“I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going” – Richard Branson.

In this article I explain why anyone starting a farm business needs to realize that s/he must become an entrepreneur in order to succeed. For many people this will require changes in spending habits, use of personal time, friendships kept – and most importantly thinking habits!

My decision to write this article came as a result of observations I made in my interactions with various individuals and groups farm business owners.

Most rarely realized they needed to adopt a different mind set, from that with which they lived their “normal” routine lives prior to starting their farm businesses.

Many people fail to understand that once you start any business venture, you need to adopt what is called an “entrepreneurial mind set”.

Doing so will increase your chances of successfully building that business to achieve sustainable long term profitability.

So what exactly is the entrepreneurial mind set I refer to ?

Maybe I should start with my personal definition of who an entrepreneur is.

“A strong-willed, independent minded person who – despite starting with little or nothing – ultimately achieves social recognition, and financial success, for providing a new – or better – product/service or
way of doing things, that makes a positive difference in people’s lives.”

To paraphrase Fran Tarkenton, a true entrepreneur will often have started with “little more than an idea”, as a small business person.

That’s why it is often said that they create something new out of nothing. In other words, real entrepreneurs take risks that threaten their very survival, but overcome all odds via persistence, to do what most consider impossible.

I will now outline specific behavioural traits and thinking habits, that characterize most successful entrepreneurs.

To
increase your chances of succeeding in your farm business, you will need to develop (and adopt) the traits, (and habits) described below:

1. Become A Self-Development/Best Practice Continuous Improvement Student – Always Wanting to Do Better

True entrepreneurs never stop trying to get better. That’s why they tend to “drive” those that work for(or with) them to do more and get better day in, day out.

In your farm business you will – for instance – want to measure last month’s performance and use that to set targets for the new month – which you will then challenge yourself and/or your team to work hard to achieve.

To get more, you will equip yourself by seeking out those you believe know more or who are doing better, and learning from them. You will also buy books and acquire any other resources/tools that you are convinced will help you improve.

2. Explore Ways To Spend Less MONEY – & Time & Effort – To Make MORE Money(PLUS Rarely
Accept That Anything Is “Impossible”)

It might take time, or a change(s) in your adopted strategy before you can achieve your objective of doing more with less. But quite often, if you apply yourself intelligently and persist, you will achieve the goals you aim for.

For example, in your farm business, an important ingredient or input could suddenly become too expensive for you to use in your daily production without profit margin losses.

Your efforts to adapt by experimenting with potential substitutes could make your workers, associates/partners and fellow farmers call you “unrealistic”.

If you work at it however, you just might achieve a breakthrough that would help not just you,
but the entire industry.

Remember that when everybody does the same thing in the same way, they are often likely to end up with the same results – repeatedly.

In this regard, I mention for instance the glaring failure of farm business owners out here to explore Daphnia culturing and earthworm farming as cheaper, natural and high protein alternative food sources for intensive production of fingerlings and adult catfish.

(I share my experiences in this area in a report I will be writing soon: See title preview here).

3. Learn From Your Mistakes & Avoid Repeating Them

Quite often, a person’s ability to succeed in life depends on how well s/he uses the lessons learnt from past mistakes to guide future actions. In your farm business, paying careful attention to forecasting and proactive farm planning by leveraging the knowledge acquired from your past experiences, is likely to make your business run more smoothly.

So many risks and uncertainties plague the business environment out here. Your ability to speculate more accurately plus anticipate plan to avert potential problems will help keep you in business, when many others are going under.

For instance, you might want to stay alert to sudden government policy changes (e.g. petrol price reviews – which have never been downward!), market prices for your farm inputs/outputs, continuing availability of reliable outlets for your finished products and so on.

Doing so will ensure you stay in a position to quickly take decisions to mitigate what could be potentially negative impact of such unexpected developments.

4. ALWAYS Analyse Your Successes & Failures In Order To Become Better Able To Succeed

When things go right, many people simply rejoice in the moment and fail to take time to investigate why they got it right. That’s why when things go wrong, they often do not know where to look, what to look for and most importantly what to do!

In your farm business, a sound understanding of what works and what does not (and when they work or do not work) will be crucial to your long term success.

By forming the habit of always documenting what you did (or did not do) to get specific results you achieve in your farm business, you will gradually build what is called a “Knowledge Base“(KB).

In future, you will be able to come up with effective problem solving remedies using the KB. It will also guide you in ensuring consistent output is achieved on your farm for longer periods of time.

To make the above possible however, you must entrench a strong record keeping culture amongst your operatives and in your business as a whole. Without this, you ability to analyse your successes and failures would be severely hampered.

5. Stay In Firm Control Of Your Business Spending

You are in business to make money profitably (I hope!). To do that, you have to control your spending, restricting it as much as possible to activities that you consider necessary and inevitable.

More importantly, doing your friends or relatives favors using funds meant for your farm business could set you up for a cash flow crunch when you least expect it.

As much as possible, let the farm business take care of itself – making sure also to leave any extras that accrue to serve as a backup for “rainy day(s)”.

6. Manage Your Friendships/Use Your Personal Time In A Way That Helps Your Farm Business Prosper

You need to plan to spend quality time checking how your farm business is doing in all areas. This could be daily or weekly – I would suggest not at intervals longer than that. You will need to stay in close touch with happenings on the farm so that you can take timely decisions to achieve optimal results.

Friends/relatives who keep you from doing this will rob you of the returns you hope to make from the business. You will need to make them understand that there are certain periods you have set aside for this purpose.

Better still (and if you think it appropriate), you could ask them to join you when you want to do it. That way you still get to do it – and spend time with them.

Just be sure to maintain the required focus so you don’t miss important signs or trends.

What is imperative is that you ensure you do NOT neglect to spend quality time reviewing your farm’s performance and thinking up ways to make it do better.

Final Words: Your Thinking Habits Are MOST Important

The above outlined habits are – in my opinion – some of the most essential for a farm business owner to adopt.

You will observe that most of them relate mainly to how you think.

That’s really what ultimately makes the difference between an entrepreneur, and someone who just runs a business.

Click here to read other articles that can help you.

This is a revised/updated version of an article that was first published on 1st June 2007, on this static html page of Tayo Solagbade’s Cost-Saving Farm Business Ideas website.