It’s a Different Ballgame!

In one of my previous blogs, I had referred to comments from Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, where he stated that his survival at Auschwitz, the vilest of Nazi concentration camps, depended upon the realization that his old life was over. His new life and future would be vastly different.

I contend that the same holds true for us in the dairy industry. The old game is over. We are in a new game now. Even as we anticipate the potential for higher milk prices as we move through 2019, we will all need to update our thinking and processes. The scrutiny to which we will be subjected by our Lenders, our Vendors and others will be intense.

Our industry has changed, and we can choose to either change with it or run the risk of getting run over by events. What to do now? I suggest that you develop a plan to increase the odds of your succeeding. As I think about Clients who have changed their operations completely from dairy to almonds, those who have chosen to remain 100% in the dairy business or those who have selected a blend of different options, they all had one item in common: They had developed a plan!

For the Clients who switched completely to tree crops, they had to adapt to a different set of monthly cash flows than what they had had with their dairy operation. Yet, the tradeoff was that their financing was somewhat easier to locate. For those who opted to remain 100% committed to dairying (for various reasons), they needed to update their systems and tighten up their cost controls & cash management. For the Clients who chose to go with a blend of dairy & trees, they had to make both of these previously mentioned adjustments. This was necessary because their cash flows had changed to some extent, and they also needed to justify that their existing dairy operation could still be viable.

In each of their cases, I suggested the following steps:

• Know “Why” you want to pursue your objective. If you know your “Why,” the “How” becomes much easier.
• Understand what your endpoint or objective is at the start. There is an old Chinese proverb that states: “Before you start any competition, always know the rules of the game, know what is at stake and know when the game will end.” This is good advice for all of us.
• Recognize that there will be obstacles along the way. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t overcome them. Identify as many as you can ahead of time, and develop a game plan to overcome them.

I hope you’ve found these guidelines helpful. If you would like to learn more about similar topics and the tactics our Clients have used to improve their outcomes, please apply to join us for our Success Strategies Mastermind Groups. Our next series of Quarterly workshops will begin in July 2019 and are designed to teach more people the Finance & Strategy Concepts that I offer business people. Check them out at:

https://success-strategies.com/mastermind-group-for-dairy-farmers/

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at john@success-strategies.com. I’m always open for a follow-up call and, as always, wish you the best of success!