Are You Wiser Than This Farmer?
Lessons Learned from the Field
An expert dairy farmer, admired for his farm’s ability to produce a tremendous amount of milk, decided to buy the large grain farm next door. He reasoned; since I feed my cows grain, I can cut out my cost by simply growing my own grain – and do it in my spare time! It’s easy!
He asked his friends (all dairy farmers) how much he should invest in growing grain. Each of them said, I’d just use the tractor and equip-ment that I already own, then plant and harvest the field in my spare time! If you need helpers, just get kids from town! (It never occurred to anyone, that to get huge crops – greater resources must be invested.)
Wow! This sounded good, because the farmer didn’t want to go into debt. He just wanted a cheaper source of winter feed for his cows. He forgot that just as he developed his skill over a lifetime, he’d need to find and invest similar expertise to make the grain farm successful.
Experienced grain farmers were puzzled. They knew the myriad of details and investment necessary for success: diligence, timing, equipment speed, tilling the ground, watching for disease, spraying, then planting and harvesting exactly at the right times. Any variance would mean disaster! There’d be little harvest, wasted investment and no profit!
Well, the farmer worked his plan precisely. But as you probably guessed, he didn’t get the fields planted nor harvested on time. His old equipment wasn’t dependable, nor wide or fast enough to get the whole field prepared and planted on time. In the end his harvest was both small and poor quality. Tired and overworked, both the field and cows were neglected, SO milk production suffered. Yes, he still had to buy grain to get through the winter!
The moral of the story is - if you hope to grow your business, be certain you can afford the initial investment and sustained commitment required! Had the farmer decided to invest in equipment and trained personnel, he would have kept his milk production high, got his grain at a lower cost and been able to sell the excess to recoup his investment.
How about you? Do you get distracted from what makes you money? Do you try to save a few dollars by attempting tasks where you lack training, knowledge and/or skill? Why not outsource? Few can grow their business while being their own Lawyer, Accountant, Marketing Firm, Web Designer, IT Tech or CPA. Why not just manage the work of these Pros?
How big do you want your crop (return) to be? Why spend your next lifetime trying to learn skills others have developed over their lifetime? Is it really possible to get a huge increase without making a fair investment while continuing to keep attention on your present business? The decision is yours! What will be the return on the time YOU invest?