How I Built My Small Business

Kimi Chadwick - 7 Figures in Just 6 Weeks at CRAVEN PUMPKIN PATCH – Without Any Farming Experience!

• Kimi Chadwick • Season 1 • Episode 42

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Kimi Chadwick chats with us about running a pumpkin patch without any farming experience!

Kimi is the co-owner of Craven Farm, winners of the Best of Snohomish County two years in a row. She and her husband are incredibly savvy business owners who are utilizing vertical integration in nearly all aspects of their business, including a fleet of in-house concessions and floral design.

It's no surprise that on the day of our interview, they closed on the purchase of Whitewall Brewing Company, a local brewery that had been considering shutting down. They will be able to breathe new life and energy into the brewery, while also expanding on their existing offerings by possibly bringing Whitewall Brewery to their farm. 

Kimi is smart, yet incredibly humble, and I absolutely love her and her husband's innovative business approach.

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Kimi Chadwick:

We end up hiring about 115 seasonal employees for Pumpkin Patch, like our food lines will be 30, 40 people deep at each and it stays busy like that all day.

Anne McGinty:

Welcome to how I Built my Small Business. I'm Anne McGinty, your host, and today we have Kimi Chadwick chatting with us about running a pumpkin patch without any farming experience. Kimi is the co-owner of Craven Farm, winners of the Best of Snohomish County two years in a row. She and her husband are incredibly savvy business owners who are utilizing vertical integration in nearly all aspects of their business, including a fleet of in-house concessions and floral design. It's no surprise that on the day of our interview, they closed on the purchase of Whitew all Brewing Company, a local brewery that had been considering shutting down. They will be able to breathe new life and energy into the brewery, while also expanding on their existing offerings by possibly bringing Whitewall Brewery to their farm. Kimi is smart, yet incredibly humble, and I absolutely love her and her husband's innovative business approach. You can find a link through to her business in the episode's description.

Anne McGinty:

Before we jump into the interview, there is one thing you can do to help me grow the show, and that is to please hit the follow button on your favorite streaming platform. Thank you so much. Let's get started.

Anne McGinty:

Thank you to our listeners for being here today. Kimi, thanks for coming on the show.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah, thank you for inviting me on.

Anne McGinty:

Can you tell us the story of how you became the owner of Craven Farm?

Kimi Chadwick:

Yes, little backstory. So my husband and I had been looking for a business where we could raise our kids, having them come to work with us and kind of see how a business is run, and we were actually looking for something similar to what we ended up with. We were looking actually over in Montana as well as all throughout Washington, for any sort of pumpkin patch or Christmas tree farm and once we found Craven we realized it was pretty much everything and more than we expected. Yeah. So we started the interview process with the previous owners and found out how they started evolving Craven Farm into what it is today.

Kimi Chadwick:

So Craven Farm is actually the original pumpkin patch of Snohomish, washington and they started in 1983 and they have developed quite the following and quite the community. And they have developed quite the following and quite the community. We actually have people that have been coming since the 1980s, that come year after year to the Pumpkin Patch to join us and over the years Cravens were really good about slowly developing things and they added weddings in the late 90s. Just the more we learned, the more excited we got and realized what a value to the community it was and how excited people were to come to Craven and experience all that it is and we're like, wow, we would really love to continue all those traditions on for this community and just make sure that it keeps going.

Anne McGinty:

Where did you even look for a family farm business?

Kimi Chadwick:

Yeah, my husband he is always looking at new business opportunities and always looking at businesses for sale, so that's just something he's really passionate about looking into and learning about. We both have backgrounds separately in starting businesses or helping other ones to grow, so, yeah, that was just something he always did was just look online at any platform that would tell us if a business was for sale.

Anne McGinty:

Wow, and you specifically were looking for a pumpkin patch or a Christmas tree farm. What about? That type of a business model was the most attractive to you?

Kimi Chadwick:

A portion of it was that it wasn't something that we had done yet, which sounds kind of crazy. So our previous I call it our previous life. We were not farmers so it was kind of a big jump for us, but we knew we liked the family atmosphere of it and helping families create traditions and memories. And once we found Craven we realized they were already doing it and doing it successfully, and we saw a lot of growth opportunity within the business. And then we realized they were doing so many other things that fit really well with other businesses we have run. So myself floral design, wedding coordination I helped at my church growing up, coordinate weddings there as well, and then my husband was in the fair food concession business since he was nine. So we've got a pretty wide variety of things that we've done in our background and my husband's been in management and had a director position for a local aerospace company, designing aerospace tooling and managing quite a few different offices. So the background for both of us is pretty buried.

Anne McGinty:

That is very diverse and so niche too. I mean, I'm so curious to ask you more about those at another time. Sure, no problem. So what was it like running the business once the reins were handed over, considering you didn't have a background in farming at all?

Kimi Chadwick:

I would say exciting, but also intimidating. So we were coming into an industry where there are actually six other farms within miles of us that all do the same thing. So we're very fortunate that in this area the community is already built up very strong. They're very connected with each other. So all the farmers were already supporting each other, even though we could be considered direct competition. But we all have our own unique personality about the farm so it draws different people out and so those intimidating parts they became less intimidating because we had a strong community that really just took us under their wings and my husband's able to talk with multiple farmers every week and just get the help that we need and the support and encouragement. And you just learned on the go.

Kimi Chadwick:

Yep.

Anne McGinty:

You mentioned that you noticed growth opportunity at the farm before you acquired it. Yeah, what changes have you made to the operations, then, since you took over?

Kimi Chadwick:

Great question. So when we first acquired the farm we were already running pumpkin patch every year and then weddings. So we're also a wedding venue and we run weddings May through the end of August. My husband and I absolutely love Christmas, so we added also a wedding venue and we run weddings May through the end of August. My husband and I absolutely love Christmas, so we added a Christmas festival.

Kimi Chadwick:

We don't currently grow our own trees, that's a future thought so we bring in fresh cut trees, we do a Santa breakfast, we keep a fire going the whole time and open up a little gift shop, an espresso, and then we've got a light display. We bring choirs in. So we do a lot around Christmas time, really just trying to create a fun atmosphere for families. We've done that for two years and when people think of Christmas around here they're usually thinking of so many other wonderful things that are going on that it hasn't built up a lot yet. But for a Santa breakfast we've sold out for both of those and we added a new story time with Santa and that one sold out as well. And then, as far as crowd size goes, pumpkin patch is our big one. So during the weekdays, like Mondays through Fridays we can see around 1000 people, and then during our busiest weekends we can get up to 8000 for that. Saturday and Sunday.

Anne McGinty:

Wow, it's like a little miniature city.

Kimi Chadwick:

You're right, it kind of feels that way.

Anne McGinty:

What kind of attractions do you set up to draw people in for your pumpkin patch?

Kimi Chadwick:

Great question. It is a long list no-transcript animals that live on a farm. That's been really fun. Neither of us have ever owned farm animals. We have apple cannons. Multi-acre corn maze there's actually three different corn mazes. A multi-acre corn maze there's actually three different corn mazes. They're all themed after Allison Pumpkin Land is what we call it and so we've got these cute paintings that I'm pretty sure have been here since the 80s. So we set those up every year. Now we're starting to go chapter by chapter as the theme every year and set up the maze to have a really neat pattern that goes with the chapter when you view it from above. We've got a kids adventure maze. We do field trips apple cannons, apple slingers we just started axe throwing last year we have a cow train, a wagon ride, and actually I know I didn't hit on everything. So there's a ton to do here and a ton for any age group really, are these concessions and different attractions, all third-party vendors?

Anne McGinty:

No, actually, we do all of it. Wow.

Kimi Chadwick:

Yeah, it is quite the undertaking. We end up hiring about 115 seasonal employees for Pumpkin Patch and then year round we dropped down to about four.

Anne McGinty:

Oh my gosh. I ran a seasonal business as well, so I know how challenging that can be. Yes, to increase your team for a very short period of time. Yes, how do you find 115 employees to come and work for? What is it? Six weeks?

Kimi Chadwick:

Yeah, it's about six weeks. Some years it can be more challenging than others. We hire as young as 14. And then I always joke like we'll go up to 94. So what I love about the business is that there's really a spot for every kind of personality and every age you could ever think of, and so it's a really neat dynamic, even just being on the team at our farm. So the majority of our employees are somewhere between 14 and 17. The hardest ones to hire are the adults. So I'm looking for ways to try to reach out to adults that can work for that short period of time and can be excited about it, passionate about it and help us wrangle all of those teenagers, because it's a lot it sounds like it.

Anne McGinty:

Can you give us an idea of the size of the attraction? So how many acres are people roaming?

Kimi Chadwick:

through? That is a wonderful question. To be honest, I'm really bad with measurements, so we'll take this with a grain of salt. So the maze usually takes about 12 acres, and then our buildings and food concessions. I would say probably another 12 to 15. We've got probably a six acre parking lot, and then we have all our other fields that are either resting or producing. So in total we have about 70 acres at our farm.

Anne McGinty:

Oh my gosh, it's a lot bigger than I was expecting. Is there a fee for people to enter and or park Great?

Kimi Chadwick:

question. So parking is free, Entry onto the farm is also free, so there's a lot you can do without needing to buy a wristband. So you can go into our pumpkin patch, you can shop our outdoor fresh produce market, you can go into any of the food stands and you can go into our gift shop. We do have a section that is kind of sectioned off shop. We do have a section that is kind of sectioned off. We call that our wristband area. So behind there is where a lot of our attractions are, so animals jump, pad the mazes and then with a wristband you can also get onto the wagon ride as well as the cow train, and then we have some separate attractions like the apple cannon and axing, and then all of our party room rentals and our fire pit rentals would all be separate.

Anne McGinty:

I can see how your different backgrounds have come into play in creating this.

Kimi Chadwick:

Yeah, yeah, I am so grateful.

Anne McGinty:

Can you give us an idea of how much you can make on a pumpkin patch weekend, with it being seasonal.

Kimi Chadwick:

We open mid-September, and so those weekends can be very, very slow, like maybe a couple hundred per stand, and you'll sell a little bit more with your pumpkins, but not too much, because people aren't ready to purchase a pumpkin, because they're curious if it will last till the end of the season or not. And then on our crazy busy weekends like our food lines will be, you know, up to 30, 40 people deep at each, and it stays busy like that all day. We've noticed that with the different changes that we've put into place, we've been able to increase our food sales a lot, both through different offerings as well as, instead of selling a single donut for a dollar, we switched it to be six donuts in a bag for $8. So if people want a donut they're still going to buy, even if it's now a bag of six. So even that small change had a huge impact on our sales. That small change had a huge impact on our sales?

Anne McGinty:

Oh, I bet. And it's a captured audience, because I assume you can't walk to another cafe or restaurant in the area. Yeah, absolutely, we used to sell at fairs one of my businesses and yeah, I know how profitable it can be in a very surprising way. I mean, we just had popsicles oh that sounds awesome and we could sell $50,000 worth of popsicles in a weekend. So that's incredible. It's incredible, and with the number of concessions you have, let alone the attractions, I can imagine how lucrative it can be, really amazing. Yeah, so for weddings, how many weddings can you comfortably accommodate during wedding season?

Kimi Chadwick:

Great question. So for us we would be able to do upwards of 40. So those would be running Friday, saturday and Sunday. We are not fully booked so I have capacity to take on more. Usually we have at least one wedding per weekend, mid-may through the end of August, so it stays pretty consistent. But that's also wonderful that once we get the whole venue ready for wedding season, it's just the maintenance and continual cleaning.

Anne McGinty:

When you found the Craven Farm and you decided that it was the right fit for you and your family, how did you finance the transaction?

Kimi Chadwick:

Great question. So we broke it into a couple of different phases. There was an asset sale and property sale, and we were fortunate in that the previous owner was still interested in working for a few more years alongside us. So there was like a portion of the sale. We bought sections of the property and then basically rented it back to them. For the pumpkin patch operation we set up like a notes payable, so we were actually paying the previous owners instead of doing like a full bank loan. Oh they seller financed, yes. So my husband is very, very smart in that area. So we were able to do it in stages so that it didn't all hit at once and we could continue to work with the other owners so we could learn everything and have a few seasons under our belt before it was completely just us.

Anne McGinty:

I think that that is so inspirational for people who are thinking that maybe they want to leave the corporate world and look for an idea like yours to understand that you don't necessarily have to go with a bank, that you can really negotiate it with the seller. Yeah, so, wow, okay. So back to the opportunities you've created at the farm. Now you also host Easter egg hunts there. Can you tell us about those?

Kimi Chadwick:

Yeah, oh, my goodness, I think Easter has jumped up to be one of my favorite things that we do. This year was our first year ever doing it. We planned on just doing one day, but it went so well and we had so much more inquiry about it we ended up doing a second day, which actually was even more successful than the first. So with the Easter egg hunt, we sold a wristband. We pre-sold online, which is something that a lot of the farms around us have been doing since COVID, but we stayed with the same business model of just cash or card at the gate if you were getting wristband. So Easter ended up being a little bit of a tester for us to see how we like the online platform. And then the customer response. So, yep, we gave out wristbands as they entered.

Kimi Chadwick:

And then we had two different fields pretty large one for tiny hunters that didn't want to be around big kids, and then a big field and that was any age. It was an open hunt, so we didn't do any time. So there wasn't that mad rush and little kids getting trampled and parents being worried about them. So the goal was go out, grab 20 eggs, bring them back to our egg return and then you go to our cashier stand. We turned it into our prize stand, I guess you could say. And then we used candy shoots from one of our Halloween events and actually pushed the prizes down through these cute little tubes and then the kids caught them in their Easter baskets down at the bottom. So it was a fun little interactive thing for them. We had a barn set up with the Easter bunny so we talked one of our teenagers into dressing up in a costume. That was really fun.

Kimi Chadwick:

We had a photo op area set up three different crafts that they could do. We set up our hippity hop rodeo, which is just tiny little inflatable animals that about a five-year-old and under can ride, and then we had our animals open so they could go visit with them. And then we also had our jump pad going. We did gigantic bubbles and then we also had our gift shop open and our espresso open.

Anne McGinty:

This is like real entertainment. I mean you're offering a place for families to just go for the whole day. What is your goal for Craven Farm?

Kimi Chadwick:

So we definitely will continue with our big ones. So weddings and pumpkin patch and then Christmas. I would love to find a way to make that as successful as Easter is, because I would say our Easter was more successful during those two days than an entire Christmas season if we were to take out like Santa breakfast and all of that. So trying to figure out like, what are the families in the area looking for? What unique opportunities can we present at our farm that they can't find anywhere else? One of the big things that I want to do is make sure that people have access to come onto a real working farm and have it feel very authentic and not commercialized and just basically share the farm with the community and find different ways to do that.

Anne McGinty:

I have an idea for you for the Christmas Awesome. Well, we used to own a Christmas lighting business. Oh, very cool. We worked with amusement parks and city districts and if it's not available in your area, then a drive through Christmas lighting experience. Yes, if you have the road and the ability to create that, you could potentially partner and do a collaboration with a really large lighting company in your area.

Kimi Chadwick:

That's a great idea.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah.

Kimi Chadwick:

Yeah, just an idea. Oh, I love that one. I love the idea of partnering. One of the big challenges we have with things being so seasonal is the setup time is a lot, and then the teardown of the last season and then rolling into the next takes a lot of time and effort and sometimes it feels like we don't have enough time to get like all the Christmas lights up that we would like to.

Anne McGinty:

What we did for the amusement parks is we actually installed in August and we kept everything off. So we just installed, we lay everything out and then kept it off, and then when Halloween came down because they also had giant Halloween displays and haunted houses and things like that as soon as that came down the next week it was Christmas. So it's doable, oh my gosh.

Kimi Chadwick:

That's awesome. I love that.

Anne McGinty:

So what have been the biggest challenges that you've faced as a business owner?

Kimi Chadwick:

Oh my goodness, probably taking on too much too quickly and just not knowing how to manage my time effectively when I'm wearing what feels like every hat in the business, at least everyone that my husband's not already wearing. That's been a big challenge. As business owners, we have to do everything until we can find the right employee to help take the hat away from us.

Anne McGinty:

Essentially, how do you manage running this business while also running a family To?

Kimi Chadwick:

be completely honest, I don't feel like I have a good system in place. I feel like I try new things here and there, but by the time that works out, family dynamics change, as far as like we're in school, okay, now we're in the summer and or we're on Christmas break, or like we're changing seasons in the business. So, yeah, it's definitely been a challenge and a constant conversation between my husband and I of like, hey, kimmy, you probably should leave your computer in the office so that when you're home you're focused on the family, and so that's a hard one. I'm definitely more of a workaholic and I love work. I love what we do. So trying to get myself to stop working on it is hard.

Anne McGinty:

Well, and how long has it been since you took over?

Kimi Chadwick:

We purchased in 2018 and worked with them through the next few years. When we first started, our kids were in diapers so they're used to being here, they get it. And then, two years ago is when we were fully just ourselves.

Anne McGinty:

What do you think has contributed to Craven Farm being awarded the Best of Snomish County two years in a row?

Kimi Chadwick:

Oh, my goodness, it goes back to the community and just the traditions that the Cravens were able to start and people just continually coming back year after year. They even get pictures of their kids in our entry wall, which is all filled with pumpkins, and so you get to see the kids growing from, you know, like baby all the way up to like 18 year olds, and I even have couples that come in to tour for weddings and they end up realizing they came here as kids for field trips. So it's this really cool kind of cycle of people coming through and the connections that they've made or they worked at the farm when they were teenagers, when it was just a strawberry you-pick farm. So there's a whole history behind the farm before Pumpkin Patch even started. And anytime I meet people in Snohomish they're like oh Craven, yeah, I did this, I did that and we love it there. So, yeah, I think it's a lot of the long history and just the way we are able to welcome people. That's great.

Anne McGinty:

If someone wanted to look for or build a family business, what advice would you give them?

Kimi Chadwick:

that would be really helpful, oh, set your priorities early and then, as opportunities come to you, if that opportunity doesn't line up with your priorities and your goals for the business, I encourage you to learn to say no. That is something I have a very difficult time doing, so learn to say no early on and that that's okay. Oh, and also, just because you've got great ideas doesn't mean you have to do them all at the beginning, like, start small and build on it. So, like for our business, the craving started very small and then they just gradually added, year after year, a couple of things, and Brian and I we've always got about a million and a half ideas. So some years we take on too much and I wish that we hadn't, but we keep going forward and try to do better the next year.

Anne McGinty:

Yeah, that's what we can all hope to do is little incremental improvements. If you could go back and talk to yourself when you were in your early 20s, what advice would you give yourself?

Kimi Chadwick:

Oh, there's a lot. Take care of yourself first, because if you keep pushing and not taking care of yourself individually, you can't show up well to work and you're not going to be as successful. And learn some time management skills. That would be really good. It's still a struggle for me. I'm starting to ask for help and guidance in that area. So, yeah, hopefully someday we'll find something. I always have my fingers in everything, so if I could figure out how to delegate, I think that would help with time management for sure.

Anne McGinty:

And if your kids were sitting next to you one day, in like 10 years or something, they're just like hey mom, how'd you do this? What can I do so that I can do what you did?

Kimi Chadwick:

Don't be afraid to try new things. If we were afraid to farm, we wouldn't have this and honestly, I cannot imagine doing anything else right now. I absolutely love what we do and be willing to go out and talk with people. I used to be very, very, very shy. Most people would not think that about me anymore, but being able to talk with other business owners, even owners that do the same exact thing, just being able to be open and candid with them, has really helped us and encouraged us to be willing to talk to people.

Anne McGinty:

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and chat with us. Thank you for having me Today's key takeaways Leverage your previous experience. Kimmy and Brian Chadwick transitioned from a successful concessions business in Montana to running Craven Farm, integrating their prior experience seamlessly. Seek opportunities Regularly, browse business sale platforms for established businesses with growth potential. Conduct thorough due diligence and remember Jacques Spitzer's advice people who are looking are more likely to find what they are looking for. If you haven't yet listened to his episode it's about 12 episodes back and has been a listener favorite Embrace challenges.

Anne McGinty:

You don't need to have all the knowledge up front. Be open to learning and adapting as you go. Rethink competition. Similar businesses don't have to be seen as competitors. They can provide valuable collaboration opportunities.

Anne McGinty:

Vertical integration is an incredible approach to business. Brainstorm ways to add elements of vertical integration into your business to enhance offerings and boost profitability. What can you add to offer more of what your community wants? Small changes can have big impact. The Cravens were selling a single donut for a dollar and they now sell six donuts for eight dollars, which doesn't sound like a significantly higher amount, but when you have thousands of customers every day, that can really add up. Explore the option of seller financing, where the owners lease back the space and continue operating while you learn the ropes over a series of years, so that there is a gradual and mutually beneficial handoff. The best business transactions are the ones where the sellers and the buyers are on the same team.

Anne McGinty:

Set your priorities early and learn to say no when opportunities don't align with your priorities and goals. Start small and grow gradually. Implement new ideas gradually rather than all at once to manage growth effectively. Take care of yourself first, because if you don't take care of yourself individually, then you won't be able to show up well at work and for your team. Develop strong time management and delegation skills. Don't be afraid to try new things and, lastly, be willing to talk with people and learn from other people, whether that is other business owners or friends. Be open and candid and make it more about community over competition. That's it for today. I release episodes once a week, so come back and check it out. Have a great day.

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