Hi there,
Sometimes
we have to let go of the old to make room for the new.
Last week, I made a
big change to Forrager: I removed the forums and community portal from the site.
This is something I have been considering for awhile now. I
added the community component to Forrager over a decade ago, and since then, it grew to over 4,000 members.
For many years, I could honestly say that Forrager was the largest cottage food community out there, but that hasn't been the case for awhile now, with many Facebook groups easily surpassing it (especially the
Cottage Food Business group).
But even as it got less popular, I kept Forrager's forums alive is because
I've liked the idea of having a community option that is not owned by Facebook.
But ultimately, Forrager's community
dwindled to the point where 99% of the activity was spam I had to manage. Rarely did someone post something legitimate, and I finally made the decision to let it go.
I have now changed
Forrager's tagline in the site's header from "cottage food community" to "cottage food resource".
But don't worry,
the most popular stuff is still there and I have no plans to change them: the laws, bills, podcast, and free business listings. I also have my Cottage Food Pro membership, which is a community, but in a very different way (live group calls instead of forums).
What's most important is
making sure Forrager can support the cottage food industry in the best way possible, and sometimes that requires tough choices. But making changes like this are allowing me to grow into what's next.
And along those lines, earlier this week,
I did something brand new with Forrager that you'll get to see by the end of this month, and I think you'll love it!And also, always remember that
you need to do the same in your business. Is there something you've always done that isn't really serving your business or customers anymore? Is there something you should let go of? Let me know. :)
Forraging ahead,
David