Are You A Superhero?
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s an environmental superhero! If you are using cell grazing you are an environmental superhero. Of course, no one has to know that, while saving the planet, you are also making your own ranch more productive and profitable. Cell graziers are environmental superheroes because they stop overgrazing by […]
Read MoreThe Unit
Improving gross margin per unit is the second of the Three Secrets For Increasing Profit™. It is also the most misunderstood. Gross margin is the contribution an enterprise makes toward covering overhead costs and producing profit. Gross margin per unit measures the economic efficiency of that enterprise. It is a powerful tool for comparing enterprises […]
Read More4 Strategies to Improve Gross Margin per Unit
As a student in my very first Ranching For Profit School I was told to make sure I was shooting at the right target before taking aim. That’s common sense. But it’s not commonly practiced. Livestock producers are great marksmen, but they are often shooting at the wrong target. The target most producers aim at […]
Read MoreSuccession Expectations or Agreements?
Transitions are hard enough. A lot of folks make them tougher by making assumptions and building expectations. We can remove unnecessary drama and angst by turning our expectations into agreements. An expectation is something that either you or I have. An agreement is something you and I share. In the short run, expectations are convenient. […]
Read MoreManaging For What You Want
In Cash Flow Quadrant, Robert Kiyosaki explains that there are four ways to make money. You can be an employee (E), working for someone else for a salary. Alternatively, you can be self-employed (S), a business owner (B) or an investor (I). If you compare the E and S quadrants to the B and I […]
Read MoreWhistling Again
We use key performance indicators to assess the health of a business. Some evaluate economic and financial health. Others measure labor productivity. Still others measure the health of the ecosystem. Last week I added a new key performance indicator for measuring business success to my list. I spent an evening with Craig and Connie French […]
Read MoreWant To Keep It? Then Build It To Sell It.
Stan Parsons wrote, “If you want to be a cowboy get a job.” A business owner’s job isn’t to put up hay, work cattle, or build fence. It is to build a business. We hire employees to produce results that contribute to customer and owner value. When business owners hire themselves to work in their […]
Read MoreProfessionalizing Your Ranch
There are two types of athletes, professionals and amateurs. The professionals get paid to play. The amateurs have to pay to play. I look at ranches the same way. The professionals get paid to ranch. The amateurs subsidize their operations with unpaid family labor, off-farm income and inherited wealth. Some people balk at the idea […]
Read MoreThe Laws Of Economics
My Cousin Vinny is one of my favorite movies. There’s a scene where Vinny, played by Joe Pesci, challenging the witness, asks, “Are we to believe that the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove?” That line, makes me think of some people who market grass finished beef and use grazing practices that […]
Read MoreGetting It Right or Getting It Fast
A young rancher attended his first Executive Link meeting a few weeks after completing a Ranching for Profit School. He showed his EL board the long to-do list he created at the end of the school and worried that there wasn’t enough time to get everything done that he needed to do. “I’m constantly putting […]
Read More