The gains from low production costs will be wasted if selling costs are not kept in check. The more it costs you to sell your product or service, the lower your profits will be (and vice versa). This is basically common sense. But not every business owner “gets" or "remembers" it, when it matters most.
Farm business owners in particular, from my close observation of them, have a tendency to get drowned in the day to day running of their businesses.
They focus so much on doing what is needed to make their farm animals and/or crops flourish.
But there is one danger they often ignore.
And it intermittently hurts them where it can be most painful: their pockets!
How do I mean?
Well, take the owner of a poultry layer farm enterprise with 5,000 birds laying at 75% Hen Day Production (HDP) percentage.
S/he wakes up each day, and joins the farm manager to go round the pens to see how the birds are doing. They discuss egg collections for the previous day, and also review sales records. A few mortalities may catch his/her attention, to which the manager may attribute isolated attacks by say rodents.
At the end of the tour, s/he will retire to the farm office or house. Sometimes shortage of feed on site may necessitate liaising with the supplier to get new stocks to the farm. To hasten the process, s/he may take this up, so the farm manager can follow up other pressing duties.
Here’s the problem I see with a farm owner operating a schedule like that described above.
A well planned farm business workplace will minimise the need for the owner to engage in routine running of the farm.
At least not if you have a manager on site…unless that individual is not competent to bear that title! (In which case, one could ask, why YOU appointed him/her to such a delicate position?)
You need to operate at a higher level of farm management “thinking and acting”.
Take a global view of the business. For instance, feeding is a key area of expense in most livestock enterprises.
Carefully investigate what happens when your birds are fed for one month on feed supplied from a particular manufacturer.
1. How well do they lay eggs?
2. What is the feed to egg conversion ratio?
3. How much food is consumed per bird?
4. Do they appear to display depressed appetite?
5. Could that be related to the feed they are being fed?
6. Does there appear to be a change in body weight of your birds?
7. Does a shift to purchasing commercial feed from a different maker result in better or worse results with respect to the above?
8. Would the trends you notice justify making your own feed?
9. Or if you periodically make your own feed, what is the performance of your birds like, compared to periods when they are/were fed commercial rations?
As long as you operate a functional farm enterprise, you can successfully position yourself as a farm business expert.
Some people are stuck with the notion that as a farmer, one’s primary focus should be on farming. I argue that farmers have a duty, an obligation in fact, to TALK – verbally, and in writing – about what they do on their farms, and how they do it.
This will help them, and it will help those who read what they write or hear what they say.
What Would You Write About?
A good starting point would be what you learn from exploring the series of questions posed 4 paragraphs earlier.
Who Would You Write To/For?
At different times, depending on the topic, you’d be writing for different target audiences. Examples include policy makers, researchers (in the academia etc), farm support organisations, colleague farm business owners, and also the potential buyers/users of your farm products and services.
This article cannot cover all aspects of what I mean by the above statement. However, one good example of how “talking” can benefit farmers is in generating potentially powerful marketing exposure for them.
Writing Articles Can Dramatically Lower Your Need for Paid Marketing & Advertising
Avoid wasting scarce money, effort and time shopping for advertising spaces in ANY medium.
I have closely observed and interacted with all kinds of farm business owners (and support service experts/enthusiasts) in person, and remotely – via the web/email and phone.
My conversations with them convince me that smart farmers can successfully generate useful awareness and sales leads by “talking” more about what they do.
Not just online – though I recommend starting with that – but also offline as well.
Some farmers argue against my proposal saying:
“Look, Tayo, forget this American style of doing things. People who come to buy from me are mostly those who cannot even afford to use the web, or computers. “
My response is always this:
“Mr/Ms. XYZ. Set aside 20% of what you produce to cater for those small buyers you refer to. Then to attract big enough sales you need, focus on promoting the rest 80% of your farm products and services to the attention of your ideal type of customer.
That would be those with the means to buy at prices and in quantities that will generate handsome profits for you.
Investigate and identify where you will find such persons in the largest possible numbers. Once you’ve done that, begin “talking” in social circles where such ideal buyers will encounter what you say.
For instance, you could offer to “talk” in newspapers as a columnist; on radio/TV as a guest on an agri-business show; in magazines, and of course on relevant third party websites.
Your Best Strategy: Maintain Your Own “Branded Medium” for "Talking by Writing "
Most importantly, in my opinion, have your own “official” medium through with you will “speak” about your farm business.
Make it one that adds little or nothing to your sales and marketing expenses.
A well planned Web Marketing System will enable you easily achieve the above. With it, you can achieve multiple objectives simultaneously.
For instance, you can offer articles, special reports and videos, in which you discuss issues affecting your business – with respect to the harsh economic climate prevailing today.
Over time, the stuff you put up online can be put to effective use OFFLINE.
You can copy them on to CDs/DVDs (which are quite cheap to obtain), or even print, copy/bind, and offer to your farm visitors – even for a fee!
You can also offer them to other farm owners; send them to policy makers, and journalists/reporters – and even hand them out – selectively – to contacts you meet as you move around.
The ideas would be to present yourself as a serious minded farm owner with a passion for exploring better ways to do what you do i.e. a Best Practice orientation.
In all your communication, you would aim to share useful learnings you achieve in your farm business, in ways that can help or better inform and educate others.
For instance, a video about how you rear your animals, narrated in your voice, could help demonstrate that your farm does not use unhealthy inputs or practices.
Health conscious people could take positive note of you/your farm because of that.
Your video, if available on Youtube for instance, can be easily used to make you look good. You’d typically just send relevant persons a link to it, or include it in a piece you author.
The truth is that even if people initially do not know about you, or your farm business, this strategy can make them discover you quickly.
Over time, if you keep it up, they will come to see you as a reliable source of useful information on farming and farm business.
Why?
Because talking about what you do (without of course giving up confidential information) – will show them, you are a practicing expert who’s also THINKING actively about how to improve.
This Strategy Will Attract Opportunities for Additional Income Streams Beyond Farm Products Sales
At some point, those who encounter your works will begin approaching you via emails, phone calls, saying things like …
“Do you have eggs we can buy in large numbers – free from XYZ defect?”
“My wife and I are planning to start our own farm business, do you offer a consultancy service for startups?
“I need a feasibility study for a piggery I want to start, can you help us”
Most will come offering to pay for access to more of your experience based wisdom, and expertise. That’s how powerful “talking” intelligently about what you do can be in “selling” you to others!
It will NOT happen overnight. But as long as you continue doing your “talking” – intelligently using feedback from your audience, to guide your efforts – MORE potential income generating attention WILL come your way.
Why You Should Believe Me
1. This strategy enables me attract the serious attention and interest of key farm industry stakeholders…
a. A government officer met with me late last year, after reading my article on catfish marketing.
b. As I type these words, I’m back in Nigeria, writing a research paper on using ICT for Feed Formulation. I’m co-authoring it with a research academic, who proposed we collaborate to publish it (there’s payment).
2. It also helps me sell my knowledge and expertise as a best practice farm business support specialist…
Over 80% of those who pay me – from different parts of the world – do so without ever meeting me in the flesh.
They typically found me via my writing in search engine results pages.
And many times they have to take MASSIVE leaps of faith to send me money!.
It’s the “talking” I do via daily article writing on this blog, periodic publishing of information products, and demonstration videos that wins them over.
Examples of what they pay for include:
1. My popular Feed Formulation Handbook (selling offline from 2002, then came online in 2006).
2. My Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator software (selling offline from 2004, then came online in 2006).
3. My Poultry Layer Farm Operations Management software (built/customized for farms since 2008).
Other products and services (like the BOPMS for profitable farm management and my Payslip Generator) exist.
If I can get results like the above, without owning a farm, it only follows that YOU, a farm owner, can do much more!
Need help getting started with using the ideas described above? Get in touch with me. Click here now 
