world of side hustles, as we have seen time and time again.
So Sam, good luck. Let me know how it goes and we can do an update, perhaps with some more informative advice for other folks out there interested in doing it. And listeners, if you've got a question or an idea, or if you know something about this world, perhaps some tips for Sam, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We've got a new episode every single day. You can subscribe, follow, wherever you get your podcasts.
It's all completely free. Thanks for being out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
