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Technorati Tags: agriculture strategy, caygeon, farm management, farm strategic planning, Farm succession planning

Strategic planning for farm business growth is an absolute necessity if you want to succeed. You may not realize it but not planning is planning by default. The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the planning, or not, that you are doing right now.

This article was chosen because we found that it offers information of value to farm owners, their families, and successors – regardless of it’s intended audience. Whether the reader is identified by the expressions, “family business”, “small business”, or just “business” we saw the potential relevance to you. Consider the ideas presented with an open mind. Think about their potential application to you and don’t get hung up on the fact that it was originally intended for an in-town audience. The only thing that’s important is if you can see how the ideas presented just might work for you.

One strategy that is often recommended by experts and farmers alike is to find and join business to business networking groups.

These are referral organizations, since that is why everybody is there, that allow you to reach other people and businesses.

Sometimes referred to as “leads groups” they meet regularly and provide opportunities to “swap business cards” and a whole lot more.

These organizations, whether put together by a non-profit organization, a commercial enterprise, or an industry forum are basically a form of advertising, but when compared to other forms of advertising that reach an equivalent number of potential clients or customers, it is very inexpensive.

To successfully create a strategy for the future – the first step should be research, market research to determine who is most likely to benefit the most from your services. That research is described by some as “finding your niche.” This is helpful not only in determining who you should spend your time trying to attract to your company – it is a process that will help you choose the right business networking groups for you.

The business networking groups you choose, after doing your research, should put you in the company of your ideal prospects, others in the same line of business you’re in so you can partner up on future projects, or people who have access to the folks in your ideal market.

Strategic planning for business will focus on the process of identifying your niche, because that is where you should be spending your time, money, and energy. When you are truly focused in the right direction you will come across business by accident – because you’ll be in the neighborhood.

Let’s face it, when you put yourself in front of the right people, there will be business coming your way no matter how inept you might be at promoting your company. If you are the best marketer on earth who is always making their pitch to the wrong people – being good at it will not get you business.

Business networking groups allow you to expand on the process (and you should make it a process) of being there, where the people are talking about the things you can help them with are. Naturally, you should continue advertising to people that you “know” are interested in your products or services.

But, you should also try to reach people that have the “potential” to be interested in your products or services – especially if you have a unique approach to helping people like them solve their problems. If they are not currently seeking what you provide, it really doesn’t matter, they may need you in the future and they might know someone who does need you today.

Some business networking groups offer conventional marketing tools and techniques. They may host seminars where business owners can compare notes and exchange ideas. They often host trade shows and large scale exhibitions, where you will have the opportunity to market your services to thousands of potential clients. They may offer free workshops on leadership, scheduling and growing your customer base – where maybe you can be a presenter. In other words, there is a lot more to the membership than at first meets the eye.

But, before you join a group, you may want to learn how to successfully market yourself or your company. Experts tell us that we only get that one shot so we better get it right. One suggestion is to prepare and develop an “elevator speech”. Can you describe the problems that your company solves for people in 30 seconds or less? If so, you can find new contacts on an elevator ride.

Another suggestion is to write down that thirty second speech and share it with people on the Internet, maybe in discussion groups or on social media sites. Even an introvert can meet new people online. Today, the Internet is an absolute necessity in strategic planning for business. You need to learn how to use this tool and use it well.

Many people spend hours every day socializing with friends, colleagues and current clients. What’s the value in that? It may be tension relieving, so you go home feeling like you had a business day – but what did you accomplish that will take you closer to your objectives? Maybe you should be spending that time, at least an hour a day, developing brand new contacts. Business networking groups can help.

Strategic planning for business will involve a variety of other techniques. One of the most effective is using the peer group process to connect with you contemporaries on a regular basis to share ideas and insights to help one another.

When you are part of an ongoing strategic conversation with your industry peers you will be able to make better decisions, the single most effective way to achieve better results.

Technorati Tags: farm strategic planning

Software tools and easy to use templates, containing detailed framework and sample texts, will help even the novice farmer along with their advisors create professional looking plans with tables and charts.

For those people that don’t know where to start, the tools are a big help removing one of the farmers traditional excuses for inaction.

Strategic planning for farmers involves creating a framework for making future decisions.

This is critical today because if you need a bank loan for farm expansion, you will need to be able to fully explain your plan in a professional manner – something your banker can take to the board or to their masters in a distant city. How will your farm use the money?

Will you be using the money to immediately increase revenues or is it for an investment that will take time before income results?  What kind of monetary investment will be needed to get the ball rolling?  How long will it be until you can expect to see a profit?

You can look at farm strategic planning as a sort of question and answer guide.

You may need to take a step back and look at your ideas from the view of an outsider, something important when considering succession and planning.

You might understand everything that there is to know about the farm, but others most certainly will not – especially the non-farm family members who are not part of the day to day activities.

One of the elements of farm strategic planning is to be able to explain and inform others. When planning for succession takes place, maybe one of the options under consideration is to interest investors in some part of the operation.

A well thought out farm strategic plan may result in them wanting to become involved.  If you have good ideas or something unique to offer, people will often jump at the opportunity to invest.

But, even if you don’t need or want outside investors, farm strategic planning is essential.  It allows you to put your goals on paper (or on your computer) where you can refer to them easily and stay focused on your objectives.

Sometimes farmers realize too late that they have forgotten about a special market opportunity or failed to stay competitive where they were a market leader.  They may have lost sight of their goals and their farm is suffering as a result.

Farm strategic planning are available online as well as in your local extension office.  In many cases, the basic guides and other resources are free.

There is software available to help you assess your ideas and evaluate marketing strategies that you intend to use.  Unless you are running a non-profit organization, farm strategic planning business should include ideas for growing the business to make passing down the farm financially painless for you.

How do you plan to reach your customers?  How much will it cost?  How effective has that type of advertising been for other owners?

Lots of questions are involved in farm strategic planning, but you already have all of the answers.  You just might not know it yet.

Wayne Messick

Technorati Tags: business strategic planning, farm strategic planning, Strategic Planning for Business, strategic succession planning

Almost nine years ago we registered our domain name because we had been told  that the older a domain name is, all other things being equal, the better it is for search engine rankings. And we knew we were going to create a farm succession and planning checklist someday – so we’d be ready, #1 on Google.

Today as we begin to populate our web site with new and updated content about farm succession and planning, we  look at our listing and see that sure enough we’re right up toward the top of the search engines, out of the many thousands of other web sites.

What we realized, after doing some extensive keyword investigation, is that being #1 is meaningless since almost no one ever types the expression “passing down the farm” into Google or any of the other search engines. We made the obvious mistake of thinking that everyone else used the expression – when they don’t. Too much time reading our own press releases I guess.

Passing down the farm is the benefit – the goal, the objective on virtually every farmer’s mind. It is not what they think of when the go online looking for the tools, techniques, and strategies required to achieve the results they seek however.

The benefits of the passing down the farm succession process begin the day you get serious about designing the future you want for your farm and your family. And the process continues forever, just like your family’s involvement in the farm will extend far beyond the lifetimes of everyone living today.

Here three key planning elements uniquely intertwined with each other to create the succession and planning process we call passing down the farm.

Strategic planning is a key element of the farm succession and planning process. You may not use such a high toned expression but that’s what you’re doing when you plan beyond the next twelve months – consistently rolling your planning ahead of you as you go.

Farm strategic planning is also about management training and leadership development for your successors so they’ll be ready to assume full responsibility when the time is right. There are some mistakes your farm can absorb and keep right on chugging along and there are some that will totally destroy what has been created.

Start today by identifying who’s going to farm in the next generation and then get started with the training they’ll need to do so.

Succession planning is the process where you pick the people to run the place in the future and begin the process of empowering them to conserve what you’ve built and leverage your efforts to grow the operation bigger in the future.

Growth is critical in order to generate the profits required to meet the security needs of the retiring generation, provide a fair share of the farm’s value to the off farm heirs, and reward the successors for their risks and hard work.

When you start now to open up areas of responsibility, in the eyes of your successors not just yours, you’ll send the right messages about your intentions for the future.

Estate planning, the wills, trusts, buy-sell agreements, and all the contracts required to fulfill you succession and planning requirements DO NOT come last.

Farm estate planning is critical, too critical to be put off, because it establishes the ground rules, faces the tax consequences, and establishes in law the practical strategies that will result in your wishes being spelled out for all to see. Estate planning decisions need to be made today based on what you know today, where everything is today, and based on the best advice available today.

As time goes by and the other elements of your farm succession plan fall into place you simply have your advisors update your estate planning documents. How many movies have you seen where the old tyrant died without having changed his will for decades – leaving the heirs and those who though they were heirs to fight over the spoils, resulting in another mystery for Lt.Columbo to solve. Don’t let that be you!

Passing down the farm then is the result. Your farm  and family’s unique situation addressed using well considered strategies that are being used successfully by others.

Over the last thirty years people have said to me, “but Wayne, our farm is different” and it is. Often this comment was made in an effort to convince me that their situation was so unique it defied the experts and therefore their lack of planning was justified.

As you can see, passing down the farm is a process, one that does not have to be complicated unless you make it so.

The fact is,  you and only you have the power to make the succession and planning decisions necessary, you alone have the authority to take  the actions required and you alone are responsible for the outcome of your succession and planning process, whether they are the result of thoughts, conversations, and negotiations or by luck or misfortune.

If you are serious about farm succession, or if you are a professional involved in farm succession planning – or an farm association executive whose members desire to see their farm continue into the next generation, you are in the right place!

Technorati Tags: Family Business Succession, Family farm succession, Farm Estate Planning, farm strategic planning, Farm succession planning, Planning for Succession, succession and planning

The online dictionary Wikipedia defines strategic planning as “an organization’s process of defining its direction and making decisions on allocating its resources, including its capital and people. It is often times viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next 3 to 5 years or more”. Strategic planning enables an organization to answer the following questions:

While this article is not about farm succession, it is about business succession meaning that it is very likely to be relevant to any sort of organizational succession planning you are interested in.

- Who are we?
- What can we do?
- What are our strengths and weaknesses?
- Which critical issues must we respond to?
- What should our priorities be?
- Where should we allocate our resources?
- How do we want to grow?
- Where do we want to be in the future?

Most large organizations have a significant process of strategic planning where overall directions are given to the organization.

They need to do this since there are large amounts of resources at stake and many people and departments involved to manage these resources.

However, few small organizations do strategic planning even though relative to their size, they too have large amounts of resources at stake and people involved to manage these resources.

The reason for this absence of a strategic plan is usually due to the fact that top management of the organization is very tactically oriented and involved with the day-to-day operations. Just getting through the near term is the only thing on their collective mind.

The problem with this is that within the organization, there is no overall plan that gives people direction as they make decisions which means that different parts of the organization can be going in different directions at the same time.

In small volumes, this is not such a problem, but as the company grows, it can become very chaotic, frustrating and problematic and can lead to failure due to the conflicting priorities that will exist.

A strategic planning process does not have to be long, time consuming and drawn out, but it should involve the key personnel of the organization.

With guidance from a facilitator familiar with the process, implementing a planning process can be fairly quick and simple and can be done without being a major intrusion to the operation. Benefits that can be realized include:

- Clearly defined business strategies and supporting objectives for growth
- Identification of business strengths and weaknesses
- Quantified resource requirements and financial projections
- Integrated operational plans for each area of the business
- Clearly defined business performance measures
- A focus on achieving and building advantages

Strategic plans are very different from operational plans. Operational plans are tactical and are concerned with “today”.

Strategic plans are concerned with “tomorrow” and are effective in coordinating the tactical activities so that the future growth of the organization is effective and under control.

Without some aspect of a strategic plan that is known to all, activities of the organization will be disjointed and counterproductive, even though everyone is doing what they think is best.

Frustration will exist within the ranks and growth will be difficult which can lead to the overall failure of the organization.

With a well conceived and communicated strategic plan, an owner or management team will likely get what they want in terms of organizational performance, but without one, they will most likely not and everyone in the organization will suffer to some extent.

Technorati Tags: farm strategic planning, strategic competitive analysis, Strategic Planning for Business