OFI 624: How To Start A Sheep Shearing Business With No Experience | Emily Chamelin | Chamelin Shearing

 SHOW NOTES

KEY IDEAS: 

Our guest today did exactly what I would advise any of you to do to be able to farm and to be able to support that farm.  To my chagrin, she did it without ever hearing of me.  However, Emily Chamelin is proof of the concept that I had when I started this show.  I knew that there were other people in the world who wanted to farm and who had started their own businesses to be able to do this.

Emily’s story is interesting.  Her grandparents had a farm in Pennsylvania that she always hoped to find herself on in the future.  However, that farm ended up getting sold, and that vision went up in smoke.  This left Emily trying to figure out how she would eventually farm, like so many of us.

Emily was born with a stubborn streak, and if somebody told her that something could not be done she would do her best to prove them wrong.  One of the first times this happened was when she was 15 years old.  She was showing sheep and getting them sheared was expensive and arduous because there was a lack of people shearing sheep in her area.

Emily decided to go to a sheep shearing school to learn this craft for herself.  However, the school actually rejected her, saying she was too young and would not be strong enough.  However, she was persistent and kept trying to go to the school until she was finally admitted.

Emily proved them wrong and fought through the pain of shearing sheep all day.  She completed the school and got her credentials.  Once this happened and she started shearing her own sheep other people began asking for the same service from her.  Pretty soon she was developing her own business based on word of mouth.

She was able to purchase better equipment, better vehicles and pay for college courses with this business.  Eventually she and her husband were able to purchase a farm in Maryland through their entrepreneurial efforts in shearing sheep.  Today Emily has a year round business and travels as far as North Carolina to shear sheep for her customers.

Emily did all of this with no experience.  The farm that she hoped to one day live on and farm at was a dairy farm.  She did not grow up raising sheep, but as a self-described “rebel” she decided that was what she would show.  So, she found the interest, got the training, never allowed anyone to tell her “no” and has now become an authority in her area of interest.

She is an inspiration.  She is a perfect example of what we teach on this show, and I hope her example will inspire you to do the same!

ADVICE FROM EMILY:

SMALL JOBS: Don’t discredit small jobs.  Charge appropriately for them since they are small, but understand that you can build a business on these.

FOCUS: Always focus on doing a good job first.  Worry about volume, speed and maximizing revenue second.

APPRENTICE: If you can find an apprenticeship, then do it!  This will help you learn more and learn it faster than any other way out there.  And, working in a group of shearers will take a lot of pressure off of you when you are first starting out.

BEST ADVICE THAT EMILY HAS RECEIVED:

Consistent with Emily’s rebellious personality, she has the exact opposite take on this question than I normally hear.  Rather than quoting advice she has received she talked about advice she refuses to take that helps her to succeed.  Whenever somebody says that something cannot be done, Emily’s ears perk up.  She is up for that challenge.

PERSONAL HABIT: 

Emily is very good at reading animal body language, and this helps her to shear sheep effectively as well as go to smaller jobs where the owners can’t quite get their animals penned up and caught.  Emily can step in, put pressure on the animals in the right way and get them rounded up.  This is a gift!

BOOK RECOMMENDATION:

Emily has two books to recommend today that have been very inspirational to her.  And, she also says that if you are thinking that you would like to shear sheep you should read these first and see if that still sounds good to you when you are done.

She recommends Shearing Day: Sheep Handling, Wool Science, and Shearing With Blades by Kevin Ford (1999-04-03) and The Ringer’s Stand.

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