Scaling Urban Agriculture: Rooting Your Work in Purpose
Financial Sustainability Series | Part 2: Vision, Mission & Value Proposition
Happy Thanksgiving! This is my favorite holiday. The whole day is literally about food - coming together with family, friends, neighbors, and communities to express gratitude for the harvest, share food with those we care for, and give food to those who do not have enough.
As you sit down at a beautiful tablescape of the good dishes, fancy silverware, cloth napkins, floral centerpiece, and buffet of food, take a few minutes to think about where, how, and by whom that food was grown, processed, transported, and distributed. Even if only to yourself, say thank you to everyone who had a hand in bringing that food to you.
Then ask yourself a few questions about the foodscape.
· Did the turkey come from the farmer down the road?
· Did the potatoes and onions come from the backyard garden?
· Were the apples and pumpkin purchased at a farmers market?
· Or did everything travel hundreds – even thousands- of miles to appear at your grocery store?
Lavender Foodscapes Studios was founded to rethink, redesign, and transform our culture of foodscapes. While this series was inspired by reflections from an urban agriculture workshop – and focuses on growing - the principles and terminology apply across entire food systems: aggregation at food hubs, processing in commercial kitchens, distribution through farmers markets or neighborhood grocery stores.
Part 2 in the Financial Sustainability Series turns the lens inward to the foundational questions every change maker or entrepreneur must answer before building a financially sustainable venture.
Before digging into financial sustainability, there are a few questions that require written answers. Yes, write them down. These answers cannot be vague, half-formed ideas in your head. Writing forces clarity about your vision, mission, and value proposition.
These questions are not ground-breaking, but they are life-altering.
The Four Questions at a Glance
1. Why do you want to grow food? (Vision + Mission)
2. Who benefits and how? (Value Proposition)
3. What does it take to deliver those benefits? (Resources)
4. What requires funding and how will you secure it? (Capital Strategy)
Question #1 - Why do you want to grow [process, sell, serve] food in the city?
Answer this question five times, each time drilling deeper into the answer before it. Trust me, it works.
Your final answer is your vision and mission - your anchor, touchstone, or guidepost for every financial decision you will make.
Some people suggest beginning with: “What problem are you trying to solve?”
But that question alone is only half the equation. It risks leaving out the potential to create benefits your customer does not know they want or need – the kind of value that leads to innovation.
25 years ago, who would have said ‘I need 1,000 songs in my pocket’? If Steve Jobs had just asked ‘what problem are we trying to solve?’, we might never have gotten the iPod – and everything that followed.
Question #2 – Who benefits from this vision and mission, and how?
The answer to this question is your value proposition - what pains are you alleviating/gains are you providing to whom? And don’t say everyone or the planet. Be specific. Imagine that person in your mind. What is a day in their life like? You can have multiple customers or clients.
Without a clearly articulated value proposition, building a financially sustainable venture – whether for-profit, not-for-profit, or social enterprise – becomes very difficult.
If you like tools, templates, and pictures (I do!), I highly recommend the Value Proposition Canvas from the Strategyzer series and sequel to Business Model Generation.
Queston #3 – What is it going to take to deliver these benefits?
Here we begin talking about resources.
What tools, time, talent, or treasure do you need to create the benefits and deliver them to your customers or clients? What are alternative ways to deliver the benefits?
Notice I did not say expenses – not all resources require cash outlays. Strategic partnerships, public transit, parks and plazas, existing businesses, donated materials, shared equipment, or volunteer labor are vital resources that don’t have to be purchased but can help you deliver your value proposition.
Questions #4 – Which resources require funding and how are you going to get the funding?
This is where financial sustainability begins.
Some resources require one-time investments (capital expenses). Others – staff, supplies, rent - require ongoing funding (operating expenses).
As operations scale, so does technical complexity — and the need for resources. Whether you save to purchase equipment, take out a loan, attract an investor, secure a grant, or make do with what’s available, each strategy represents a point on a continuum of capital.
Once you have answered these four questions you have the core of your business model. As you iterate, you’ll naturally begin considering the legal structure or form that supports it – limited liability corporation (LLC), partnership, corporation, nonprofit, social benefit enterprise or a parent-subsidiary combination of any of these.
Remember: The legal form is the vessel – not the business model itself. A 501(c)(3) can operate a revenue-generating subsidiary and an LLC can pursue social and ecological goals.
Build the model first. Choose the legal form second.
With your vision, value proposition, resources, and capital needs defined, you have the core of your business model. But financial sustainability isn’t static—it’s cyclical. In Part 3 of the Financial Sustainability Series, we’ll begin working through the financial sustainability cycle, exploring how diversity, stewardship, efficiency, reserves, accountability, and reciprocity operate as interconnected flows that strengthen your foodscape venture over time.