When we started our farm...hobby, lifestyle, occupation, income, fun, learning, FFA project, 4h project... whatever you wanna call it... we were lucky.....
we literally bought the farm... we have lived here for 10 years or so... and have had animals on our property for about 8 of those 10 years... we had lots of buildings, barns, etc. etc. already here... as at one time our place was one of the largest dairy farms in the area... that was well before our time here though...
Anyway....
We gutted about 75% of our barn... And made many mini barn/sections with in...
We have a poultry coop, pig pens, lambing and kidding areas, horse and cattle area, as well as quarantine areas and general areas for the animals. All though most of our animals free range on pasture, they still have their 'own' areas....
***I would suggest GOOD fencing no matter what animals you decide to try, keep, work with, raise... There is nothing like being out in the middle of the night trying to convince your escaped animal it's better to be inside the fenced in areas..,.when what they really want is to be eating out of the next persons garden or crops....lol
***Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.... Almost everything we have here has been reused, found, recycled etc. Everything from fencing, to posts, feeders and waters, to partitions and separators... Use what you have or can acquire for little to nothing... Craigslist, word of mouth, sales can all be helpful.
***Being willing to trade and barter.... we allow someone else to store his hay in one of our out buildings in exchange for hay when needed... some years he comes out ahead, others we do... just depends on how good our hay crop is of our own..
***Go bigger... I guess this would be if you already have 'some animals' that you know you like and want to continue raising...Build bigger than you think you will need....as it's sometimes hard er to add on... I know we ended up with this issue with our pig pens... We build an area that we thought would be perfect for our little pig friends... which it was the first year or two... After that because we had acquired more the next few years, our area was no longer suitable for them... So we had to build a new pig area... a larger pig area... in a different area, as our first area wasn't able to be expanded....
***I agree with the 'animals earn their keep" idea... our birds(chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea) give us eggs and meat, the pigs meat, the cows milk and meat, the goats milk and meat, our sheep give us milk, meat and wool. the rabbis give us meat...Now we don't necessarily eat all our animals, but we sell also. So everything has a purpose here... All though the Emu's weren't really profitable for us they were enjoyable...
***learn all you can... read up on health and husbandry, know your pastures and what grows and what don't (poisonous to animals, etc) If something were to happen to an animals is there a vet, local farmer, someone you know in the areas who is able to help out..
***climate.... of course everyone loves farming and working with the animals summer, spring and fall... but don't forget about winter... In Wisconsin we seem to have winter 10 outta 12 months a year... except this year has been especially nice... How do will you water during the winter... that's a main concern... When we built one of our first pens we didn't think that... well needless to say that first winter was a killer hauling 5 gallon buckets of water out because the hoses would freeze during the winter... so we would be lugging buckets to some of our farthest pens because we didn't think of something simple like that... needless to say that next spring we fixed that problem and now have running water out to that area year round...
***storage... do you have separate areas protected from weather for storing feed, hay, etc... is it easy to access year round.. in all types of weather... kinda goes with above.... nothing like trying to push a wheelbarrow full of hay through snow that is almost waist deep... it don't work so well.. again something we fixed the fallowing spring..
*** know your areas wants and needs... example...if you raise birds for eggs and end up with more than you can handle is there people around you who would be willing to purchase from you..
I guess those are just a few ideas right off hand... hope some of them are helpful for you....