Opportunities are everywhere, as entrepreneurs we just have to look.

Ever heard someone say money doesn’t grow on trees?

Turns out they are wrong.

If you look for an opportunity you find them everywhere. Even in the garden.

As entrepreneurs, we rarely have all our eggs in one basket. Diversified income streams are what make us successful. We have to be open to opportunities all the time.

This year, looking for ways to pass the time. The garden went from somewhere to BBQ and sunbathe, to an acre of fruits and vegetables.

To start with, this was just a new hobby to pass all the time being spent at home.

3 months on and about 6 weeks into harvesting the food we have grown. Well, it’s another income stream.

While it’s not the kind of income stream that’s going to make us rich. It is worth a few hundred bucks. That’s after we have eaten all that we can first.

It’s also the type of business opportunity that I like. Low investment and low running costs. Sure there is time to be accounted for, but right now what else are we going to be doing?

Now we did have some help, we already had 5 cherry trees, 3 apricot trees, an apple tree, and some neglected grapevines. So it’s not like we have started from scratch.

But we did have to get them all back into a condition where they would grow viable food.

That had an upfront cost in chemicals and feeds. Then we had seeds for the various other things we are growing, basic tools, and good compost.

That upfront investment (Not sure I would call it a capital investment) was around $80.

Monthly operating expenses for feeding and weeding the land is around $3 and water around $5.

The rest of the expenses are our time. Which as I said, since we started this as a hobby and have very little else to do while locked down. Suits us just fine.

That time commitment is around 90 minutes per day during the week and 2 or 3 hours per day at the weekend. Not huge.

At the other end of the process, we have costs and time to process what we have grown.

The time spent in the garden each day includes harvesting whatever is ready. The rest of the time, around an hour per day, is processing that food and/or making something else with it.

The veg is easy, it needs to be cleaned and stored correctly. Its the fruit that takes time, especially if you need to prepare it to make a jam or juice.

At the end of all this, I have more produce than I can consume. Some of it is traded or passed around friends and family. But the rest well its sold.

Money is growing on our trees and in the ground around the property.

At the moment we have cherries, apricots, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes, apples, peppers, tomatoes, and pumpkins.

Each of those has enough planted to produce 100–300 kgs of produce.

We will be lucky to get through 200kgs of it ourselves.

This then is where the opportunity lies. People go crazy about organic produce. I can advertise on social media, and have people pre-order and stop by.

At around $1 for a kilo of produce, we are set to make over $1000 in profit off of our hobby this year.

Not a huge amount, but not bad at all for a hobby we didn’t even think about monetizing, to begin with. It’s another source of income that mixes with the others. They all build up to make a difference.

Next year with a little brand established and some more work, that can double or triple. We can also sell products such as juices, jams, etc which will add to the available income from the crop.

Again all this comes at very little investment in time, effort, or money.

As entrepreneurs, if we keep our minds open and receptive to new opportunities. We often find them in the unlikeliest of places.

Next time someone tells you that money doesn’t grow on trees. You have the answer to prove them wrong!