Scraping By
I received the following email from a young rancher last week: Dave, I am a young rancher and have grown my herd to over 100 cows over the last four years. In addition to my own operation I earn additional income working for my Dad on his place. I owe $15,000 of my cattle loan, have […]
Read MoreA Great Place To Raise A Family
I occasionally lead workshops I call Hard Work and Harmony: Effective Relationships In Family Businesses. In it I like to ask participants to explain to the person next to them, why they ranch. Some say they love being their own boss, or love working outdoors and with livestock. Almost all of them say something about […]
Boundaries
I have an advantage over most of the people who come through the Ranching for Profit school. I have boundaries. The RMC office is about a mile and a half from my home. Every day, unless the weather is miserable, I walk to work. Then at the end of the day I walk home. When […]
Read MoreWhat Does Mom Want?
We use a process at RMC to help families and business teams create a shared vision and a plan to achieve it. We start by asking a very basic question: What do you want? Each participant answers individually by writing several short statements describing how they’d like things to be in three to five years. Once […]
Participation Trophies
When my kids were young they played in a youth soccer league. At the end of the season all of the players were given a participation trophy. I sat there and applauded the kids as they passed out the awards, but the applause wasn’t sincere. I thought, “Self-esteem out of control! You don’t get awards […]
There’s Nothing Wrong With A Hobby
The Ranching For Profit School is intended for ranchers. But every year some people who want to get into ranching attend the class to build a business plan to test the feasibility of pursuing their dream. A week hasn’t gone by in the last couple of years when I haven’t had an email or phone […]
Fool Me Once
Life isn’t a fairytale. Sometimes regardless of how good our idea is, how well we listen, how well we prepare and plan, we still run into a brick wall of resistance. Sometimes we don’t all live happily ever after. I’ve had more than one ProfitTips reader write me to ask, “What now?” The answer is […]
Two Legacies
Legacy is a powerful concept. Perhaps that is because we see our legacy as a form of immortality. In some families it has survived generations now long gone. Many people I work with feel a deep obligation to carry on the family’s legacy. A family’s legacy can be rich with meaning and a powerful source […]
Read MorePay Me Now or Pay Me Later
Abby of Dear Abby, passed away last week. I don’t intend to take her place dispensing relationship advice, but I do get my share of Dear Dave letters. Here’s a Dear Dave inquiry I had last month: Dear Dave, We have a problem. Our ranch manager is a family member but does not have […]
Surgery with a Chainsaw
Ranching For Profit School instructors work with people in the evenings after class to help them apply the tools they learn in the school. A lot of people take advantage of these sessions to project their stock flow, calculate enterprise gross margins and project profit or loss for their ranch. When you throw in the […]
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