Business is a Noble Endeavor
Last week I along with Jordan Steele and a few RFP alumni attended the EntreLeadership Summit put on by the Ramsey organization in Nashville, Tennessee. It was an amazing week hearing from world-class thought leaders and business trailblazers. Dave Ramsey gave a presentation called The Nobility of Business. His point was that so many condemn […]
Read MoreIs Opportunity Interest, Real Interest?
An opportunity cost is the lost benefit of choosing a different option. The opportunity cost of going to college is losing out on four years of wages; the true cost is tuition plus lost wages. At the Ranching for Profit School, we include opportunity interest as a cost on owned livestock herds, because there is […]
Read MoreDangers of Free Time
Free time is dangerous to those who have been raised to believe that one must always be physically busy in the ranch. A business in our Executive Link (EL) program recently eliminated a major enterprise that wasn’t working economically and hadn’t been for some time. They were able to make this brave decision, with the […]
Read MoreWorking Backwards
One of Stephen Covey’s seven habits of highly successful people is to “start with the end in mind.” We use this a lot at our Ranching for Profit School, particularly during the evening coaching sessions when students are preparing their economic numbers. The Ranching for Profit economic model breaks down a business into gross margins […]
Read MoreFeedback Loops to Aid Decision Making
If you were to come upon a car wreck, which turns out to be your neighbor with terminal cancer, would you worry about their next chemo appointment? Probably not, your first concern would more likely be CPR or stopping the bleeding. This is about the extent to which we generally discussed the feedback loop at […]
Read MoreBreak Your Legs
Remember in the movies when the bookie’s tough guy would knock on the door and threaten to “break your legs” if they didn’t pay up? Sometimes, I think many of us would be better managers for our operations if someone broke our legs. If our legs were broken we wouldn’t be able to go outside […]
Read MoreThe Power of a Profit Target
Having a clear target is a powerful thing. A few years ago, I led my son’s scout troop to climb Longs Peak in Colorado. We hit the trail about 2:30 AM and watched the sun rise while sitting above the tree line. As we entered the most difficult stretches, we all struggled at different times. […]
Ranch Management Instruction Manual
As you open gifts this Christmas, they will probably include a few instruction manuals often, full of ridiculous legal jargon. Those manuals tend to get thrown out with the used wrapping paper and boxes. But what if your ranch came with an instruction manual that was actually useful? I’m not talking about how to fix […]
Read MoreFocus on What We Can Control
When the US Air Force Thunderbirds perform a formation roll maneuver the slot pilot is surrounded on all sides in close formation by other aircraft. He maintains his position by intense focus on a point of the aircraft next to him. He can’t be distracted by watching the aircraft behind him. The pilot focuses only […]
Social Distancing Rancher Style
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, all of us in America are changing many of our habits and routines to try and slow the spread. While social distancing is the norm for many in the ranching profession, we are most certainly adjusting our routines in the coming weeks and perhaps months. In my house, the major […]