Who We Serve · CSA & Farm Direct

Selling Out Every Week, Still Short On Payroll

Those two things are not a contradiction. When more than half the year's revenue arrives in two months and the costs arrive in all twelve, demand was never the problem.

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700+ farm and food businesses across 20+ states. See what changed for them

The problem we see

A Timing Problem Wearing A Sales Problem's Clothes

You are not short of members. You are short of money in the months when the members have already paid.

Sign-ups land in early spring and the account looks healthier than it has all year. Then you spend that money delivering food for eight months, and by the time the last box goes out you are funding next season's seed, soil and labor out of a balance that has been draining since April. Nothing went wrong. That is just what the shape of the year does.

Which makes every winter decision harder than it should be. Whether to raise the share price, whether to keep the second delivery route, whether you can afford the help you clearly need in June. Those are cash-timing questions, and they get answered on instinct because nothing in the reporting shows the year as a shape.

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"We sold out in three weeks and I still couldn't pay myself in November."

Roughly where CSA and farm-direct operators meet us.

There is an accounting version of this too. Money taken in March for food delivered in September is not revenue yet, it is an obligation, and books that record it as income will tell you that spring was your best month three years running.

Then there is the number almost nobody tracks on purpose: how many members come back. That single figure decides more about next season than any marketing you could buy, and most operations only find out in March when it is far too late to change it.

The shape of the year

Profitable On The Year, In The Red For Nine Months Of It

This is what a healthy CSA looks like month by month. Not a struggling one, a healthy one. The annual number is positive and almost every individual month is not.

Money in Money out Month in the red

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

56%

of the year's revenue arrives in March and April

9 of 12

months cost more than they bring in

Positive

annual result, on exactly these numbers

December

the worst month, and the one that funds next spring

Illustrative figures, shaped the way CSA cash genuinely behaves rather than taken from a client's books. The point is the shape. If your year looks like this, a good season and an empty account are not in conflict, and the fix is a forecast rather than more members.

The number that decides next season

Renewal Rate Beats Acquisition, Every Time

A returning member costs you almost nothing to win and arrives already understanding what a share is. A new one costs marketing spend, an explanation, and a first season of managed expectations. They are not the same customer and should not sit in the same line of your reporting.

Yet most operations cannot say what their renewal rate was last year, which means they find out how next season looks in March, when there is no time left to act on it.

Which makes renewal a marketing job as much as an accounting one. Knowing the rate is bookkeeping. Moving it is a renewal sequence that reaches members before they start thinking about next year, a sign-up page that does not need you chasing people one at a time, and a reason to come back that is written down rather than assumed.

How we'd track it How we'd move it

Track four

numbers, monthly, and the winter stops being a surprise

Renewal rate, by share type and by pickup location
True cost per share, with delivery and packing in it
Deferred revenue still owed as food, not counted as profit
Cash position twelve weeks out, updated every month

What the work looks like

Books That Understand A Season Sold In Advance

A generic setup will record March as a spectacular month and give you no warning about November. These are the differences that matter for a business paid up front.

Deferred revenue handled properly

Money taken for food not yet delivered sits as an obligation and releases across the season, so a month's profit means something.
A rolling forecast, not a rear-view report

Twelve to thirteen weeks ahead, week by week, so the winter gap arrives as a number you planned for rather than a fright in December.
Cost per share, per route, per pickup

Packing labor, fuel and the hours spent servicing a location. Some routes and some share sizes lose money, and only the detail shows which.
Channel margin, side by side

Shares, farm store, market table and wholesale each cost different amounts to serve. Blended margin hides which one carries the others.