In times of tight margins, every purchase must have a purpose with ROI top of mind. As you optimize your equipment, crop inputs, farmland and business intellect for the year ahead, take the time to plan your work, and then you work your plan.
In keeping with the “purchase with purpose” theme for the week, let’s talk about farming with purpose and marketing with purpose.
I’m going to start with farming with purpose. More than a few years ago, I wrote a booklet titled, “Making the Family Farm the Family Business” that included writing a mission statement, vision statement and values statement.
Too many farms try to operate without those things. Without these guiding principles in writing, framed and hanging on the wall, the risk is you’re farming just to keep busy — the least rewarding kind of work. With a mission or a destination of what you want your business to be, and an understanding of what it could be, the work takes on purpose.
Let’s also consider the idea of marketing with purpose. It seems too many farmers view a cash grain sale as a “give up.” I can’t believe how many times I’ve heard, “I guess the price won’t go any higher, I might as well sell.” Or how about this one: “I guess I better sell before prices drop even more.”
A cash grain sale should be a celebration — your opportunity to cash in on the efforts of an entire growing season. If you have a long-term business plan that includes long-term goals for your business, and if making cash sales now helps to advance your business toward reaching those goals, cash sales can (and should) be a celebration.
“When a single year’s marketing effort is tied to longer-term goals, you’ll develop a constructive, disciplined approach to selling each year’s production.”
If reaching a marketing goal allows you to reach a higher goal in your overall business plan, you’ll look at marketing as a single step in your business and not an end-all or terminal step. When a single year’s marketing effort is tied to longer-term goals, you’ll develop a constructive, disciplined approach to selling each year’s production.
Perhaps the easiest way to market with purpose is to set return-on-investment goals. If you know a 5% return on 20% of expected production will allow you to make progress toward the long-term goals of your business, it should be easy to sell 20% of expected production at a 5% ROI. And it should be easy to make the sale even if prices are trending higher because there is a reason for the sale. Write it down and have the discipline to follow through.
Write the mission, vision and value statements. Write goals for your business (and your business partners). Write a marketing plan that will move your business toward achieving long-term, high-level goals. Market with a purpose.
Quick Outlook
Most areas are handling more corn and soybean bushels than ever before. Your first priority is to keep you and all those around you safe. Priority No. 2 is to have a positive return on 2024 crops — probably the most expensive crops you’ve ever grown. Set a reasonable ROI goal and enter price orders to capture opportunities.
Your Next Read: You Need To Invest With Intent To Create Your Legacy
