Research Your Market

With the global market for aquaponics products expected to reach over $1.3 billion USD by 2024, there’s clearly demand for new businesses. Yet this demand is concentrated in certain markets and not spread evenly over every area. Choosing one town over another, even when they’re only a few dozen miles apart, could be the difference between failure and success due to the proximity to the right market.

Market research for an aquaponics business relies on the same basic methods as any other business. The most effective research methods include:

• Customer surveys of people already shopping at farmer’s markets, high-end grocery stores and similar outlets, which can be completed with the help of local Facebook groups for a low-cost alternative to hiring professional survey administrators.
• Collecting information on any competitors already in the area, including non-aquaponics businesses that produce fish and edible or ornamental plants. Competitive analysis is essential for determining how your competitors are doing and whether you can break into the market by identifying their weaknesses.
• Checking prices at all competitive retailers and outlets to ensure you can actually compete while still making a profit. For example, ff the competition can sell fish for $1/pound but your system would require charging $2/pound to stay profitable, you’ll need to identify some market aspect that would guarantee demand for the higher price point.
• Purchasing market sector analysis to determine which parts of the country already feature plenty of competition and which areas have market demand with little competition.

Draft a Business Plan

Unless you already have savings to cover both the setup and operation costs for your new business, you’ll likely need to take out loans. Don’t expect to secure funding from a lender without a full business plan. Even if you’re going to fund your business entirely yourself, you should still write up a business plan to increase the chances of success. Business plans ensure you’ve considered the most important risks and verified you have a good chance of turning the expected profit.

If you’re having trouble writing up a cohesive business plan, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is a great place to turn. The tips and templates offered by the SBA can be used for businesses of any size, but if you’re planning to need $500,000 or more to start your aquaponics farm, you’ll likely need to hire a business plan consultant as well to make sure your documents are through and correct.

Find Mentors and Hands-on Training

Running aquaponics equipment successfully requires dozens of different skills. Trying to self-educate yourself on all of them with books and videos alone is not ideal. While you certainly can teach yourself the basics and build your skills with small hobby projects first, the fastest way to get the skills you need for a commercial operation is through hands-on training and mentorship. Of course, this means finding either a university/college offering training in aquaponics or a nearby facility that is somehow not a potential future competitor.

Because aquaponics is still a relatively new and developing field, you’ll likely find it much easier to seek out learning opportunities in general aquaculture and hydroponics. With aquaponics combining many techniques and pieces of equipment from both of these fields, an education in both should give you most of the hands-on training you’ll need to run your own system. You may want to consider a long-distance mentorship with a specialist in aquaponics, even if it’s just over the phone or through video chats, in order to have someone to call when there’s an emergency during the first few years of operation.

Fund Your Startup Costs

Traditional business loans are available for aquaponics, but the unproven nature of the business idea can make it a hard sell to many lenders. Even if you’re not independently wealthy and don’t have borrowing options, your idea of starting an aquaponics business isn’t over. Partnering with a community group to start a non-profit aquaponics farm could give you more business data to take to a lender to convince them of demand or viability. Crowdfunding is another option, especially if there’s something groundbreaking or unusual about your business plans. You also may be able to find other people interested in opening the same kind of business to create a pool of savings that is enough to start a company that no one person could afford to finance on their own.

Hiring Employees

It’s perfectly possible to run smaller commercial scale with just a single operator. However, even systems that can be managed by you alone will leave you with no time off for essential family or self-care tasks. When you’re the only one testing the water and checking that the automated systems are running properly, taking a day off to go to the doctor could lead to a catastrophic collapse. Hiring at least one reliable employee is the best way to run a commercial aquaponics system.

However, improper hiring puts the aquaponics system at more risk than just running it all alone. Employees need to be invested in the success of the company and must know the proper practices for maintaining the system, as a single mistake could kill hundreds of pounds of fish or crops.

If you can’t find staff that have specific aquaponics expertise, look for employees with experience working at fish hatcheries, hydroponics facilities, greenhouses or even traditional farms. A background in plant or fish care will make it much easier for the workers to learn the ins and outs of aquaponics and reduce the likelihood of early mistakes.

There are many opportunities for sabotage in a delicate system like aquaponics from a disgruntled employee. No one wants to think about their employees acting against them, but there are ways to protect your equipment against this potential problem if you do consider it. Remote monitoring and control systems let you know immediately if someone turns off the heating elements or aerators in the fish tanks. Other techniques are more psychological and less physical. Keep your employees happy with fair wages and good benefits and scheduling routine training meetings.

Moving from a Hobby System to a Commercial One

Starting a backyard hobby aquaponics farm is a great step to building familiarity with the processes and equipment before investing in a full-sized company. However, you can’t assume the same equipment, layout, or growing style will work for a commercial expansion. For example, many backyard systems are based around nutrient film technique (NFT) designs that are hard to expand into profitable commercial units. You may need to set up a whole new backyard system with the techniques you’d like to use commercially to get more specific practice with troughs and deep water rafts before starting your business.

It is possible to turn a small profit off a large enough hobby system. However, true commercial systems, that can create a full-time income for more than one person, are designed differently than even the biggest hobby units. Don’t expect to simply add more and more of the same tanks and barrels and get the same, favorable results as you’re getting with a small system.