Over the years and with enough observation, general themes become apparent can become learning lessons for your family farm.  Striving for continuous improvement is the dominant characterization of most financially and organizationally successful companies.  Consider the following thoughts and standards and see how you and your family-owned business compare.

If a horse is running a race by itself, it will win every time. Unfortunately, your business is anything but a single-horse race, and even a personal-best doesn’t necessarily lead to long-term sustainability.  In every industry, there are many other horses (i.e. competitors) and globalization will only increase your competition in future races.

Succession Planning, or Transition Planning, can be simply defined as the orderly process of transferring responsibility, management and ownership from one generation to the next.  Our experience working with business-owning families reveals that the order in which each of these separate transfers take place is a crucial element in a successful transition.  

Attempting to do things in the wrong order, or even accidentally doing things in the wrong order, usually results in disruption and spoiled family and business relationships.

Managing your farm business can be viewed of as the systematic process of continuous decisions. Making better decisions generally results in better business success. Seems simple enough, right?  Two areas of discussion today include checking your emotions at the door and knowing your numbers.