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ROI and ROA equipment

Farm Acronym Challenge: ROI and ROA

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ROI (return on investment) is a metric I lean on heavily when working with clients to illustrate an expectation of profit. Each farm deploys (what feels like) unprecedented volumes of capital every year in an effort to grow a crop; there should be an expectation of profit for doing so, and I expect my clients to demand an ROI that reflects the risk they take. Accepting lesser returns is insufficient and could be realized with less risk by deploying said capital elsewhere.

We can break down ROI by measuring a return on various aspects: crop inputs, investment in equipment, annual cash costs, etc. Some of the many options against which we can measure ROI are highly useful, others less so. We try to decide which metrics to measure based on which gives us the most useful information. Of course, the ability to have an accurate measurement of ROI depends entirely on quality information and your ability to collect it.

ROA (return on assets) is a measurement I will be using more in the future than I have in the past. More and more I am finding that there are excess assets on farms, especially equipment, that are using good capital yet providing an inadequate return.  Here is what I mean.

ROA is defined as a company’s net earnings relative to total assets. By dividing net earnings by total assets, we see how efficient management is at using assets to generate profit. A company that generates $1,000,000 in net earnings on $5,000,000 in assets has a 20% ROA. A similar company generating $1,000,000 profits with $10,000,000 in assets has a 10% ROA. It’s simple math. And the question begs: if you had invested $10,000,000 elsewhere, could you get better than a 10% return on those assets?

Before the argument about land values is thrown out there, let’s just curb it right away. Yes, ROA can be manipulated (as can ROE – return on equity) by owning fewer assets. Banks do it all the time: they sell their owned real estate such as stand alone bank branches and ivory office towers in order to lower their total assets, thereby making their profitability (when measured as ROA) look fantastic.

Today, let’s focus on the asset that gets much love: farm equipment.

How would we measure ROA when it comes to farm equipment? I prefer to use Fair Market Value (FMV) because that figure represents both what it would cost you to acquire said asset and what you could reap should you sell said asset; it is arguably the asset’s intrinsic value. Online searches and blue book values are great ways to validate FMV. I summarize it as “when the auctioneer’s gavel drops, what would you get for that piece of equipment?”

Focusing on ROA as it pertains to equipment only, and excluding land, levels the playing field so to speak. All things being equal, this approach will clarify which farm management team is efficient with how it invests in equipment, and which is not.

Direct Questions

How do you measure the effectiveness of your investment in assets, specifically equipment?

Are you over-invested or under-invested in equipment? What evaluation methods do you use to validate your position?

If you were to invest your capital elsewhere, what return would you expect? What return do you expect from your farm? Is there a difference? Why?

From the Home Quarter

When calculating ROA, consider multiple criteria: all assets (land, buildings, equipment;) land and equipment only; equipment only. The ROA will obviously be much lower when including more assets, but don’t let that sway you into selling land to improve your ROA. Land ownership has been, and will continue to be, the anchor of a farm’s wealth.

What is a target ROA? The jury is still out. Simply put, there isn’t a large enough sample with adequate accurate information available to draw from.

So let’s find out!

With the utmost confidence and maintaining your privacy always, I am proposing an experiment: Email to me your net earnings, your cultivated acres, and your fair market value for each of land, buildings, and equipment for 2015. I will compile the data with no identifying criteria so that you maintain privacy. The compiled data will be available only to those who take part in the experiment. Include 2014 and 2013 as well if you’d like to see how you are trending.

As a thank you for taking part, Growing Farm Profits will offer an analysis with feedback on your ROA  and ROI calculations and trends at NO CHARGE! (Normally a $470 value!)  – Offer expires April 20

 

 

4 R's of Fertility

Easy, Efficient, Effective, or Expensive?

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Let’s get it right out of the way first: I am not an agronomist.

I do, however, have a solid base of understanding relating to agronomy. With tongue in cheek I like to say, “I know enough to be dangerous.” Nonetheless, I took great pride in the significant attention to detail I employed while being in charge of seeding when still part of the farm. I carefully measured TKW (thousand kernel weight) and calculated seed rates accordingly. I was diligent about what fertilizer, and volume of fertilizer went into the seed row (we only had a single shoot drill.) I always slowed down to 4mph or less when seeding canola and ensured to reduce the wind speed to the lowest possible rate to minimize the risk of canola seed coat damage.

I always had a long season in spring from having to cover the whole farm twice: once with a fertilizer blend to be banded, (all of the N and whatever PKS that couldn’t go in the seed row) usually at least 2″ deep; the second pass was with seed and an appropriate PKS blend that could be be in the seed row. It’s just what I did to respect what I’d learned about the importance of fertilizer rate and placement. It took more time in applying, hauling home, storing, etc. It created operational challenges during application (it seems there were never enough trucks and augers available.) It took more time to set the drill for the correct application rate. All of that didn’t matter to me because I only had once chance to get the crop in the ground and fertilizer properly applied (at least at that time, the equipment we had made it so that all fert was applied in spring) and I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance that I could easily control.

The key point in fertilizer management is “The 4 R’s.” Right source, right rate, right place, and right time of fertilizer application make for the best use of your investment. So why over the last number of years have we seen such a boom in spreading fertilizer on top of the soil?

This article was recently published by FCC. There is no ambiguity as to the best and most effective way to apply phosphorus. I’ll ask again, “What’s with the shortcuts?”

I know the answer: time. There isn’t time to incorporate adequate volumes of fertilizer into the soil. We can use a spinner that has a 100′ spread at 10mph (or more;) this permits more fertilizer to be applied in a shorter amount of time, and it permits fewer stops to fill the drill during seeding…all of it saving precious time. I get it.

But where is the trade off? Have The 4 R’s of Fertility been tossed aside completely? Where is the balance?

Casting aside the proven science of the 4 R’s in order to save time by broadcasting is easy and efficient, but is it effective? I suppose that depends on what effectiveness you are trying to accomplish. I’m suggesting effectiveness of the fertilizer you’ve paid dearly for.

Direct Questions

When making important management decisions like fertility, what methods are you employing to determine your best strategy?

Where is your balance between ease, efficiency, effectiveness, and expense when making critical management decisions?

How has your Unit Cost of Production projection changed if you decide to accept only 80-90% effectiveness from your fertility program?

From the Home Quarter

What is easy might seem efficient, we might believe it is effective, but it is most likely expensive. Historically, decisions were made with the goal of minimizing expense with little else given to consider ease, efficiency, or effectiveness. Management decisions that do not provide adequate emphasis on effectiveness will likely see higher expenses. Your focus with your agronomy must be to produce at the lowest Unit Cost of Production possible on your farm. Choosing a fertilizer application method that places more emphasis on that which is easy versus that which is most effective is likely to create a situation that is expensive. Management decisions that focus heavily on one aspect to the detriment of the others rarely achieve results that meet or exceed expectations.

Introducing the Growing Farm Profits 4E Management System™. Details to follow.

bin row

Crop Price Rallies (will be) Few, (and) Short

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That is the headline in the recent edition of The Western Producer. Penned by Sean Pratt and primarily sharing the views of Mike Jubinville, the article contains the usual verbiage found in most articles that get classified under “commodity outlook.” Here are some of the biggest points made by Jubinville in the article:

  • The commodity super cycle is over.
  • We’re into a new era of a sluggish, more sideways rangy kind of market.
  • Canola is not overvalued and Jubinville feels that $10 is the new canola floor.
  • Wheat should bring $6-$7/bu this year.
  • $10 for new crop yellow peas is a money making price.

This last point gets me. If I had a dollar for every article that claimed a “money making price” on a commodity in such general terms, I’d be making more money! In all the thousands of farm financial statements I’ve reviewed over the years, I can say unequivocally that there are no two farms the same.

In saying that, it is abundantly clear that what is a profitable price on one farm may not be a profitable price on another. And just because $10 yellows may have been profitable last year does not for one second mean that $10 yellows will be profitable this year. Why? It depends entirely on the choices you have made in changes to your business, as well as on the differences in a little thing called YIELD.

Yield can make a once profitable price look very inadequate very fast. In fact, a 15% decrease in yield, from an expected 45 bu/ac to 38.25bu/ac, requires a 17.65% increase in price, from $10/bu to $11.76/bu to equate to the same gross revenue per acre. This factor is not linear: an 18% decline in yield requires a 21.95% bump in price to meet revenue expectations. Alternatively, an 18% bump in yield requires a price that is 15.25% lower than expected to meet the same revenue objectives.

The point is if yield is down, achieving the objective price may not be profitable. Or at the very least, it would be LESS profitable. But the bigger issue is this: How can it be stated what is or is not profitable without intimate knowledge of a farm’s costs?

If the farm’s costs and actual yield create a Unit Cost of Production of $10.20/bu, I’m sorry Mr. Jubinville, that “money-making” $10/bu price you mentioned is not profitable!

Direct Questions

How are you determining what is an appropriate and profitable selling price for your production?

What are you doing to ensure you are including ALL costs incurred to operate your farm?

If you find that your projected Unit Cost of Production is not profitable, what measures are you taking?

From the Home Quarter

Far too often, we can get caught up in making critical business decisions based on what we “think” is appropriate, on a hunch, or on pure emotion. Using Unit Cost of Production calculations to validate your farm’s profitability is an incredibly empowering exercise. I’ve been in a meeting with a client and witnessed the entire crop plan change during the meeting based on Unit Cost of Production information.

What is not measured cannot be managed, and measuring your profit is pretty darn important.

 

ic_leap

Experience: LEAP – – Leadership, Engagement, Authenticity, Passion

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Leap year only comes around every 4 years, so to some people, it’s kind of a big deal; to others, not so much. I will have spent the 2016 leap day by taking part in a unique event, Experience: LEAP.

Experience: LEAP is an initiative of the wonderful people behind Project: SHINE Inc. Their passion is for everyone to live the fullest life possible, to be their true self, and to experience life with passion and purpose. The key message is for everyone to learn that where you are is not where you have to stay. The message applies to us personally, but also has business implications.

In the case of this event, LEAP is an acronym as follows:

Leadership

Leaders are made, they are not born. While some people are born with the characteristics that are often found in great leaders, the fact is leadership skills are learned, and therefore, leaders are made. This has 2 different aspects that apply to your farm:

  1. You are the current leader of your operation.
  2. You need to identify and develop a leader to take your place for when you’re no longer leading the business.

We often learn from experience, or learn from others’ examples, but rarely do farm business owners ever get sat down and taught how to be an effective leader. Everyone in your business will perform in direct correlation to their response to the leadership of the organization. It is like the old saying, “Would you rather be in an army of lions led into battle by a sheep, or be in an army of sheep led into battle by a lion?” If you find yourself questioning the effectiveness of your employee(s), first gauge your effectiveness as a leader.

As a leader, you need clarity in the results you expect in your business, the strategy for achieving those results, and the tactics in execution of the plan. Naturally, sharing this information with your team is critically important in effective leadership.

Engagement

One cannot expect to build a profitable business or an effective team without being engaged. A person who is disconnected and unattached will achieve sub-par results, and find the same in their team. How does one become more engaged? What can be done to increase the engagement of a team? By and large, it begins with purpose. Clarifying the “why,” which means “why are we here; why do we do what we do; why are we the best people for the job?” Clarifying purpose by answering the “why” helps teams, and individuals, recognize that they are a part of something bigger and that they have a key role to play in the organization. By turning a basic employee, a laborer per se, into an engaged and contributing member of a highly functioning team will pay dividends to your business that may astound you.

Authenticity

To be authentic is to be real or genuine. This involves interactions with your staff, your business partners, your family, your vendors, but most importantly with yourself.
I find it curious that authenticity is required for true engagement, which is required for effective leadership. Passion affects everything.

Passion

Passion can be difficult to describe because it is a feeling like few others. Passion can consume you, drive you to heights never imagined, and lead to immeasurable levels of joy or even anxiety. Passion can often create infallible commitment, which, if not balanced with sound rationale in decision making has potential to lead to undesirable outcomes. Unbridled passion sounds poetic and profound, but it can be dangerous if not balanced with reason and objectivity.
Yet, life (or business) with no passion becomes an insufferable task to endure. Most farmers I meet are passionate about their farm, about the land, about growing things, about the family legacy they are living and plan to leave behind. “Life becomes work” if there is no passion. But don’t forget balance, because “work can become life” on the opposite end of that spectrum; neither is desirable.

Direct Questions

How are you gauging the effectiveness of your leadership? (HINT: this isn’t a “self-assessment.”)

What are you doing to match your engagement to that of which you expect from your team?

How would you describe your passion?

From the Home Quarter

Recently, I listened to a presentation where the crowd was polled: If you could sell all your land for 25% above market value today, and rent it back for life at half of current rental rates, how many would take that deal? No one raised their hand. The presenter then acknowledged that no one in the crowd was a farmer, but actually a land owner. Everyone laughed in subtle agreement.
The point is to define your passion, your “Why.” Clarity in what you do, why you do it, and how you do it is no longer something that only applies to large corporations who need that “feel-good mumbo-jumbo” as part of their strategy. Make no mistake, farms of the future will require processes that were once foreign, or only found in corporate cultures. The need for social license becomes greater each day. The need for strong and committed teams becomes greater each year. The need for passionate, authentic, engaged leadership becomes greater with each new generation in the family business.

barometer

Farm Business Barometer

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It’s harvest time. The weather has been uncooperative. The crop is generally not ready to go. Quality is diminishing. The August and September contracts Fred* had in place will not be delivered on time, even though the elevator has room, because his grain is still in the field and not in the bins. (* Fred isn’t anyone in particular. This story is fictional, but we need a lead character and decided to call him Fred.)

Finally, it looks like the weather will break, forecasting two weeks of high pressure, clear skies, and warm temperatures. Fred even has enough help between the hired staff, and family who have offered to come home for a week or so. He must get this crop off quickly, as fast as possible. Fred needs another combine.

Fred cannot afford to think about this for too long; everyone is in the same situation, and they could be looking at adding a combine to their farm as well. He heads into town, speaks with his salesperson, and acquires a quote. It’s higher than he wanted, or was expecting, but Fred is in a bind. He just heard that there are 2 other quotes on the same unit. He writes the cheque for a deposit.

Now comes the hard part – seeing the banker.

Fred recalls the feedback he was given before seeding time: things have been a little tight, and pulling back on any capital expenditures for a couple years would be best. What if this gets declined? How will he get the crop off in time? Is his deposit refundable? Fred scolds himself for not asking when he wrote the cheque.

Fred arrives at the banker’s office unannounced. Luckily she’s in the office today. Thankfully he doesn’t have to wait long. He explain the situation: things are getting worse by the day with poor weather degrading crop quality, and thereby crop price; he has lots of help to run extra equipment to get harvest done in record time…if he had another combine. When she asks if a decent combine can even be found at this juncture, Fred proudly produces the quote he just received no more than a half hour ago. She says she’ll take a look at things, and call right after lunch.

Fred heads home. The temperature is climbing and the wind is blowing; he thinks he could maybe get going this afternoon. Everything is serviced and ready to go; after all, he’s only done 150 ac so far. Fred heads in for lunch early, hoping that will speed up the call he is anxiously awaiting from the banker. He scans his phone for afternoon market updates, text messages from any neighbors who might be rolling, and that critical phone call from the banker that just isn’t coming fast enough.

He can’t sit around; Fred fires up the combine to go out and get a sample. The wheat sample looks bleached. He figures he’ll be lucky to get a #2. Sticking his hand in the pail Fred thinks “It feels close.” He rushes back to the yard to test it: 14.8! That can go in aeration! Let’s go!

Fred reaches for his phone to let everyone know to get ready to go, but realizes he left it in the combine in the field from which he just took a sample. Fred jumps in the semi, and even though it hasn’t warmed up enough yet, he hustles out to the field. Word will get to everyone via the house phone, and they’ll get out to the field right away.

Once back in the combine cab, Fred finds a message on his phone: it’s the banker! She wants him to call her right back. He does, and the call goes straight to voice mail. Fred swears.

She calls back in the time it took to fill one hopper. As Fred unloads into the truck, she tells him that she cannot approve a loan for the combine. She says that Fred’s cash flow is too low and his debt levels are too high to take on another liability for a “nice to have” asset. She talks about other options for this harvest, and offers clear feedback on what needs to happen in the future to not have these kinds of interactions with her again, but Fred has already stopped listening because he’s moved on to thinking about who else he can call for financing, wondering if the dealers program can turn an approval in less than an afternoon…

Fred immediately calls his salesperson at the dealer, and a couple other leasing companies, to ask them to begin an urgent credit application. They’ve got all his information now; he’s been in touch with them a couple times this year already when the banker has denied his other requests. Fred begins to wonder why he even bothered with the bank this time.

An hour later, Fred gets a call from the dealer; their financing division has approved his combine loan application. The interest rate is higher than his other loans, and the payment terms are more rigid, but he is not worried about that now – Fred can get that extra combine!

Jubilation turns to anxiety: the dealer cannot deliver until next week, and it hasn’t been through their shop. Fred will need to invest a half-day to have someone drive it home (who can be freed up to do that now that the harvest is rolling again?) Fred realizes this combine will probably need some repairs and some parts (more trips to town on the weekend.) On top of all that, he realizes that he’ll have to shut down himself to go in to town, sign the loan, sign the equipment sale agreement, and hopefully get to the insurance office before they close for the weekend. At this point, Fred might as well drive it home himself!

Yup, having a 3rd combine will make short work of Fred’s 5,300 acres! He acknowledges that he’ll have a serious amount of harvesting capacity for his farm size, and despite what he was told by the banker in spring and again today, Fred still got approved the loan. And if Fred got the loan, his business can’t be in as bad of shape as the banker says, right?

Direct Questions

Why does Fred exclusively use his creditor’s approval or decline of his credit applications as the barometer of his business’ financial stability and position?

How does Fred account for the differences in lending criteria and motivations between creditors when using their feedback as his business barometer?

What do you use as your barometer of business health?

From the Home Quarter

In our story, Fred clearly does not take the time, nor does he have the interest in understanding the financial ramifications on his business from the emotional decisions he makes. He continues to forge ahead by using any and every source of credit he can grasp. What happens when his requests are denied? Is it only then that his farm is in a position of financial weakness?

When focusing on priorities, I advise my clients that there are often times more important issues than upgrading equipment and constructing more buildings because credit is (relatively) easy to get, and has been for some time. As such, using credit approvals as the only, or primary, business barometer is narrow in scope, biased in feedback, and lofty in risk.

 

equipment efficiency

Managing Operating Efficiency

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“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” It’s been said time and time again, by me and many others. Here is an example that should get everyone buzzing.

A client of mine recently shared a sample of information that they collected from their equipment. The information shared with you is specifically from their sprayer:

Sprayer Utilization pie chart

 

A simple pie chart creates an “A-Ha Moment” that no one saw coming. I am sure you can all imagine the conversation around the table when this information was presented. What would your response be if this was your data?

As the discussion progressed, it became clear why the number of hours spent idling was what it was:

Admittedly, no one was tracking the number of idling hours that were attributable to any of those 4 points, but there was little argument that loading and rinsing contributed the largest share to the number of idle hours.

What can be done with this information? Since this sprayer is on a lease contract, the “cost per hour” is very easy to calculate. Now that we know the cost per hour of running this sprayer, we know how much all that idling costs. Now let’s go back to those 3 potential responses to first seeing this original data:

What this client of mine is now doing is evaluating the cost/benefit of putting a chem-injector system on their sprayer. Such an addition will:

To truly test this option, we would need accurate data over the period of at least 2-3 growing seasons measuring:

Naturally, very few, if any, farms record this data. Yet we can clearly see the effectiveness of having such useful information available to make the most informed decision possible. Without it, we are using emotion and our best guess. Obviously, our best guess can be way off, as is seen in just how much this sprayer spent idling in 2015.

Direct Questions

How are you managing and using your business data?

If you are not measuring it, and therefore cannot manage it, what are you using to make business decisions if accurate and useable data is not available?

How many decisions relating to improving efficiency can be made on your farm with better data?

From the Home Quarter

The report that contained this information (including the pie chart above) provides much greater detail to the goings on of that one machine than just usage by hour. Some of it, like the 8,970,000 yards this sprayer has traveled is not necessarily useful, but knowing that the 92.2hrs spent in transport used 910 gallons of fuel is.

While laughing and pointing around the table when comparing similar data from the combines, and identifying “who is the best combine operator” is interesting and fun, it is the action that comes out of the data that has the greatest impact. Positive action can and will impact your bottom line…but then so will inaction.

analyzing finances at the bin

Using Your Financial Information

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Last week, we described how compiling your financial information will be beneficial to you in being able to analyze your previous year’s results so as to equip yourself in making informed decisions in the current, and future, years. This week, we discuss how to use that info.

Critical Balance Sheet Metrics

  1. Your Current Assets should be greater than your Current Liabilities by an amount that at least matches your cost to put in next year’s crop.
    Ideally, the difference between current assets and current liabilities should at minimum match your entire costs to run your farm for one year.
  2. You want your Total Liabilities to be no more than your 125% of your equity after net worth adjustments have been made.
  3. ROE is an acronym for Return On Equity. It is your net income divided by your net equity. Are you happy with the returns you’ve earned in each of the last 5 years?

Critical Income Statement Metrics

  1. First and foremost, is your Income Statement accrued? You can tell if you find an adjustment, up or down, to your income that would be labelled “inventory adjustment.” If your income statement is not accrued, call me for a quick description on how to do it yourself. It’s easy.
    Accruing your income statement is the only way to truly measure your profitability from the crop produced in a specific year.
  2. Did you have a profit? EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation & Amortization) is a very important figure to know. It represents your profitability from operations; it shows you can generate profits. The calculation is Net Income + Interest Paid + Taxes Paid + Depreciation Expensed.
  3. Now that you’ve got EBITDA calculated, divide it by the following figures: Current Portion of Long Term Debt (found on balance sheet) + ALL interest paid (found on income statement) + ALL lease payments made (found on income statement). This is an important indicator for your lenders. This figure indicates to them your capacity to meet your financing obligations.

Critical Cash Flow Statement Metrics

  1. Cash Flow from Operations divided by Gross Sales indicates how many dollars in cash your business generates from every dollar in sales. The higher the figure, the better.
  2. Cash Flow from Operations divided by your “Property, Plant & Equipment” indicates how well your business uses its hard assets to generate cash.
  3. Cash from Financing divided by Cash from Operations indicates how dependent your business is on financing. The higher the figure, the more dependent on external money.

Solvency Calculations

Liquidity Calculations
Liabilities / net worth current assets / current liabilities
EBITDA / loan payments, interest & leases current assets – current liabilities

 

Direct Questions

Does the thought of doing such calculations overwhelm you, scare you, or just plain bore you? If the urgency of knowing these numbers doesn’t strike urgency into you, are you willing to ask for help?

How would you describe the benefit to your decision making if these figures were readily available?

From the Home Quarter

The comment has been made time and time again: “It’s easy to make money in the good times.” With tighter margins of late, more attention than ever before is being paid to management and finances. These calculations above are only a few of the measurements that you can take to gauge your financial strength or weakness.

And if you need a hand figuring out what to do next, contact me any time.

Financial data

Compiling Your Financial Information

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The proverbial shoe-box, or an organized file package.
Maybe a shoe-box that supports accounting software.
Maybe it’s a fully completed accounting software package that includes all depreciation expensed and dividends paid.

For those of us on a December 31 year-end, the calendar has turned and the clock is ticking. If you haven’t had a planning meeting with your accountant prior to now, it’s likely too late to act on some of the options you had.

When are you able to get your information in to your accountant? My mentor threw down the gauntlet last year when he showed me that his accountant had his financial statements prepared a mere 28 days after his fiscal year end. That’s some WOW factor there! For my file, I’m shooting for thirty-five days or less; target: early/mid-February.

For me to help my accountant meet my goal of a 35 day turnaround, I need to provide him with accurate information as fast as possible. I need to provide clear information on income and expenses (not a shoebox full of invoices and receipts.) I need to provide a detailed report on changes in my fixed assets over the year, my accounts receivable at year end, etc. The better the quality of info I provide to him, the faster he can get my file off his “To Do” pile and onto the “Done” pile.

It is a typical comment made every year: we have to wait for the bank, and other creditors, statements before the final month report can be ready to send to the accountant. I’m not waiting. I’m logging into my online banking and retrieving transaction info right away. The details are there, so why let this time go to waste?

When getting your taxes and reporting completed as quick as possible, the benefits are many:

  1. You will get ahead of your accountant’s busiest time, which  makes him/her happy!
  2. You will get your bank annual review done earlier and on time, which makes them happy!
  3. You will receive your financial reporting earlier allowing you to fully analyze last year’s results and make improved decisions for this year accordingly.
  4. You will be equipped to seek new credit before seeding, if required.

The government has filing deadlines for taxes, the bank has reporting deadlines for your annual review. To receive your December 31 financial statements in August because it took you so long to get your info in to your accountant provides you, and your financial partners, little use. The information in those reports is too old because so much has changed on your farm since the date on the statements. Would you write a cheque in August based on the balance you see in your December bank statement?

Direct Questions

What systems and processes do you have in place to compile your business and financial information as quickly and accurately as possible?

How are you using your financial information to make business decisions?

Have you discussed with your accountant as to how he/she prefers to receive information from you? Making their jobs easier will get you higher quality reports much faster.

From the Home Quarter

Getting your year-end completed quickly will help you be more profitable. When your statements are early (or at least on time,) you create opportunity with your creditors. Opportunity with your creditors creates strategies for growth (and possible lower borrowing costs.) Strategies for growth create opportunities to expand, increase efficiency, control expenses, etc…all which lead to greater profitability.

And it is all starts with getting your information compiled and delivered to your accountant fast and on time.

 

new years resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

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It’s that time again, already. Another new year is about to begin and with it, the customary practice of declaring resolutions for the new year, promises we make to improve ourselves for our own betterment. I’ll preempt just about every newscast you’ll see between January 1st and 4th by stating it now: New Year’s Resolutions seldom last. There. You can still tune in to the TV or radio for more on that headline: the same old rhetoric from the same old stories that get recycled every year.

When it comes to our businesses, we shouldn’t be so laissez-faire with our intentions to improve our station. (Yes, we should be more dedicated to our personal “resolutions” too.) Two weeks ago, you read about some of the goals that my clients are working on in 2016. I can assure you (and them) that their goals will see through, because I will see to it. As their trusted advisor, I will be there all along the way to help them stay on track and focused. Similar to how a personal trainer will hold their clients to account on their “fitness resolutions” in the gym.

Interesting how gym memberships sky-rocket in January.

“Resolution” is the act of resolving; the act of finding an answer or solution to a conflict, problem, etc. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resolution)

For a resolution to be realistic, the “problem” needs first to be identified. Is the “problem” real or perceived? Is the solution to the “problem” achievable? Is the “problem” even a “problem?”

At the beginning of 2015, my New Year’s resolution was to be more physically active. I had committed to a 28km back-country mountain hike to take place in July, and I knew that my stagnant carcass, being that I am always sitting (either at my desk, in my truck, or with my clients,) would struggle with the inclines but mostly with the endurance. Great intentions fell flat during the winter, which is my busiest time of year in business. I even tweeted on March 30 that I was “starting on my New Year’s Resolution today” since I was finally starting to take action on my goal. High hopes and grand plans were all for not as I embarked on the 3 day hike (28km in, and 25km out) with little in the form of physical preparation. The hike was more difficult that I imagined, but I got through it better than I expected. I guarantee that I won’t be unprepared for this summer’s edition!

My Goals for 2016 (not New Year’s resolutions!)

  1. Improved physical activity (double current levels)
  2. Increase efficiency in my business by 50%
  3. Multiply my 2015 family vacation time by 3 (I took 1 week this past summer.)

Direct Questions

Do you get caught up in New Year’s Resolutions but let real goal planning go undone?
How are you documenting and measuring your progress on your goals?
How do you stay motivated to keep working on goals and not let them slip into nonexistence?

From the Home Quarter

Growing Farm Profits Weekly™ will begin the New Year with a series of concepts to help you find greater efficiency, make more informed decisions, and realize improved opportunities to enhance your profits and your wealth.
This edition marks fifty-two issues now in the books and I thank you for following along in this first year. The next year, and years to come, will continue to deliver more thought provoking topics, mind-set challenging discussions, and pragmatic tips and tools to assist your ongoing and ever essential need to be Growing Farm Profits™.

2016 year end review

Reviewing 2015

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We often get so focused on process that we fail to stop to take a look back now and again. If you feel like you’ll never reach your goal of <fill in your own goal,> take some time for review to see how far you’ve come.

Where were things one year ago? If you were like most, you were concerned about excess moisture from fall 2014, and about how you might get the crop in next spring. If you grew durum, you were likely troubled with how to market a crop decimated by fusarium. If you have hired staff, you may have been thinking about how to keep your good people over the winter so as to ensure you’ve got them in the spring.

Spring changed from too wet to a drought in about a 3 week period. Mix in a handful of late May frosts, and before the first in-crop spray was applied, many of you were not sure what kind of crop you might have. After the frost, many of you had re-seeded a significant portion of your farm. The frost and the re-seeding brought on a new challenge that was unforeseen to many: multiple levels of plant growth/maturity. What fun this created at harvest! Of course, that’s when most of the rains came…August and September.

Yields weren’t the disappointment most of us were expecting based on such little rain through May, June, and most of July. And while this kept many income statements from looking like a total disaster, there were far too many discouraging sides to crop rotations everywhere; returns resembled the early 2000’s rather than the last 4 to 5 years. Oil prices were dropping all year, and many of you began getting phone calls from people now unemployed from the oil industry to come work on your farm.

And so, in looking back over 2015 we want to focus on progress, innovations, shortcomings, and of course, lessons learned over the last 12 months.

Direct Questions

What progress did you make on your long term goals? Short term goals?

What innovations did you employ this year? How have you evaluated results to determine their success or failure?

Where did your business fall short of expectations in 2015? What did you learn from it, and what will you do different?

From the Home Quarter

Without getting too proverbial, if we don’t take the time to review results, we are likely to repeat our previous actions. Decisions that hurt our gross margin, or dramatically increased our controllable expenses need to be acknowledged and rectified. Decisions that maximized profits, or increased efficiency need to be leveraged even further. But we will never know if we don’t stop to look back once in a while.

 

For an impartial view of your farm’s 2015 results, our proprietary Farm Profit Improvement Program™ will clarify your financial position, and help you understand the factors that feed your growth or hinder your progress. Call me or send an email to learn more.