Help... Quarter (ish) life crisis!

fools_ gold

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I have been working as a designer for nearly 10 years and was living in London...
We have just moved to a farm in Norfolk with 12 acres, I am having a bit of a crisis, I feel like I really need a career change... But I have absolutely no idea what to do...
Do you think I could make money from 12 acres, it doesn't have to be horsey related... Could I grow something, breed something...
Really need your help on this as not sure how much longer I can handle a five hour a day commute to London.
I don't want to be a millionaire, luckily we have no mortgage, I just need enough money to get by... Help!
 
Do you know, I read this as...

'Quarter (irish sports horse) life crisis' :o:D

But on a serious note, I can't really help you with your decision. 12 acres could be used for grass livery perhaps- does it have any stables/outbuildings? or yes, you could potentially grow something.

I'm not very knowledagble on growing stuff though :D
 
Ha ha maybe I didn't think the title through very well!!! :)
That's for the reply though, yes did think about livery... Was thinking more along the lines of full or sales livery though... But not sure about livery in general as I hear so many YO complaining.
 
Don't know anything about it myself but farming of goats is becoming more popular in the UK- for both meat and milk. I saw something about it on telly :o might be a possibility with 12 acres? or farming of a rare breed of sheep or goat? good luck with whatever you decide to do
 
How about chickens? Good free range eggs and meat would be an easy sell at farmers markets. Or pigs....and if you do goats you can make cheese too! Oh, and bees for honey....Can you tell a smallholding is my dream? :)
 
My sister in law runs a wedding dress design business from her husbands farm. She is fairly close to a large town though and people are happy to come out to her for fittings etc.

Could you get planning permission for some holiday cottages on your farm or run a camp site? Run a farm shop/ organic veg, etc.

As for making money from animals - not easy. What about a growing grapes and making wine..haha :)
 
Wow thanks for all the suggestions...
Regarding the wedding dresses, it's something I am already seriously considering, I have the training and experience so might be the obvious choice.. Just not sure if there is a market for it here... Although I suppose there is a potential market anywhere you just need to promote yourself in the right places.
We have three goats (castrated males unfortunately) but I absolutely love them (when they aren't escaping) so could imagine having a herd of goats... Plus am a massive fan of goats cheese, so will look into that.
Alpacas are something we have also considered as I have links with the knitwear industry for selling the fleece already, but to get a substantially productive herd you have to invest a lot of money which we don't have.
Building another house or holiday homes has been considered but again we don't have any money and are unlikely to get loans/ planning.
Did think about horse holidays, someone was telling me they just rented a field took a couple of horses and camped in a tent, we have great hacking and are a lorry ride away from the beach... Any ideas if this could work?
We do have a substantial apple orchard on some of our land I was thinking maybe brewing some scrumpy and selling it at farmers markets, although not sure if that's something you can just do, do you need a lincense?
Honey is definitely something my OH wants to do, we have the fatest bees here!! Buying a hive soon.
I think the trouble is, to do any of these things I need time to spend on it, which means giving up my job, which is terrifying, I think I just need a push to do it!
 
If you have some flat land, contact the Caravan Club, you don't need toilets/showers or other facilities, just privacy. I think it's called a Certified site and can take a max of 5 caravans, can be a nice little income for no outlay, full details on the Caravan Club website
 
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