How Do You Rate? Benchmarking Part OneThe following article was originally featured in the Farm Futures.com blog publication on December 12, 2014.
Benchmark, Yardstick, Standard, Target, Scale, Rank. Whichever word you want to use, there is value in knowing how you stack up and rate in comparison to yourself and industry peers. Benchmarks are typically used to help you understand and improve your operational efficiency and financial performance. Less than 45% of family farm businesses stick to a detailed budget and that less than 29% of farm businesses have a written business plan. Farmers are too busy farming and don’t have time to plan, yet all the “experts” call for it and complicate things further by calling everything a farmer has to do as “planning”. Strategic planning, operational planning, marketing plans, business planning, estate planning, family planning, retirement planning. Whoa! All I know is…Planning Is Not Optional. Last we explored the benefits of developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for your family farm business. Now, let’s spend some time helping you identify them, the consequences of deciding not to develop them and finally, some thoughts on how to help the senior generation of your family business stop micro-managing the team.
Can you believe this guy? Ummm. Yeah. Me Neither! Last week we began explore another area of your family farm business management system as you begin the succession planning process and plan for a successful generational transfer of responsibility, management and ownership of your family business. So, let's explore the need for policies a little deeper. |
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