The World’s Most Successful, Accidental, Tumbleweed Saleswoman

Tumbleweed

There’s a small family farm on eighty acres in western Kansas, that unlike its neighbors who might farm corn, or cattle, this farm has a motto: “If they don’t tumble we don’t sell them!” That’s right, the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm grows tumbleweeds.

Not only do they ship worldwide, they also quality test each and every tumbleweed to make sure that they will tumble when exposed to wind.

Prices

  • $25 + shipping for large (20″+)
  • $20 + shipping for medium (14-20″)
  • $15 + shipping for small (12-14″)

Amazing what people will pay for weeds, don’t you think?

But here’s the interesting part:

The business was started tongue-in-cheek by Linda Katz because she wanted to learn how to make a website.

She posed her grandchildren and nieces and nephews in hardhats on some heavy equipment holding tumbleweeds. She took a photo of her wheat fields and labeled them “rows of tumbleweed.”

Then she submitted the website to Yahoo and went to bed.

Two weeks later and she got an order from a bride in New Jersey who wanted some for center pieces. She was surprised, and felt funny about the whole thing, but packaged up two of the tumbleweeds blowing by, and mailed them off.

The next day, she got an order from Barney the purple dinosaur. And then another. And another. And then, NASA! And then the world!

What can you learn from this?

  • Find a free product that everyone else considers a nuisance
  • Sell it to someone else, who doesn’t consider it a nuisance, for big money

For more, listen to this audio interview with Linda Katz.

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