Sometimes the smallest things in business produce the biggest results. 

Quick history lesson:

Back in 2013, Farm Owners Academy co-founder Greg owned a vet business that was turning over $750K per year, $150K of which was profit.
 

Not bad, right?
 

But to make that money, he had to do EVERYTHING in the business himself.
 

He was working insane hours, 7 days a week — which didn’t leave much time or energy for the things he loved, including his three kids and consulting to farmers.
 

Sound familiar?
 

Greg wanted something different for his business and his life. So he joined a mastermind with a successful business coach to elevate his results.
 

And three years later…
 

After applying what he learned…
 

Greg grew his business to $3million turnover and $400K profit per year.
 

Now, that kind of financial transformation is pretty amazing. But what’s even more amazing?
 

He achieved those results without being involved in the day-to-day business. He did the hiring and firing, but basically, the business ran without him.
 

(That’s when Greg co-founded Farm Owners Academy with his business coach! Once he saw how powerful these business principles were, he couldn’t wait to share them with the farming community he devoted years to consulting.)
 

Here’s the important part:
 

Greg’s financial transformation — plus many of the transformations from our most successful clients — ultimately comes down to just one thing.
 

Yep…just one!
 

This thing is the biggest reason Farm Owner Academy Alumni members (the ones who complete the Platinum Mastermind Program ) get 4.6% higher Return on Assets Managed than the average farmer and have way more fun while they do it. (Given a $3 Million asset value, that’s an average of $108,000 more every single year, compared to the ABARES averages).
 

Want to know what that thing is so you can use it to grow your farming business?
 

Keep reading. 😉 We’ll share the secret strategy, along with 3 tips to help you apply it and start seeing results for yourself.
 

The ONE thing the most successful farm owners all have in common is…

They realise to get the things that successful farmer owners HAVE, first you need to BE (or think) the way successful farm owners think and then DO the things that successful farmer owners DO. This is the Be – Do – Have model.
 

At the top is what you want to HAVE — these are your results. (In Greg’s case, it was a $3 million turnover business that ran without him day-to-day.)
 

Beneath that are things you have to DO to achieve those results. These are your actions and habits. (Greg had to hire a coach, train new staff, redesign the business to run without him, etc.)
 

Beneath that is who you have to BE in order to carry out those actions. (Greg had to become a strategic, forward-thinking, and confident business owner in order to take the steps to grow his business. He couldn’t do it as a vet who was needed to do all the work himself and was afraid to let go of control).
 

And underneath all three of those levels is something very, very important:
 

The right MINDSET.
 

Your mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you think, feel, and behave.
 

And without the right mindset, you’ll never become the person who takes the actions that lead to the results you want.
 

The problem is most people have it the wrong way around…
 

They think that if they HAVE what the successful farm owner has, then they will DO what the successful farm owner does…and then they can BE the person the successful farm owner is.
 

So they go spend money on things that don’t really matter, they take little action, and their thinking remains the same tomorrow as it is today….AND….nothing changes.
 

After coaching hundreds of farm owners, 95% of our clients say the biggest shift they made that led to their success was a shift in their mindset…95%!
 

And the sad part is, most people think working on their mindset is a load of fluff.
 

Have you ever thought that mindset stuff was a bit fluffy? We did when we first started out.
 

But the truth is, the right mindset lies underneath everything else. Ask any successful business owner and we guarantee they’ll have done some mindset work in the past.
 

The good news is that working on your mindset costs absolutely nothing. So it’s okay if you’re skeptical. It doesn’t have to cost you anything to try this out and see if it works.
 

Here are 3 simple but significant mindset shifts (and how to shift them) to become the world-class farmer you need to be to create the business and life of your dreams.
 

Mindset shift #1: Teenager to toddler mentality

I bet you’ve either raised a teenager or spent time around a teenager. So tell me…
 

Can you teach a teenager anything new?
 

No.
 

Do teenagers think they already know everything?
 

Yep.
 

Teens have a closed mindset that blocks them from learning new things. Unfortunately, many farmers also think like this.
 

They think they already know everything about everything and there’s nothing new they can possibly learn. And this blocks the opportunity to discover new habits, tactics, and strategies to create a high-performing business.
 

To grow as a business owner, the first thing we need to drop is our ego.
 

Because you may know a whole lot about being a technical operator on the farm. But you probably don’t know everything about… 

• increasing profits
• improving margins
• creating a business model that delivers predictable results
• developing systems and processes that give you more time

…and all the other elements of running a highly profitable farm business.

To be an open-minded business owner, you need to lose the “I already know that” teenage mindset and adopt a curious “what can I learn here?” toddler mindset.
 

Toddlers look at the world like everything is new. They’re constantly learning, watching others around them, and trying out different things to find what works best.
 

How to shift this mindset:
 

The next time you want to say, “I already know that” or “that won’t work for me,” say this instead:
 

“That’s interesting.”
 

You may not agree with everything you hear. But get out of the habit of discounting new or different information right away.
 

When you say “that’s interesting,” you can take a moment to consider how it might work for you…rather than simply assuming it won’t.
 

Top farm owners and successful business people always stay open to learning new things. If you can, too, you’ll take the first step in developing a winning mindset.
 

Mindset shift #2: “Failure” to “Feedback”

In sport, you’ve got the winning team and losing team, right?
 

And if you feel like you’re never winning (ex: if you’re always struggling to generate profits on the farm) it probably feels like you’re always on the losing side, like you’re failing.
 

But the way we see it, there is no losing. You’re either on the winning team or the LEARNING team.
 

Failure doesn’t actually exist. There’s just feedback.
 

If you try something and it doesn’t work out the way you expect, guess what? You just learned what doesn’t work…and that’s really helpful feedback! It gets you one step closer to what does work for your farm.
 

Look, succeeding in business involves trying new things and taking risks. And that inevitably means mistakes.
 

No business owner has a straight journey from win to win to win. There are always missteps along the way.
 

To be a profitable farm owner, you have to accept that mistakes will happen. But they’re not the end of the world, they’re just a step on your bigger journey.
 

How to shift this mindset:

The next time you make a mistake, remind yourself that it’s NOT a failure. It’s just a lesson.
 

As long as you remain open-minded (mindset shift #1) and keep participating…
 

If you look for feedback where you’re going wrong…
 

And if you apply that feedback to adjust your strategy and keep moving forward…
 

…It’s impossible to fail, in our experience. You’ll always find a way to win eventually.
 

Just think, “Okay, so now I know what doesn’t work. That’s great feedback.” And move on!
 

Mindset shift #3: Blame to ownership

After a bad season, most farmers will say things like…
 

“The bloody bank raked me over the coals.”
 

“My employee did a crap job and cost me a fortune.”
 

“The drought ruined my entire year.”
 

It’s really tempting to blame something or somebody else for your results, right? But that won’t help you grow a profitable farming business.
 

Because if it’s always somebody else’s fault, you’ll always be a victim without any control.
 

A stronger mindset is to take responsibility for the results on your farm. All of them.
 

And instead of blaming others, look for ways YOU can improve the situation:
 

“I could have done better negotiating my rates with the bank. I’ll learn more about negotiation and have another conversation with them.”
 

“I didn’t train my employee well enough. I’ll create some systems and processes to make it easier for them to do the job right in the future.”
 

“I chose to farm in this area and I know droughts happen. I need a better plan so I can still make profits even if the weather’s crap.”
 

RELATED POST: It’s How You React to the Drought that Matters Most
 

Can you feel the difference between blaming and taking ownership?
 

Blaming feels weak, right? Whereas taking ownership feels strong and powerful.
 

How to shift this mindset:

You need to start playing “above the line”…

 

Top farm owners take ownership, accountability, and responsibility for every outcome in their farm business. They act as if everything is within their control.
 

So they’re always asking, “how can I improve this? What are the SOLUTIONS I can create?”
 

It’s a creative, problem-solving mindset. And when you use it, you’ll continually find ways to improve your results.
 

Whereas struggling farmers often blame someone or something else, make excuses, and deny any role in the problem. That makes them powerless to fix the situation and they keep repeating the same patterns and getting the same results.
 

If you want to step up and be a profitable farm owner, you need to start playing above the line, in all situations. And it starts with a mindset of taking ownership.
 

In our experience, improving your mindset is the #1 most important thing you can do to improve results on your farm.
 

The right mindset fuels the right beliefs and the right actions to get the results you want.
 

And you can start right here, right now, by making these three powerful mindset shifts: 

1. Adopt an open-minded toddler mentality
2. Don’t fear mistakes and see failure as feedback
3. Take ownership of everything on your farm

Your mindset won’t change overnight. But little by little, you’ll notice that you start to think differently. And when you do, it will have an incredible effect on your actions and results.
 

What’s coming next…

We’ll be sending lots of free education your way over the next few weeks.
 

Have a toddler mentality with this stuff! Keep an open mind and see how it can work for you, rather than automatically saying, “I already know it all.”
 

The information we’ll be sharing has proven to work for our farmers (remember, they’re making a 4.6% higher ROAM every year) so you’re bound to pick up some powerful tips for your farm business.
 

We’ll send these lessons straight to your inbox, so click here to sign up for free Farm Owners Academy email updates.

 

Related posts 

Mindfulness and Its Place in Business Leadership 

How to Deal with Fear of Failure 

Hear More about Farm Owners Academy Co-founder Greg Johnsson’s Success Story

Do you aspire to be a big operator?

Do you dream of being the biggest farmer with the most land in your area?

Do you get a major kick when you think of buying out your neighbours?

If so, Pump Up Scale (the eighth level of the TOP Producers Model) will help get you there. This steps all about rinsing and repeating your successful farm blueprint to expand your operation.

We had a client who set his 10-year vision to run 20K acres. And four years into his 10-year journey, he’s already hit that goal and is running 20K acres very successfully. 

Yet he’s still hungry for more.

We met him in person recently, at the TOP Producers Event and helped him calculate that if he buys his neighbour’s farm and applies everything he learned inside the Platinum Mastermind, in five years’ time, he’ll make an additional $2million (in profit). 

As this story shows, scaling is so appealing because you can make a great profit in a relatively short period of time. 

Working through the TOP Producers Model, you’ve already done the hard work of learning how to build a great business. Now all you have to do is rinse and repeat the proven system.

Obviously, there’s a big opportunity here. BUT that doesn’t mean everyone should jump into Pump Up Scale. It’s an optional step.

Pump Up Scale is for those who truly LOVE the game of business 

If that’s you, keep reading to learn the 3 main ways you can Pump Up Scale on your farm…

RELATED PODCAST: How to 10X Your Business and Scale Things Up

 

Scaling Strategy #1: Lease more farmland

 

Once you’ve worked through the first seven levels of the TOP Producers Model…

You’ve learned the skills to maximise the profitability of your farm…

And you’ve now got systems in place and people to do the jobs…

All the knowledge and work you’ve done on your current property, you can replicate it on another farm. 

Why not apply that same blueprint on a leased block? The same way you would lease a house or a commercial property, you can lease farmland.

Think: McDonald’s. They keep applying the same blueprint in new locations. 

The big benefit of leasing is that it doesn’t cost much to get started. The only real risk is the rent you pay on leasing that block. 

Let’s say you pay $100K to lease a 1,000-acre block of land. If you’re a clever farmer, you might be able to turn that $100K into $500K of revenue by applying the same blueprint you’ve already used on your farm. So there’s a big potential for profit, even with the cost of the lease.

RELATED PODCAST: How Much Is Enough? Setting a Realistic and Achievable Financial Goal and How to Obtain It

That’s why one of the most important things to consider here is getting the lease agreement right. It’s so important you get a good deal so you’re not paying too much rent so you can get a healthy return off that block.

The main downside of leasing is that you’re gonna improve someone else’s block. 

You’re gonna work that block to improve it…and in the end, you’ll give that block back to the owner. So you won’t keep the benefits of any improvements you make. 

You also won’t get the capital appreciation of the land. A lot of farmers make a lot of money off of capital appreciation. In the end, you could have great cash flow and great profit…but you won’t be growing an asset because you don’t own the block.

 

Scaling Strategy #2: Buy more farmland

 

If you like the idea of rinse-and-repeat but don’t want to improve someone else’s block through leasing, a second scaling strategy is to buy more farmland.

You might negotiate to buy out the neighbours or purchase a farm in your neighbourhood or buy a farm 500 km away— the choice is yours! 

Again, it’s McDonald’s. You have the insight into what works so you can just apply the same successful blueprint to a new farm. 

The benefit of buying is that you own the land, so you get the capital appreciation and any improvements you make are yours.

The main downside, of course, is the big capital outlay to buy the land.

You need to consult your budgets to make sure you don’t spend too much money. 

This isn’t a decision you need to rush. Be patient and clever and flex your negotiation muscles…because the wrong buy price will erode your profits. 

We help farmers work out what’s the maximum they should be paying for a new block of land inside our Platinum Mastermind Program (whether buying or leasing.) Because as Warren Buffet always states, you make your money on the buy, not on the sell — so it’s crucial you don’t pay too much.

 

Scaling strategy #3: Start another business

 

Richard Branson says, “Once you learn to run a business, there’s no reason why you can’t run a number of other companies.” 

I can attest to this, too…

Farm Owners Academy is my fourth company. All four have been in totally different industries but they’ve all been successful because the fundamentals of business are always the same.

There are so many ways you could apply the same principles to different business ventures. Here are 3 of the most common:

 

1. Buy an existing business

 

There are a huge amount of businesses on the market right now because Baby Boomers are retiring.

Why not look through the business classifieds looking to buy a good business at a discounted rate? Taking over an existing business is often much easier than launching a brand new venture.

At this point in your journey, you’ll have the tools to jump in there and improve the business to increase profits. Plus, this option allows you to work in another industry outside farming, which is great for those who want to minimise risk and diversify their income.  

 

2. Start your own business, outside the farming industry

 

Once you’ve gone through this whole process of learning the skills to improve your farming business, you’re in a position to start a whole new business in a different industry if that’s what you want!

One of our Platinum Mastermind members is currently launching a personal training business. Deep down, that’s what his passion is. He’s able to take all the skills he’s learned about running a farming business and apply them to launch a side business following what he truly loves.

 

3. Start a new business on your farm property

 

You can also find opportunities on your farm that you didn’t see before…

For example, a mate of mine runs a sheep farm…and they recently decided to launch a solar farm on their land. They’re creating a totally unrelated business to what their genius is on their farm to derive a new income.

It’s important to remember that the Pump Up Scale step is optional. That’s why we recommend everyone goes through the Open Up step first to see if this is a journey you want to take. 

We have a farmer who’s been running the same 500-hectare block for years. He’s running a good business, making great money, and experiencing freedom. He’s got no desire to get a bigger block — he just wants to perfect the block that he’s got. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

As we always say, success is doing what YOU want…not what anyone else wants. So it’s important that whatever scaling option you choose — even if that option is NOT to scale — make sure it’s the right decision for you. 

 

Want hands-on support as you scale your business?

 

Whether you want help to negotiate a land lease, buy out the neighbours, or look for a completely new business to buy, Farm Owners Academy can help.

Inside our Platinum Mastermind, you’ll have direct access to our decades of experience running million-dollar businesses across various industries. You won’t have to struggle through it alone; you’ll have mentors and other farm owners who have been through it. 

Click here to learn more about the Platinum Mastermind program.

Imagine for a minute that you’re a dentist and you own a one-person business…

You genuinely love what you do.

You spend your days cleaning the teeth of your patients.

Your schedule is jam-packed and you feel a real sense of accomplishment after a hard day’s work.

Sounds pretty good, right?

But here’s my question…

While you’re cleaning teeth and working IN the business…who’s working ON the business?

Who’s managing the admin and paperwork?

Who’s searching for new growth opportunities? 

What’s the contingency plan if you get sick and can’t clean teeth anymore?

You can’t possibly have time to do all that important business-building work if you’re cleaning teeth all day.

It’s the same on the farm.

The seventh step of the TOP Producers Model is Promote Team, finding great people to run the farm for you. This is the real step that takes you from being a farmer to a farming business owner.

This is a big, big, BIG identity shift! I know it’s not easy. 

But I can tell you that the handful of our farmers who have embraced this shift are the most successful ones in our community.

As I’ve said before, this is an optional step. But I invite you to at least educate yourself on what it would look like to grow a strong team…and then decide if you want to have a crack.

Because without the Promote Team step, you’ll never have real time- and financial-freedom on the farm. 

The fundamental skill required in Promote Team is leadership. And to be an effective leader, you need to master three key components:

 

1. Create predictability and certainty with systems

 

The way to create a sense of predictability and certainty on your farm is through systems. 

It’s essential to build systems to take all the things that you know about running your farm and document them in simple step-by-step processes that someone else can follow. 

A great example here is McDonald’s… 

Did you know McDonald’s have a system to keep their toilets clean? I learnt this at a conference recently…

Every three hours in McDonald’s, there’s a little alarm that goes off. An employee grabs a checklist and goes around cleaning the bathroom.

Clean the mirrors? Tick.

Wash the floor? Tick. 

Empty the bins? Tick.

When the checklist is completed, the supervisor comes in to check their work. And because the employee is following a step-by-step checklist, it’s highly likely it’s been done right. 

The key is, it’s not left to chance. It’s a system that ensures that bathrooms are kept tidy. 

Systems can do the same thing for your farm. 

For most farmers, everything lives in their heads. But in order to have your team members be successful, you MUST create systems for them to follow first. 

RELATED POST: 6 steps to take you from family farm to well-run business

2. Hire, train, and empower the right people 

Once you’ve created clear systems throughout your farming operation, it’s time to hire the right people to run those systems.

This is where a lot of farmers struggle…

What often happens is that a farmer will find someone at their local pub. He’ll put that person on, dump on them whatever he needs, and that poor new hire goes out not really understanding what they need to do. 

Because there are no systems, no protocol, no job description, that person ends up making a number of mistakes. The farm owner ends up fixing all those mistakes, tripling his stress. And then he sacks them and goes back to being the sole operator, saying it was all too hard. 

Sound familiar?

Instead, when you master the art of hiring and communication, you’ll find, train, and manage a strong team that does the work exceptionally well.

It starts with knowing how to recruit well and find the best people for the job.

RELATED PODCAST: How to Hire a GUN Worker

Here are a few things you’ll need to master to be a strong team leader:

You start by clearly defining job ads and job descriptions, so potential employees will know what’s expected of them. 

You also need a solid system to determine if applicants are the right people for the job. The person you’re hiring needs to get the job (understand what it entails,) want the job (feel passion and excitement,) and have the capacity to do the job (skills). They also need to be aligned with your values. 

Once you’ve hired the right person, you need a clear Induction System to welcome them to your team. You’ll need to train them to understand your systems and processes so they’re capable of doing the work.

In addition to all that, there’s a second layer to this as well…

Once you’ve hired and trained the right people…how do you empower team members to do the job well?

It’s important to learn how to communicate effectively and provide feedback to continue to improve your new team member’s performance. 

Good communication is a key skill of an effective leader. Your farm cannot thrive without it.

RELATED PODCAST: 7 Ways to Run a World-Class Team and Master Communication in Your Business

 

3. Trust and let go 

I learnt something really interesting in the Platinum Mastermind program recently… 

I asked this question to our community of farmers: 

How many of you trust that someone else can do a job better than you? 

Two hands went up…out of 150 people.

…Which shows me that there’s a real trust issue within the farming community.

Here’s why that matters so much…

BOTH of the people who raised their hands to say they trusted others run freedom farms. They’ve actually achieved the dream many of the other farmers envision for their lives. 

That’s because you can’t build a farm that runs without you unless you trust others to do their jobs well. 

Now, I’m not saying it’s easy…

If you’re like most of the farmers in our community, you’ve been brought up to think that no one can do a job better than you. So many farmers are petrified to let go because they don’t think anyone else will work as hard.

And I want you to know that’s simply not true.

Many of our clients have found team members who are incredibly hard workers (like Tim and Cheryl) There are great people out there who will give their all for your farm. 

But you have to CHOOSE to trust them.

You have to make the decision to trust for the greater good of the organisation…because it’s not good for the farm if you’re the only person who can do the jobs. That’s not a healthy business.

If you want to enjoy a sense of freedom on the farm, you need to step back, let go, and TRUST that your systems and team will keep the business moving. 

RELATED PODCAST: How Freedom Farmer David was Able to Enjoy a 9-Week Holiday with His Family

The key takeaway about effective leadership?

The most successful business owners lead from the back of the ship, not the front. 

Think about the captain standing up — he’s not the one being busy…but the one overviewing and ensuring everyone’s doing their job. 

When you grow a strong team, you’re able to really step back. This will give you a new layer of energy and clarity because you’re not busy anymore. 

That’s when the REAL opportunities start flowing your way…

When you’re no longer busy on the farm, you’re now in a position to do what we call Deal Flow…which is going out to look for opportunities and expand your operation. (We’ll dig deeper into those opportunities next week on the blog.)

At the end of the day, we can either live to work…or work to live. You have the ability to create space and enjoy your life while running your farm. And it starts by becoming an effective team leader of your farming business. 

Leadership is a never-ending education. Get the right support.

From creating systems, recruiting team members, and being an effective communicator, becoming a strong leader is challenging. That’s why the Platinum Mastermind community is such a game-changer.

You’ll be surrounded by business and farming mentors, plus other successful farmers who have been where you are. You’ll get advice from people who know what it’s like and have learned what works (and what doesn’t) to help you jump three steps ahead in your leadership journey.

Click here to learn more about the Platinum Mastermind program.

 Farming is inconsistent. 

Some years, you make money…others you don’t. 

The theory goes, out of every six years, you’ll make money in four of those years and you’ll lose money in two of them. It’s all part of the game.

That’s why it’s so important to be clever with your money in the good years.

Instead of simply spending your profits on “stuff,” I’d rather you put that money to work…

• Earning interest
• Diversifying your assets and de-risking your farm
• Continuing to create wealth for decades to come 

…So that you can sleep easy — even in the bad years — knowing you’re financially covered.

RELATED PODCAST: Could Your Money Beliefs Be Holding You Back?

 

Why financial freedom matters in the farming industry

 

Farming is one of the most volatile industries out there. When you’re as dependent on the weather as farmers are, there’s very little you can count on.

That’s why it’s so important to be smart with your profits during the good years.

When you get those good years, that’s not the time to spend…

It’s time to invest, invest, invest!

I recommend you take the money out of the business and do two things with it: 

1. Reinvest a portion back into the farm
2. Invest the rest of the profits off the farm

Investing off the farm enables you to de-risk the whole situation. 

Imagine if you had enough income coming in from outside the farm that it actually didn’t matter if you had a bad year on the farm… 

Let’s say you owned your farm and had $2million invested off-farm. With an average return of 8%, you would receive $160K per year off your investable assets. 

Thanks to the security that asset provides, the unpredictability of the farm wouldn’t bother you. You’d just be loving farming, you could still laugh and smile, and you wouldn’t really stress about what happens because you’d have enough assets off the farm to take care of you.

THAT’S what Procure Assets, the final step of the TOP Producers Model is all about.

Although this step falls under the Propel phase, which isn’t for everyone (click here to learn why), we think this is something EVERY farmer should pursue. We’re adamant that investing is a skill farmers really can’t miss.

Farming is too risky, in the end, to have all your eggs in one basket. It’s so important to diversify through off-farm investments.

Some of our farmers who have done this step really well make more money off their investments than their farms.

So what I invite you to do is allocate some time now to learn about how to procure assets. Don’t just have your farm as your only asset. Learn the skills to build your wealth.

Investing is a skill, just like anything else! Anyone can learn to do it…and do it well.

Let’s walk through the two most common off-farm investments you should consider, along with the pros and cons of each:

Off-Farm Asset #1: Property

 

The first way most farmers can grow wealth off the farm is through investing in residential real estate.

Real estate makes a great investment for a number of reasons…

First, you can create a lot of leverage, meaning you can borrow money to buy a house. Using the bank’s money to buy is a good option to have.

Let’s say you buy a $1million property and it grows at 5% per year. You’re making $50,000 per year…and because you’ve got leverage behind it, you won’t need to put up $1million upfront to purchase that asset.

The property market also gives you a certain amount of stability. In Australia, the property market has been very consistent, which is a nice balance to the unpredictability of farming.

There are a number of tax advantages to buying property as well, which can result in a significant cost savings. And property appears to be a finite resource, which makes it inherently valuable.

However, there are also a few cons to property investment…

It’s a high capital outlay. Although you can borrow money from the banks, you often need to put forward a sizeable chunk of money to purchase property.

It’s also a difficult asset to liquidate. There are usually fees of getting in and fees of getting out (typically about $100K to get in and out.) If you buy property and then want to liquidate quickly, it’s often hard and/or expensive to get your money back.

Finally, you have to consider maintenance and things going wrong with the house. You could buy a house that ends up needing lots of unforeseen work. For that reason, I say property isn’t a passive investment option. It can involve quite a bit of effort to maintain.

 

Off-Farm Asset #2: Shares

 

Personally, investing in shares is my favourite way to build wealth. There are a number of reasons for this…

First, you’re riding on the back of successful companies. This means it takes very little mental energy on your part. Someone else has to use their mental energy to grow the company…you just need to choose which companies to invest in.

It’s very cheap and easy to buy a share, especially compared to buying property.

Your returns can be high, particularly if you’re investing in US stocks. Returns are often significantly higher than the property market, if you know what you’re doing.

It’s also very easy to liquidate, which gives you a certain amount of freedom. In theory, I could sell my shares tomorrow and get my money back. That flexibility is really nice when you’re investing.

Investing in shares is also quite simple. It’s not simple to learn…but once you learn it, it’s simpler to pull it off than many other investment strategies. 

The downsides to shares?

How the company performs is ultimately outside your control. 

It’s difficult to find leverage, meaning banks are unlikely to loan you money to buy stocks. You’ll have to use your own money to invest. 

There’s also quite a bit of volatility in the stock market. There are lots of ups and downs. Farmers are typically used to this volatility (and is one of the reasons farmers make such incredible stock investors) but it’s a point worth mentioning.

If you want to learn more about the shares market, I have three podcast episodes for you to get started. In each one, I interview Terry Tran, the investment guru I call “Australia’s Warren Buffet”, and the guy I trust to manage my own finances. 

He’s the best person to teach everyday people about the shares market and he gives so much good insight on the podcast:

RELATED PODCAST: How to Create Wealth Off Your Farm and Generate Money While You Sleep

RELATED PODCAST: 3 Reasons Farmers Make World-Class Investors

RELATED PODCAST: Investing is Just Like Planting…and Why There are Lots of Opportunities Right Now

Of course, investing isn’t just about money or becoming the richest person in the world. 

It’s about security.

It’s about stability.

It’s about providing financial freedom for you and your family so you have the choice to live life however you choose.

Investing is a skill, just like farming. Even if you don’t know the first thing about investing right now, don’t worry — it’s something anyone can learn.

Go and engage the experts (some of whom I’ve mentioned in this blog post) and study their teachings. I promise, it will be an incredibly smart “investment” of your time.

Learn how to master the shares market…for free.

My good friend and investment guru Terry Tran created a training just for FOA called “How to Create REAL WEALTH Outside Your Farm Safely”.

What I love about Terry is that he teaches proven financial strategy…in plain English, no financial jargon included! During the free training, you’ll learn:

• The 4 critical areas to consistent high returns…safely
• How to get BIG RESULTS from small accounts (even if you’re starting from scratch)
• How to take control of your family’s financial future by getting 9 out of every 10 stock picks right
• And more!

If you’re even remotely curious about generating wealth off the farm, this training can’t be missed!

Click here to sign up for the FREE training.

When most farmers make decisions, they wing it.

They don’t have any tools or systems to help them decide whether something is a good financial decision or a bad one.

…Which leads to bad decisions that cause big problems like:

• Unnecessary spending
• Constrained progress (when it comes to profit)
• Major financial pressure

But here’s the good news:

All it takes to turn the tables and is a solid decision-making process. And that’s where the Objectively Measure step comes in.

This is step 4 of the TOP Producers Model, which helps farmers Transform, Optimise, and Propel their farms.

Really, in a nutshell, Objectively Measure is all about bringing reality to your decision-making in the best interest of the business.

When you use this 3-part decision-making system, you can confidently choose things that will truly help you achieve your financial goals. And with every new decision, you’ll become a much more intentional business owner.

Part 1: Choose your farm’s KPIs

To make smart business decisions, you first need to decide on your KPIs.

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator, and it’s a figure used to evaluate the success of meeting a goal.

Let’s pretend you have a goal to become a professional golfer over the next 10 years. How could you measure whether you’re on track to achieve it?

Simply saying, “Yeah, I feel like I’m making progress,” isn’t a very effective strategy. You need objective data to PROVE it.

One KPI could be your average handicap. Every year, you’d need this to decrease to show improvement.

Another KPI could be your world ranking. Seeing an increase year on year would tell you that you’re moving towards your goal.

A third KPI could be how many yards you can hit a golf ball, and you’d hope that would increase over time.

See how all of those KPIs track objective data, rather than subjective feelings? That’s key!

It’s important to define your KPIs because “success” means different things to different people.

So what KPIs should you track on the farm?

We’ve got the answer inside the FREE Ultimate Farming Enterprise Cheat Sheet! Inside, we summarise the 10 KPIs and targets that will help you continually improve profits on your farm. Click here for your free download!

Part 2: Remove emotion and use LOGIC to make decisions

Many decisions in farming are based on emotion. 

“This lease land feels right to lease!” or “This header seems awesome to help me get the job done!” or “Yes, I feel like I need this new $500,000 tractor today!”

Whilst emotional decisions might feel nice to make in the moment, they can cost you a lot of profit.

(I can practically hear Greg talking about this at the TOP Producers Event…“That one emotional decision to buy the $500,000 tractor just eroded your entire profit for the next three years!”)

RELATED PODCAST: Generate More Profit By Getting Your Financial Records in Order

It’s easy to get caught up and make emotional decisions. Natural, even! That’s why you need a set of tools to counteract that tendency and help you arrive at LOGICAL business decisions.

Always analyse your options from a logical point of view to make sure the numbers add up and are leading you towards improving your ROI. Don’t let feelings make decisions for you!

Our clients Cheryl and Tim are unbelievable at this. They’re so good at making decisions to maximise profitability and they never buy emotionally. That’s why they’ve been making 40% profit for 20 years…because they make such logical decisions!

It’s hard to explain it all inside one little blog post but if you want to go deeper on this, we teach a whole suite of decision-making tools inside the Platinum Mastermind program.

For now, remember this…

Before you make a big money decision (and I class anything over $10K as “big”) pause, take a breath, and look at the KPIs and your goals.

Will that new purchase help improve your KPIs? Do the financial figures make sense?

Then — and only then! — should you move forward with an investment.

Part 3: Continually monitor your KPIs with a benchmark

Don’t track one figure (like profit) and use that to generalise across the board. You want to track different KPIs to analyse from different angles.

Let’s use an example…

Pretend I have a goal of feeding my son Oscar healthy food on a budget. Let’s choose some KPIs to tell me whether I’m on track with that goal.

We’ll start with cost per meal — I want to keep each meal under $3.

Last week, the average cost per meal was $2.50. Am I successful?

Well, we don’t know yet! Because cost is only one factor — we need to weigh up the other KPIs…

I also want Oscar to have 5 servings of fruit and veggies per day. Last week, he only had an average of 3.5 servings. So even though the cost KPI was on track, the fruit and veggies KPI wasn’t.

That clearly tells me where I need to focus next: on finding low-cost ways to get more fruits and veggies into Oscar’s diet.

So the following week, I try adding in a few different foods. I have an average cost per meal of $2.75 and that Oscar’s up to 5 servings of fruit and veggies per day — which is great!

But then I notice another KPI (the grams of sugar Oscar eats per day) is way over target.

I realise that the applesauce I started feeding him, while it contains a serving of fruit, also has quite a bit of sugar in it.

So my next challenge is finding a low-sugar applesauce.

Now, I know this is a simplistic example. But do you see how that works?

Every decision affects your KPIs in different ways. That’s why you need to look at things from many different angles.

This is where benchmarking comes in…

A benchmark is a report that analyses your business’s performance in loads of different areas.

Here’s a sample page from one of our Platinum Mastermind member’s benchmark report, to give you an idea:

In this example, you can see we’re comparing the member’s actual KPIs with their target in a load of areas. This helps us see where they’re doing well (the dials in green) …and where they’re doing not-so-well (red and orange) and need to focus on improving.

The data inside the benchmark helps you answer two key questions:

1. How is my business performing, compared to the KPIs of a successful farm business?
2. What changes do I need to make, on reviewing this data, to improve my numbers?

That’s why tracking your individual KPIs through benchmarking is such a game-changer.

Just like with Oscar’s healthy eating example, it makes it clear and unemotional to decide where to focus your efforts to improve. It gives you hard data to create a strategic plan and work on improving year on year.

That’s how our client John Symons was able to grow his profit year in year out over a long period of time…

Watch his case study of how FOA helped him in our reviews – https://site.farmownersacademy.com/reviews/

As a business owner, you’ll need to make decisions all year long. There’s no denying that!

To make the smartest ones you can, you simply need to:

1. Choose the KPIs to measure success
2. Make decisions logically (not emotionally)
3. Continually track your KPIs through a benchmark report

There’s no more emotion at play and you can now rely on actual data to improve and grow.

As I always say, what gets measured gets improved. And what’s objectively measured gets improved so much faster!

Get your own custom benchmark report

When you join the Platinum Mastermind program, you’ll not only get your own custom benchmark report to objectively break down your performance and compare it to a successful farm. You’ll also get personalised consulting to make a strategic plan to improve upon it.

When you’re part of the Platinum Mastermind, there’s no winging it. You’ll learn our suite of monitoring systems and tools that clearly tell you when you’re going off course.

You’ll get incredible insight and strategic planning PLUS a coach holding you accountable to making the changes you commit to. That’s why it’s such a game-changer…and why our members achieve such incredible success.

Click here to learn more about the Platinum Mastermind program.