Profitable Farmer

Episode 13: ‘HOW TO BUILD CONFIDENCE AND GO FOR WHAT YOU WANT’

“CONFIDENCE drives SUCCESS…”

How much do you like yourself?

Do you have a fear of walking up to people?

Are you afraid of being rejected?

Do you doubt yourself?

Statistics prove that confident business owners succeed more in both commerce and life.

This podcast explores:

• What is confidence?

In a farming business, possible factors affecting confidence could be:

As a result…

You forget to focus on the goals you set when you first started out in business.

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”

- Henry Ford

Confidence is easily lost on a business journey because of all the moving parts of running a business.

Confidence is an inner liking of YOURSELF.

The more you like yourself, the more confident you become.

The more confident you are, the better decisions you make.

“The speed of success that you will have in business is directly related to the speed in which you are able to make decisions”

The truth is, you start acting very defensively when you lack confidence;

You stop taking risks;

You stop taking the steps that need to be taken to help you succeed in business and in life.

“We need to spend more time un-learning before we learn”

Un-learn all the negative drama from parents, teachers and peers.

Re-wire your brains to the positive.

How can you do this?...

Here are 3 ways to effectively un-learn the negative and learn the positive:

1. Be kind to yourself

• Treat yourself extremely well.

“It’s what you say to yourself, when you are by yourself, and about yourself that matters most”

1. Bring more awareness to your thoughts

• You are just a manifestation of your thinking.

“Gratitude fuels self-esteem and confidence”

1. Implement a morning routine

• Commit to doing this daily.

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day” - Dalia Lama

Finally…

Maintain a strong confidence in yourself or you’ll end up as a victim to the external circumstances that can influence your beliefs.

Invest in your own self-confidence and assure yourself that there will be a return on that investment.

You will see amazing things happen.

What's stopping you from deciding to be a confident person right now?

“With confidence, you have won before you started”

- Marcus Garvey

Marketing your way to new markets

In today’s episode, we are joined by Tim Young, a farm marketing expert, author, and founder of the Small Farm Nation Academy; an online resource that teaches farmers the marketing skills required to grow a profitable farming business. 

The first question Tim asks his clients is:

Are you running a hobby, or are you running a business?

FARMING IS A BUSINESS.

A business needs customers.  If you need customers….

YOU NEED MARKETING.

Farmers need to be clear that they are running a business, not just a farm.

80% of your business success is marketing.

You need to have the skills to be an effective marketer.

Here are the Top 3 Methods:

1. CREATE A BRAND FOR YOUR FARM

It is critical to maintain consistency in Branding.  Repetition makes people associate the Brand with the product.

Build the habit of highlighting the BENEFITS of your products/services rather than the features.

Great brands introduce their values into a simple benefit-oriented tagline that resonates with people.

Keep in mind that if consumers do not remember you, they are not going to choose your product.

As mentioned, farming is a business that requires market exposure like all other businesses.

STEP UP from being a TECHNICAL FARMER and become a FARMING BUSINESS OWNER.

1. TRANSPARENCY – Tell people What, Why and How!

What do you stand for? Show them what your decisions are and why.

Transparency has a huge influence in brand awareness.

1. COMMUNICATE WITH CONSUMERS – reach out to the market!

Cultivate a dialogue with your customers to create a two-way discussion.

With the help of consumer reviews, you create products that are high MARGIN for you and high VALUE for them.

Many Thanks to Tim Young, founder of Small Farm Nation Academy.

www.smallfarmnation.com / www.smallfarmnationacademy.com

See you all in the next episode!

TOP 3 METHODS OF EFFECTIVE MARKETING

In today’s episode, we are joined by Tim Young, a farm marketing expert, author, and founder of the Small Farm Nation Academy; an online resource that teaches farmers the marketing skills required to grow a profitable farming business. 

The first question Tim asks his clients is:

Are you running a hobby, or are you running a business?

FARMING IS A BUSINESS.

A business needs customers.  If you need customers….

YOU NEED MARKETING.

Farmers need to be clear that they are running a business, not just a farm.

80% of your business success is marketing.

You need to have the skills to be an effective marketer.

Here are the Top 3 Methods:

1. CREATE A BRAND FOR YOUR FARM

It is critical to maintain consistency in Branding.  Repetition makes people associate the Brand with the product.

Build the habit of highlighting the BENEFITS of your products/services rather than the features.

Great brands introduce their values into a simple benefit-oriented tagline that resonates with people.

Keep in mind that if consumers do not remember you, they are not going to choose your product.

As mentioned, farming is a business that requires market exposure like all other businesses.

STEP UP from being a TECHNICAL FARMER and become a FARMING BUSINESS OWNER.

1. TRANSPARENCY – Tell people What, Why and How!

What do you stand for? Show them what your decisions are and why.

Transparency has a huge influence in brand awareness.

1. COMMUNICATE WITH CONSUMERS – reach out to the market!

Cultivate a dialogue with your customers to create a two-way discussion.

With the help of consumer reviews, you create products that are high MARGIN for you and high VALUE for them.

Many Thanks to Tim Young, founder of Small Farm Nation Academy.

www.smallfarmnation.com / www.smallfarmnationacademy.com

See you all in the next episode!

“It’s HOW YOU REACT to the Drought that MATTERS MOST”

In this episode, we aim for all of us to not overlook the benefits of the drought situation and how our span of control plays a huge part in real-life challenges.

What can you do to control your reaction in regards to this present drought condition?

What can you do in all other areas of your business to get through these tough times?

We all know drought has been occurring for a long time now and certainly has a significant impact on large areas of the country.

Australia has had long droughts in the past, we have to accept that as part of the country we live in.

You can’t control the weather, but you can control the way you respond to what’s going on in your farming business.

Spend your time and energy focusing on the things you can control in a drought situation and not the drought itself.

Andrew is reminded of a fantastic story about one of Australia’s greatest Iron Men:

Trevor Hendy was about to take off on a competition day at Port Macquarie when the weather was crazy, the sea was huge and the wind was howling.  The organisers thought of cancelling the event but decided to push through.

Trevor was sitting overlooking the ocean and a journalist spotted him and asked, “What is running through your mind?”  Trevor, who was listening to some music, pulled out his earplugs and responded to the journalist, “The environment is always perfect”.

Clueless, the journalist asked, what do you mean by that?  Trevor said, “I can’t do anything about the size of the ocean today…  I can’t change the wind…  I know for a fact that I’m not going to get my best time because the condition isn’t great.  But the only thing I can promise you today is that, I can do the best that I can regardless of the weather.  I’m going out there and will give it my all”.

We can’t change the weather but there certainly are things that farmers can be doing during drought times.

All you can do is your best – and you can control what your best looks like.

Let’s now look at the 4 areas to support farmers dealing with drought:

1. LET GO OF THE VICTIM MENTALITY

• Victim mentality is a state where you start thinking that everything that happens to you is someone else’s fault.

But you are in control of your business.

You are in control of how you react to the current situation.

And if you move into the victim mentality, it makes it very difficult to make strategic decisions.

When a business is in a period of adversity, as the owner…

YOU MUST LEAD, STEP UP and MAKE GREAT DECISIONS.

The drought should not make you feel like you are a failure or any other negative self-talk.

If you are locked into a mental framework of being a victim, you are totally un-empowered and unable to make the decisions to improve your situation.

• Drought is never great, but as a professional farmer, your responsibility is to maximise the good times and minimise the bad times.

Mentality directly affects decision-making.

We can never appreciate the good times without the bad.

Look at the fortunate aspects of the current drought.

• Drought only illustrates all businesses have a risk profile. There are certain risks that we all face as business owners.

Your business risk profile should always be part of your annual planning.

How do we mitigate the potential risks of drought?

Here is a highly effective tool for you.. Click here to download

If we do – I’d suggest a hyperlink to the document if possible?

• A great principle to always remember is:

The best time to be looking at your business critically, analyse efficiency and structure, is in periods of adversity. 

• It’s almost a requirement for businesses to go through tough times to centre the focus back on ways to streamline and steer it back to profitability.

During tough times, use every single opportunity to analyse what is going on with the business.

Think of how the business will do at the good times when you are successful in going through the bad.

Being a business owner, you need to wear your “adventure hat”.  Imagine how boring the journey will be if you always take the easy road…

Learning the skills to become a technical farmer is challenging.

Learning to run a farming business is challenging.

Getting through this drought is challenging.

Our greatest success is often above or below of where we are currently looking.

Farm Owners Academy continues to look for ways on how to address the real issues affecting Australian farmers.

Thank you for joining us in this special edition episode!

Farm Owners Academy

P.S. Whenever you’re ready…here are 4 ways we can help you grow your farming business:

1. Subscribe to our ‘Profitable Farmer’ podcast

2. Join the Farm Owner Academy’s closed Facebook group ‘Profitable Farmer’ 

3. Join our ‘Take Control’ Program – and be a case study

4. Work with us privately

“It's HOW YOU REACT to the Drought that MATTERS MOST”

In this episode, we aim for all of us to not overlook the benefits of the drought situation and how our span of control plays a huge part in real-life challenges.

What can you do to control your reaction in regards to this present drought condition?

What can you do in all other areas of your business to get through these tough times?

We all know drought has been occurring for a long time now and certainly has a significant impact on large areas of the country.

Australia has had long droughts in the past, we have to accept that as part of the country we live in.

You can’t control the weather, but you can control the way you respond to what’s going on in your farming business.

Spend your time and energy focusing on the things you can control in a drought situation and not the drought itself.

Andrew is reminded of a fantastic story about one of Australia’s greatest Iron Men:

Trevor Hendy was about to take off on a competition day at Port Macquarie when the weather was crazy, the sea was huge and the wind was howling.  The organisers thought of cancelling the event but decided to push through.

Trevor was sitting overlooking the ocean and a journalist spotted him and asked, “What is running through your mind?”  Trevor, who was listening to some music, pulled out his earplugs and responded to the journalist, “The environment is always perfect”.

Clueless, the journalist asked, what do you mean by that?  Trevor said, “I can’t do anything about the size of the ocean today…  I can’t change the wind…  I know for a fact that I’m not going to get my best time because the condition isn’t great.  But the only thing I can promise you today is that, I can do the best that I can regardless of the weather.  I’m going out there and will give it my all”.

We can’t change the weather but there certainly are things that farmers can be doing during drought times.

All you can do is your best - and you can control what your best looks like.

Let’s now look at the 4 areas to support farmers dealing with drought:

1. LET GO OF THE VICTIM MENTALITY

• Victim mentality is a state where you start thinking that everything that happens to you is someone else’s fault.

• You blame the weather or other circumstances.

• Being a victim means you do not have power over anything that is going on and you are just on the receiving end.

But you are in control of your business.

You are in control of how you react to the current situation. 

And if you move into the victim mentality, it makes it very difficult to make strategic decisions. 

When a business is in a period of adversity, as the owner…

YOU MUST LEAD, STEP UP and MAKE GREAT DECISIONS.

The drought should not make you feel like you are a failure or any other negative self-talk.

If you are locked into a mental framework of being a

In this episode, Greg and Andrew will be educating on what to do when you or your business hits a ceiling. 

Thanks to the Entrepreneur Organization System (EOS) who helped create this content

Having been involved in businesses for a long time now, we are very familiar with this topic.

To begin with –

HITTING THE CEILING OCCURS WITH ALL BUSINESSES

Eventually, you will reach a point where something in the business is basically stuck.

Your business is either not going forward at the rate that it was -

Or, you feel the business is just overly complex.

There might be individuals in the business that are feeling things are just too difficult for them within their current roles or there are divisions or areas in the business that are not progressing as well as they should. 

Hitting the ceiling can occur at an organisational level,

Can occur at an enterprise-specific level,

Or can occur at a personal or people level. 

Understanding that the business is just not progressing or not moving ahead as it was, or you get a feeling that things are just going to be complex and difficult to handle – THIS IS HITTING THE CEILING!

We are not an exception, it occurs to us too.

Greg and his wife have gone on a rapid expansion of their business over the last 8 years.  Their business expanded in terms of revenue by 400%.   In staff terms, it has tripled in size in that period

They were hitting the ceiling, about every six months throughout that period of growth. 

The business was growing so fast that it took a lot of effort, on Greg’s behalf mostly, to visit the 5 disciplines that we are going to talk about in this episode.

How did Greg hit the ceiling?

At that particular time, everything had to change within his business

The systems that they had in place, the structure - the team, the way that the team was positioned and the way they managed them.  Everything had to change on a constant basis to allow them to continue to grow and achieve that rate of growth.

Greg strongly points out, all businesses that grow, hit the ceiling at some stage and,

There are only 3 things you can do when you hit the ceiling:

First, PUT IN PLACE THE PRINCIPLES THAT WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT TODAY, restructure the business and move it through that ceiling and get on to the next phase of growth.

Second, stay at that level and just bounce around and not go anywhere.  Eventually leads the business to reducing profitability and ultimately at the end, would cause demise of the business.

Third, you can actually recognize that the business has stagnated and you can elect to reduce the size of the business and move it back down to a smaller business.

Some of the ways a farm owner might know that have hit the ceiling:

• When a farmer works so hard but not really getting the traction

HITTING THE CEILING IS OFTEN AN OPPORTUNITY DRESSED AS A DISGUISE...

SLOW DOWN IN ORDER TO SPEED UP.

SOMETIMES WE NEED THE EDUCATION TO CHANGE DIRECTION INSTEAD OF MOTIVATION TO SPEED UP.

After all, hitting the ceiling means the business is growing – there are significant opportunities awaiting.  Ask yourself, “What is it that’s holding the business back?”

Keep in mind, businesses that don’t grow never hit the ceiling.

And now,

THE 5 PRINCIPLES:

Simplify

As the business grows, it becomes more complex.  As human beings, we seem to like to make things more complex.  Quoting Steve Jobs, “Complexity is easy, simple you have to work at’.

A common scenario in growing businesses is when you reach a point where it’s become far too complex - too many balls in the air and too many things going on that make it hard to streamline and well-manage operating machines. 

The task of a business owner is to look at what’s going on in the business and simplify as much as possible.  Run the simplest systems.

Delegate

As the business grows organically, the owners get to a point where they are working beyond their physical capacity and the business is being constrained.  The labour being supplied by the principal owners becomes a constraint for the business to grow. 

The obvious solution is to DELEGATE. 

Look at the workforce and the tasks that need to be done.  Leverage your time so that you can bring somebody in to more effectively work on tasks and allow you space and time to work on the things that are going to help you grow the business beyond the ceiling. 

Predict

Prediction allows us to see where the business is going and what needs to happen.  We have the short-term prediction and the long-term prediction. 

Short-term prediction is knowing that you are on top of your business – that nothing is going to happen in the next 1, 2 or 3 weeks that will cause you putting out the fire and chasing your time all the time. 

Unfortunately, I’ve seen mostly the farm is running the business owner rather than the business owner running the farm.  This happens because the owners do not have strategies and processes in place. 

One very effective way of prediction is having short meetings with your team, say, weekly, half an hour.  Discuss all the current issues that are on the table, solve for the longer term good.  Once current issues are solved, these are not going to come up anymore in the next few weeks.

Long-term is all about looking at the business over 12 months down to 3 months window.  Understanding where the business is going and what the possibilities are.

Like a cash-flow budget.  Make it a realistic cash-flow budget, you are confident the budget can be achieved and then start tracking them. 

If you set a cash-flow budget and it is realistic, and you track it and you achieve the outcome for that budget, then you know exactly where the business is going to be in the next 12 months. 

Systemise

When you’re working on your own, then you have the repository of all the information, you do things the way you do them because that is the way you develop the processes and procedures for getting particular jobs done, that’s all fine…

BUT…

You get into a situation where you want all of the tasks done within the business. 

The only way to do this if you are not doing it yourself is to have written systems in place, documented systems, that somebody else can follow and achieve exactly the same outcome. 

Remember that 80% of your income comes from 20% of the activities that you undertake on the farm.

Identify all the important activities that occur and systemize, have written procedures, you can then have somebody else come in and you start delegating those tasks.  All they have to do is follow the systems you have written and know that the outcome will be achieved to the level that you want them achieved.

According to studies, 9 out 10 problems in business are system-related not human related. 

The natural tendency when there is a problem in the business is to blame the person, but the FIRST step that you should look into is, what system do you have to get this job done? 

Build the habit of having a checklist for all the systems and tasks associated with the systems. 

Structure

This is such an important one. 

Look at all the people that are in the business –

Look at all the roles performed in the business –

The tasks –

Create a visual of your current organization.

And then,

Look at the growing business to the next level.

You will realise your current structure is not satisfactory. 

Your current structure got you where you’re at today BUT it is not going to get you to where you want to go in the future.

Again ask yourself, “What is the simplest organisational chart that I need, to grow the business to the next level?”

This means you start identifying who in the current team has a lot of tasks to do.  Then you create new opportunities within the business and split out tasks for people who are over capacity. 

Delegate tasks that suit their natural abilities and/or going out and seeking further members of the team with specific skill sets to take on tasks you identified to be delegated.

Having the right people in the first place –

Having them in the right seats, and

Doing the right thing matching their natural talents and abilities.

Next time you reach the ceiling, just apply any or all of the 5 ways and you will be able to break through.

It’s all about taking control of your business. 

You can allow the business to take control of you or you can take the range and take control of it. 

You can’t control the weather but you CAN certainly control a whole lot of variables in running a fantastic business.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THINGS THAT YOU CAN CONTROL.

Please share this podcast with other farmers.

We hope it helps,

Farm Owners Academy

The 1st Component:  CLEAR JOB DESCRIPTIONS

It has to be written up.  Making a clear job description for each team member has to be in writing – enumerate the tasks for clarity and better understanding.  I endorse a great book called ‘The E-Myth’ by Michael Gerber.  It’s a fantastic book to read if you are a business owner.  The author talks about the importance of having an organisational chart, applying to every single business.

Overview of Departments:

CEO

• Responsible for setting the vision and direction of the business

Marketing Department

• Takes care of effective branding and presence of the business

Sales Department

• They find the clients

Operations

• Ensures every single task on your farms gets DONE

Human Resource

• This is not applicable for small farms but certainly becomes an area as you get bigger

IT Department

• Sets up email addresses for each team member

Administration Department

• Administration behind the book work

Finance Department

• Responsible for budgeting

It is imperative that you split out these roles and get a lot of clarity as to what are all the tasks that need to be done to run your farming business.

What typically occurs is, you being the business owner are also the busiest person doing everything that nothing really gets done well.

And I find it humorous because you get to a stage where you feel you cannot do everything

OR,

You hire someone but not sure what you want them to do, resulting to them making a lot of mistakes

And then,

You start fixing all the mistakes and end up making a decision that no one can do the tasks as well as you.  You take back all the jobs you have delegated which causes chaos because you failed to sit down and actually write out a list.

THE REAL FIX:

• Have a concrete list. Write it out clearly.

Break the business up.

Bring accountability and responsibility to certain components in running your business.

START YOUR LIST NOW!

Once you have your tasks list, think of a team/family member best suited for the work and write the name next to it.

This is the easiest method to create a job description.

The 2nd Component:  GWC

G – they Get it 

W – they Want it 

C – they have the Capacity to do it

In running a world-class team, it is critical to make sure that the person you choose for each job ‘gets and understands’ the details of each task.

I have had a number of examples on this in my career in running businesses and working with team members.  Once I delegated a detailed job to a person that has an outgoing personality.  This person doesn’t get detail. I was giving the wrong task but also this person may be way more suited in Marketing, as an example.

Lesson here is, align the job description to the right personality.

Kolbe.com is a fantastic tool I highly recommend.  Get the team member do a personality profile.  The results will tell you if a person is outgoing or an introvert, detail-oriented or people-oriented, and it effectively helps you to determine if the person gets it and wants it.

It is pointless giving someone a job they do not want and then later on find out that there is a passionate person out there to do the job for you.

In my case, I do not like doing the books for my business.  This is why I outsource to someone who will do it.  Someone who loves doing the books, wants it, is really good at it and can do the job quickly.

Now on capacity, I make sure I do not overload their back.  Never assign a task to someone who does not really have room to do it.  Obviously because when they do not have the capacity, the results are substandard.

So…

Now that you have identified the person who gets the job, wants the job, has the capacity to do the job –

It is critical that they are aligned with the values within your business.

Take some time to listen to my podcast on getting more organized.  I talked about having a strategic plan and getting clarity on your values.

A lot of issues in business are actually related to you hiring team members that are not aligned to your business values.

Do your part – document your values.

Have clarity and documentation of your values.  For example, reporting to work on time is one of your business values.  This is already very clear but you have to make sure the team member also clearly understands and most importantly, shares the same value.  For the documentation part, make sure it is written somewhere in the job description.

The 3rd Component:  SET VERY CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

Honestly, how do you feel when your expectations are not met?

In a performance review, how would you rate a team member who does not meet work expectations?

A world-class business team sets very clear expectations and take note that this has to be a two-way relationship.  Being the business owner, you have to clarify what you expect from the team and vice-versa.

Again, write it down.  With your expectations written down, it makes it easier to deal with conflicts for existing members, and it clarifies expectations for the new hires.

As an example, in a case where I am employing a new team member, I would be clear right at the onset about the following:

• I want you to arrive 10 minutes before work starts

Notice the clarity of expectations in the given example.  As a business owner, you would like your team members to maximize the week and this happens when you clearly tell them what you want, as they are not mind-readers.

CLEAR COMMUNICATION GETS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE.

The 4th Component:  HAVE A WEEKLY, QUARTERLY and YEARLY PLANNING

When was the last time you went out on a team-building activity?

Or strategy-planning?

Get away with your team for:

• 1-2 days a year

Brainstorm time

Ask the questions:

• What are our goals for the year?

Try the “rapid fire” activity.  This is when you get to ask each of your team members in random order about your goals and they have to have an immediate answer.

You would easily find out who among the team members do not know what your 9-year goals are, your next 12 months, etc.  Everyone in the team has to know your business goals by heart.

Imagine driving without any direction, you may still be able to continuously drive

But,

Where will you end up?

It is very crucial for a team/family member to know your business goals, otherwise, those who do not will just wing it.

Track your success.  How did we go last week?  Last quarter?

Then plan strategically.  What can we do better?  What are we going to focus on next week?

Are there any issues we need to resolve?  This is the very time that team members should practice open communication and honesty.

The more you communicate, the smoother your team works.

There is more energy, more clarity, more professionalism in the team.

As a business owner, you cannot go wrong doing this because, if you want to be a profitable farmer –

YOUR TEAM IS YOUR BIGGEST ASSET

And ultimately, often your biggest expense, so –

If you can help your team become more productive, you will generate more profitability. 

Get more out of your team – having ONE great team member will beat THREE average.

The 5th Component:  PUT SYSTEMS IN PLACE AND TRAIN YOUR TEAM

Food for thought:  You are better off training a team member and they leave, then not training them and they stay.

The very first thing you should do, even before training, is to put some basic systems in place.  The top producing farmers that we currently work with have systems for everything:

• Systems for operational duties

A system is simply a checklist of what needs to get done into the standard that you want as the business owner.

The reality is, if you don’t put up systems in place, then the team members wing it.

And if they wing it –

Mistakes are made in tasks, it costs you time fixing errors - which ultimately leads to reduced profitability.

THE REAL FIX:

• Get systems in place

THE RESULT:

• Highly efficient team

You can never run a freedom farm if you are doing everything yourself.

You have to slowly let go…

As a matter of fact, the most successful farming business owners slowly hand over every task that they are doing on their farm to team/family members.

With the systems and proper training in place, they are able to maximise the team.

The 6th Component:  REWARD and RECOGNISE YOUR TEAM.  PROVIDE FEEDBACK.  LOOK FOR PRAISE

Notice that in this current generation, service surveys are just everywhere.  From text messaging to online surveys, hard-copy feedback sheet and of course, the infamous social media.

It just proves the power of giving feedback.

You do need to go out of your way and give that feedback to each team member for a job well done.  A lot of farmers are a little bit guilty about this.  Unfortunately, farmers that I meet are pretty hard on themselves.

Not to blame them completely because they were brought up in a very tough environment and because they are hard on themselves, they become hard on their family or team members (this is just a bit of generalisation from me).

As a business owner, you would want to be the very first person to praise your team.  Just imagine how doing so extensively motivates and renews the energy of your team.

As a business owner, you would want your team members to see where they can improve.  Then use the systems to train them.  Make them feel that you’ve got their back!

I grew up in a farming community and looking back, there was not a lot of reward and recognition going on.

In my career as a business coach for 19 years now, I have seen the huge impact on business owners when they focus on rewards and recognition to teams and team members.

So, take the time to provide feedback –

Both positive and negative.

The 7th Component:  YOU NEED TO TRUST

Where there is no trust, there is no team.

I remember when I was younger and played Rugby Union, was always in the forwards then moved to the backs when I got older.  I was a breakaway – meaning I was like a defender and covered mistakes being made at the backs.  My goal was to defend and also be there in attack.

But later in my career, I moved out into the backline and became an inside centre.  I was so busy focusing on helping out others do their jobs having this breakaway mentality.  Until I realised I was the one creating the holes in the backline.  I was the one who allowed people to break through the backline and score thrice.  This is all because I wasn’t trusting the people around me.

The loss of trust is very true in the business world.  There are those who hand team members tasks but really do not trust that they will do the task well or might do it the exact same way they do.

As a result…

They become controlling as a business owner.

You can never grow as a world-class company if you are like that.

You have to be comfortable handing over tasks to others and TRUST them to do the work.

TRUST that they can perform the same way you do, if not better.

Besides, how can you run a freedom farm if you are doing all the tasks yourself?

This is why you have to:

LET GO

SLOWLY DELEGATE WITH TRUST

GRADUALLY HAND OVER RESPONSIBILITY

Because of trust, some of our top performing farmers in our coaching groups now go on holidays during the busiest times of the year.  3-4 weeks of vacation and come back to see for themselves that their team actually has done a better job than what they could.

THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE OF BEING A WORLD-CLASS FARMING BUSINESS OWNER IS NOT ABOUT BEING THE BUSIEST PERSON

But,

BEING THE MOST LAID-BACK AND HIGH YIELDING BUSINESS OWNER

Let go of your fear of control –

A lot of people fear that when they hire someone else, they make less money –

Hang on…

TIME IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET

…IT IS OKAY TO LET GO.

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For your quick reference – the 7 Components are:

• Clear Job Descriptions

Again, if at any stage you’re interested in having a conversation about our coaching and mentoring programs, please feel free to reach out.

We run the most incredible Program that helps farmers profit more, work more efficiently and run a world-class business.

Hear the extraordinary results straight from our members and we are also very happy to send information about how the program works.

Email us at [email protected] and a team member or even myself will be in touch.

Click here to join our closed Facebook group

7 ideas on HOW TO run a world-class team and HOW TO maximize communication within your business.

The 1st Component:  CLEAR JOB DESCRIPTIONS

IT HAS TO BE WRITTEN UP.  Making a clear job description for each team member has to be in writing – enumerate the tasks for clarity and better understanding.

I endorse a great book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber.  A fantastic book to read if you are a business owner.  The author talks about the importance of having an organisational chart, applying to every single business. 

            Overview of Departments:

            CEO

• Responsible for setting the vision and direction of the business

Marketing Department

• Takes care of effective branding and presence of the business

Sales Department

• They find the clients

Operations

• Ensures every single task on your farms gets DONE

Human Resource

• This is not applicable for small farms but certainly becomes an area as you get bigger

IT Department

• Sets up email addresses for each team member

Administration Department

• Administration behind the book work

Finance Department

• Responsible for budgeting

It is imperative that you split out these roles and get a lot of clarity as to what are all the tasks that need to be done to run your farming business.

What typically occurs is, you being the business owner are also the busiest person doing everything that nothing really gets done well.

And I find it humorous because you get to a stage where you feel you cannot do everything

OR,

You hire someone but not sure what you want them to do, resulting to them making a lot of mistakes

And then,

You start fixing all the mistakes and end up making a decision that no one can do the tasks as well as you.  You take back all the jobs you have delegated which causes chaos because you failed to sit down and actually write out a list.

THE REAL FIX –

• Have a concrete list. Write it out clearly.

Break the business up.

Bring accountability and responsibility to certain components in running your busine

3 Ideas to Double your Productivity and Significantly Reduce your Stress Levels

When you think about, it’s not actually time management that you need to focus on.  It’s priority management.

Your time is the one resource that once spent, you will never get back.

You can spend some money and then go and make more money, but not your time. 

In this Podcast, you will learn -

1.The power of a two-page strategic planner that aligns your entire business to the goals and objectives over the next 10 years.

• Andrew shares a link inside the pod cast where you can download this free template

2. The power of removing bricks, and why you need to do this every week.

• Set up a system to prioritise everything you do on your farm

3. The simple formula to maximise your week and your day.

• Learn how to plan your weeks and days

Please share this podcast with other farmers.

We hope it helps,

Farm Owners Academy 

Do you have a fear of failure?

You know you do, IF -

• Ever worry about things not working out

This fear is very real, and many people have it.

The Pod Cast is here to help you deal with it.

Andrew Roberts (one of the founders of Farm Owners Academy) shares his story of how he was coached through dealing with his fear of failure.

In addition to this, you will also learn -

• What fear really is and how it is an illusion

Enjoy this episode and please share this with other farmers if you can.

Thanks,

Farm Owners Academy

p.s. Your greatest success is just on the other side of your greatest fear