Openherd

Over the Christmas holidays, I had an opportunity to visit Cindy Harris and Doug Fieg and their farm, Alpacas at Windy Hill, in Somis, California (in Ventura County, southern California near the Pacific Ocean).

After a peaceful, sunny morning strolling among the alpacas with my wife and 3 kids, I sat down with Cindy in her show ribbon-decked office to ask her how she's making it work with the current challenges of the industry, and how she's planning for the future.

Cindy, tell us brief... read full article

Websites, emails, banner advertising, social media and other online marketing can be rather abstract activities compared to the very real, invigorating, hands-on world of your physical farm. For many of you it's why you love raising alpacas - it gets you away from that "desk work" into a more natural, human way of life.

For those of you whose farms are a business, you work hard to make your farm as presentable and interesting as possible so that when potential customers come to visit they are... read full article

If there is one thing that defines our modern world it is complexity. People don't just work one job for life any longer. Staying in touch isn't just about simple letter writing. And running a business is not just a physical "bricks and mortar" affair.

Even though the online world is now part of every facet of daily life, for most people it remains a 'black box' - "...a system which can be viewed solely in terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics without any knowledge... read full article

Today marketplaces are highly complex business environments that have evolved from the traditional outdoor market where vendors and customers from all over gather to buy, sell or trade. The benefit for customers is that they can find the widest selections and best prices all in one convenient place. For vendors, the marketplace offers the largest concentration of potential customers.

So whether you're selling produce at the local farmer's market, or selling your alpacas on Openherd.com, the s... read full article