Vidalia Onions

Vidalia Onions is a bootstrapped, solo-operated business built by Peter Askew. The domain name always comes first. Peter acquires premium .com domains and develops niche businesses around them. For Vidalia onions, he partnered with farmer Aries Haygood (A&M Farms) in south Georgia, who handles growing, packing, and shipping direct from the farm.

The seasonal rhythm drives everything: orders open in late February, Peter spends 3-4 hours/day on the phone taking orders through March, then May-July is all hands on deck for fulfillment, customer support, and marketing. The tech stack is lean: Shopify for ecommerce, ShipStation for shipping, WordPress for content, EmailOctopus for email, and physical postcards via PFL.com for that personal touch.

Peter handles the web, marketing, and customer relationships from Savannah, GA. The farm team handles agriculture and logistics from Vidalia, GA. No VC, no angel investors — funded with modest profits from other domain name projects.

This is essentially a solo operation with a farm partnership. Peter runs the online business himself (web, marketing, customer service, analytics) while Aries Haygood's A&M Farms crew handles the agricultural and fulfillment side. When outside help is needed, Peter hires freelancers for specific projects (e.g., a local Georgia artist for illustrations, a designer named Jill for a website redesign). There's no formal hiring process, it's relationship-driven, often through X/Twitter outreach or word of mouth within the community.