Legacy Farmer The Podcast

All business owners go through pits and peaks when starting and growing a business. It’s very important to be able to recognize when you are in a bit and to not let yourself get stuck there. Our lives can be broken up into the 4 categories of body, being, balance, and business. Many times when the business is struggling it is one, or multiple, of the other categories pulling it down. Focusing on those other areas first can solve a lot of your problems without even touching the business. Taking action is key.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

We all get into what we are doing to build something better for the next generation. We all have a vision on how we get to that point, and if things don’t go exactly as planned, we can start to feel like a failure. Sometimes, we also have to reevaluate the path we are taking to make sure it’s the most sustainable. Holding the goal of handing down a legacy is the most important, but you have to be flexible on how you get there. You also might have to be flexible on how exactly you hand down the legacy. What you have in mind might not be the best solution. If you know there are problems in the business, just take actions and get them fixed.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

A lot of people like to tell themselves that once they fix their financial problems, everything will come together in their life. The issue is, once you fix the financial problems, all you are left with is the real problems. When it comes to solving financial problems, for some people it’s quick, for others, it can take years. When you are trying to build something great with your life, it will come at the expense of those you hold closest. Be it your time, or energy spent with those people. It is a heavy price to pay. You are constantly sacrificing time WITH the people you love most, FOR the people you love most, even though it can feel wrong in the moment. As a father and husband, this will weigh on you. You should recognize the pain on both sides and understand what your family is going through as well.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

On the farm there is usually a massive disconnect between leadership, and just telling people what to do. When you are telling people what to do you are just managing them, you aren’t teaching, building them, or growing them, like you would if you were leading. Leadership means leading people to become better versions of themselves. It’s important to lead your team members because they will come up against things they weren’t trained for and that you, yourself may not have come up against. Without your leadership, and helping them grow, they’ll just come to you for every issue rather than coming up with a solution themselves. You don’t want every small decision going through you.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

There are times in our lives where we do take risks, but on the flip side, we must understand when to hold fast and protect what we have. Seekers take on unmanaged risk and always swing for the fences. Which is fine as long as you are considering all the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order consequences that come with failure. Hiders are risk averse and avoid it at all costs. This is also fine as long as it’s managed and not all consuming. When you are the one that has built up the assets, you are much less likely to risk them. Risk is much more a young man's game, and with age comes the hiding and preservation. Balance is key.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

Right now, because of the economy, both people in the Ag industry and banks are getting apprehensive about taking out, and loaning out, money. Many people are trying to figure out how to recover from poor financial decisions they made back during the pandemic because borrowing money was easy. Greed drove both the banks and farmers to make poor decisions over the last few years. Our Farmer Metrics software is a great pattern interrupter to get you making decisions based on your numbers and not just on the feelings of what you want. Each year that you go through the cycle of making uninformed decisions it gets harder and harder.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

Everyone hates hearing the truth when it’s something they don’t want to hear. We hate feeling exposed and having our faults pointed out. This is especially true when talking about finances. We don't want to fail our business financially, and we especially don’t want to fail our family financially. But, we live in a world of reality and ignoring the truth won’t help us improve ourselves or fix our problems. The longer you avoid the truth, the more you are prolonging the inevitable, and the more painful those lessons will be to learn.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

Sometimes it can feel like all your neighbors in the Ag industry are constantly growing and expanding their operations. It may look good from the outside but the majority of them do not know their numbers and are guessing with each decision they make. Even if you put together an annual cash flow projection, neither you nor your banker are looking at that again after you create it. In Legacy Farmer, we update those projections every month. When times are uncertain, like they are right now, your goal should be to hit singles, not home runs. Just hit a single and survive.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

Zero percent financing is very enticing, it makes you think you’ll save a ton of money, but it’s injecting the opportunity to fail for the year. It lulls you into a false sense of security, feeling like the bank account is full and you don’t need to be as careful with your spending. If you aren’t religiously tracking your numbers you wouldn’t even see the dangers coming until it is too late. It is often best to keep things simple and remove all the complexity to keep things running smoothly.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org

When you have a son or daughter come back to the family operation, are you setting them up for success, or failure? Are you dropping them in the deep-end with oppressive amounts of debt and no knowledge of how the business works? Or are you giving them space to make small mistakes and learn what they need to know to be successful later down the road? Wanting to help your kids is a great thing, but saddling them with $500K to $1M debt, and no understanding of the significance of that money, isn’t the way to help.

Check out the Impact Legacy Farmer is having on the American Farmer here: www.legacyfarmer.org