There is a saying that if you cannot be away from your business for fear of things not going right, that’s not a business – it’s a job.
Now, it is my considered opinion that if there is any kind of business that the owner needs to be able to get time away from, without fear of things going seriously wrong, it’s the farm business.
Because starting and running a farm business is a very demanding process, that requires investment of money, time, effort and resources by the owners and members of his/her team.
There is a saying that if you cannot be away from your business for fear of things not going right, that’s not a business – it’s a job.
Now, it is my considered opinion that if there is any kind of business that the owner needs to be able to get time away from, without fear of things going seriously wrong, it’s the farm business.
Why?
Because starting and running a farm business is a very demanding process, that requires investment of money, time, effort and resources by the owners and members of his/her team.
Quite often many owners and their farm hands/managers have to work long hours, round the clock into weekends and on public holidays to keep things running smoothly.
In this part of the world, majority of them have to contend with additional problems amounting to extremes of the above – leaving them even lesser time to be away from their businesses.
For instance, in Nigeria, where public water supply and electricity which others take for granted, are often very limited in availability, the owners frequently have to go the extra mile to provide themselves an alternative source – and that has direct and indirect implications in financial and non-financial terms.
Apart from that, the need to establish and maintain reliable medium to long terms sales outlets for products turned out by the farm enterprise also tend to keep the owners perpetually busy.
Many start out depending on the mass of market women and other small buyers who come directly to the farm gates. However, over time, for those whose output plans outstrip the demand from such groups, they sometimes find themselves limited in production output capacity due to an inability to locate bulk buyers.
Lacking formal systems for attracting bulk buyers into formal contract relationships, they end up being at the mercy of the small buyers, to the extent that they are forced to sell close to cost price or even at a loss, to keep production going.
The picture I have painted above is representative of what many farm business owners find themselves faced with in many parts of Nigeria/Africa.
I have spoke to several farm CEO clients who complained to me about various aspects of the above problem, and how it has limited them.
However, every time I have tried to talk to them about setting up SYSTEMS in their businesses, to reduce the unpredictability and variability in their operations, many have simply found it hard to appreciate.
When I say SYSTEMS, I mean having a tried and tested set of procedures and processes identified to be critical to the uninterrupted functioning of your business operations.
This SYSTEM is what would ensure that your farm business is able to consistently turn out the expected products using the prescribed inputs of manpower and other resources, over time.
We see systems in place around us all the time, but many of us lack the training to identify them for what they are. I like to call them Best Practice Systems.
Examples include those which make it possible for EVERY BMW model that comes off the production line to deliver performance and “aesthetic appeal” similar to others.
To put it another way, every person who goes to buy a BMW does so often with the expectation that s/he will not get anything less than what s/he has seen others get in the past.
Same applies to you when you buy an I-Phone, or Blackberry Smartphone. The makers have put in place SYSTEMS that ensure buyers get what they promise. Exceptions will arise – but they will be few, and the companies will have SYSTEMS in place to address them as quickly as possible to the satisfaction of the buyers.
As a farm business owner, having a Best Practice System in place CAN dramatically boost your enterprise’s productivity and profitability.
The system would be one that ensures your farm runs right regardless of changes in personnel, or variations in operational parameters.
A SYSTEM that enables you achieve such predictable performance in your farm business is what I call a “Best Operating Process Management System” (BOPMS) for Profitable, and Stress-Free Farm Business Management.
And it is something I offer to help results focused Farm CEOs put in place on their farms.
But use of a BOPMS is NOT for all comers. You must be ready to take your farm business to the next level.
Or if you’re just starting, you must have a vision to operate at an optimal level of productivity from the very beginning.
It means you want to be able to cut down time lost to trial and error over the long term. Instead you will be keen to have your operations “benchmarked” to identify the best ways to run them, to maximise desired output.
Then you want ALL your team members to be trained to adhere to that proven “way” of running the business – whether they are new on the job or old hands.
It is only when that kind of system is in place that you can be sure the business will run right even when you choose to stay away.
The best part is that a BOPMS will equip you with remote monitoring “instruments” that you can use to accurately determine what has happened while you were away, to the extent that you will be able to deduce what was done or not done, and any likely consequences.
Not just that, a well developed and implemented BOPMS will include reliable systems for securing profitable sales outlets for farm produce on a medium to long term basis.
With such a system in place, it goes without saying that you, as the owner, will feel more comfortable staying away from the farm, if and when the need arises. You would worry less about coming back to discover things gone – or going – wrong, that would require killing of fires.
The above scenario tends to come across as being too good to be true for some Farm CEOs, and I understand why: They have not known any other way from the one they are used to.
Some have seen others doing it the same old fashioned way for decades – and they’ve not done badly.
I however argue that you can do more – or even better. Especially by “gifting” yourself the opportunity to work less, and having your business work more for you – even when you’re away.
This is why I offer interested Farm CEOs an opportunity to have me develop and implement a BOPMS for their farm businesses.
If the benefits described above appeal to you…if you would like to experience what it feels like to really own a business that does NOT feel like a job…that gives you peace of mind…click here to request details of how I can help you [I’ll send you the one page mind map showing key components of a BOPMS – with annotations and notes].
SDN Blog™
New posts from last week*
Monday:
[Tuesday]:
[Wednesday]:
[Thursday]:
[Friday]:
[Saturday]:
[Sunday]:
|
|
Tayo K. Solagbade*
Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist
*Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition
Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)
http://www.tayosolagbade.com
Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement
Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.
Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).
Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software.
He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.
In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.
On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.
His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).
In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.
In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.
Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).
When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.
You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.
Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.
====
[IMPORTANT NOTE:====
On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.
Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.
But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts
he’s published.
If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.
Click “Tayo, What Happened to
SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom ?” to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))
Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:
And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old, NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:
A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
==================
    
Home |About | Contact | SD Nuggets™ | Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS | Web Marketing Systems | Freelance Writing | MS Excel® Heaven™ | Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas
|
