We receive lots of emails asking some great questions as well as others letting us know about great resources or products that have worked well. We love your emails so please keep them coming! I thought it might be a good idea to pick out some of the questions we receive along with our responses on topics that may benefit a larger audience and use them as our blog post. We don’t have all the answers by any means but we do our best to share what has worked well for us and others that we have built relationships with. Today, we are going to post Q&A that came from the blog posts Mike wrote on the topic of netting your corn maze.

Last time, we talked about preserving and protecting your investment from the beginning of the season until the last guest leaves your gates. For now, we are focusing on your corn maze, but the principle applies to every aspect of your venue and to every small part. It’s equally important to make sure to maintain the camp fire pits just as much as the duck races and the corn cannon. If there is an overall feel of quality and professionalism, you will demonstrate that you care about providing a good experience from start to finish.

It's that time of year again where we look back on what we accomplished the previous year and set some goals or resolutions for the 365 days that lie ahead. As Agritourism owners, our goal should be to improve upon our product and services every year. In this post, we will talk about some tips on how to do that more effectively.

The first thing to remember when you are building pens or preparing accommodations for animals is to build according to the animal. Different animals have different needs as well as different interests. For instance, goats love to climb and rabbits like to burrow. So when you prepare an area for animals, make sure that they are built specifically for that animal. Pen construction is very different from one animal to another.

The second thing to consider is the amount of space that your animals will need. Animal size and the number of animals will determine how much space they will need. For instance, they usually recommend 20 square feet...

This can be a tough one to navigate.  Should you charge for the 85-year-old grandmother that is just there to watch her grandchild open presents at a birthday party?  Should you charge for parents that are there to help with the field trip?  What about someone that is physically handicapped and won’t be participating in any activities?  These are all tough scenarios to navigate while keeping your customers happy but let’s talk through some of the options you have.

Insurance
First and foremost, check with your insurance carrier to see what their requirements are around this.  I have never personally run into a provider that...

As Agritourism owners we find ourselves in a wide variety of stores for a wide variety of reasons. Even though price is a big determining factor for whether or not I frequent a store, there are other factors that are equally important. If you were to ask me my opinion about the 3 local hardware stores that I visit the most, I would most likely evaluate them based on price, inventory and customer service. And based on those things there is one store that stands out and one I will go out of my way to support.

There are few things more important to a customer than personal service. I believe they will even pay a little bit more if they thin...

This topic is fresh on my mind as my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was married this last Saturday at our farm. She, like many other brides these days, want a venue that is unique. They want their wedding to stand out and be remembered. Offering your farm as a wedding venue can be very profitable, if executed properly, or can be a stressful disaster if your process is broken. To get started in the wedding business using your Agritourism venue doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have a huge Amish-built barn from the 1800’s, but you will need to take inventory of what services and resources you have that would fit this niche.

Finding local businessess to get involved and sponsor your Agritourism venue can be a “make it or break it” difference in your success, especially when you are starting out. This article will give you 14 practical steps for identifying, securing, & keeping sponsors for your venue.  This article will give you 14 practical steps for identifying, securing, & keeping sponsors for your venue.

Step 1:  Establish a Timeline

So when should you contact sponsors for your event?  We find the earlier the better.  Sometimes you are asking for materials or funds that you need in order to build a new structure or event at your venue.  We find that s...