Going with the flow

Having gone through this MSc study in entrepreneurship I know about the value of  goal setting and planning and directed focus to achieve what I want, but you know what? Sometimes I wonder if that is the real me after all? The latest events, where I have been thrown into trying to teach a big corporate Wind developer some manners – and believe me, that takes a lot of time and energy!! – have shown me how much fun and excitement you can have when you stop struggling and just follow where events take you.

I believe in renewable energy of all sorts – even when it involves big windfarm projects and large turbines because the planet needs a helping hand and even if the technology is not perfect, it will only get better if and when  it gets used and developed. I have to say though, that I do not believe in the methods employed by the corporate wind developers to manipulate landowners into agreements that do not observe even the basic courtesy and integrity. My poor husband is getting terribly distressed over the situation, so I am picking up the Viking helmet, sharpening the sword and looking forward to going into battle with a giant corporate!

Who said the Vikings were extinct?!!

Why would they need 3 1/2 acres to build one turbine??

The Unexpected!

I was all geared to spend the day working on the next course about Expectations in business.

Husband at work, kids in school and the contractor was out there spreading slurry.

I was expecting to finally get some serious work done on the ‘important’ stuff rather than the ‘urgent’. The heifers and the rented bull were out in the field near the house and the rest of the cows and calves were with our breeding bull right up at the top of the farm – so what was all the moo-ing and commotion I was hearing? I left the ‘important’ stuff to go and check, and my blood froze when I realised that the contractor had left the gate open and the main herd had come all the way down from the top. The two bulls about to come face to face…

Rushed out, got the dog and ran a quick as I could to try to get the cattle back up the track before they got to close, but the heifers had already seen the others and were jumping the fence trying to join the main herd. It was mayhem! My main concern was to keep the bulls apart and I managed to open a gate to another field shooing the cows and breeding bull in there and cutting off the rented bull and a couple of heifers. But they started to follow the fence running up the track towards what I knew was an open gate with access to the field where I had just isolated the breeding bull and his ladies.

I sprinted to the quadbike – it wouldn’t start! So jumped in the landrover and raced up the track trying to cut the rented bull off before he got to the open gate. Our wonderful Welsh sheepdog knew there was something wrong and ran next to the landrover ready to help where she could. By the time I got up there, the two bulls where in the same field and the rented one was challenging our own, no time to think so I drove the landrover in between them and jumped out, shooing the challenger away assisted by the dog. We managed to get him and a couple of cows into another field and shot the gate behind him. Phew, immediate danger over.

A couple of hours later I had the rented bull with one heifer safely locked away in a shed and the breeding bull with a few cows isolated in the top field well away from the farm. All the cows, calves and heifers in one happy mix in another field where they could jolly well wait until my husband came home to separate them. I looked at Gwen (the sheepdog), she looked at me and I thought ‘Girl Power!’ and was very proud of the two of us.

So why do I think rural women (and sheepdogs) are FARMtastic? Well, who else would be able to shift from being an office woman in front of the computer one minute and a cowgirl handling a couple of tons of challenging bulls the next?!!!

The Breeding Bull

Niche Marketing

If you are a small business, niche marketing can allow you to succeed without having to compete with the big corporates.

Being a niche player involves four things:

1. Finding out what is ‘unique’ to the business. That means understanding what your customers really want when they buy the product or service and why they buy it from you rather than a competitor. Uniqueness can be product – or market-based.

2. Specialising in customers and/or products rather than methods of production. This is important when competing on price. You must understand your customer thoroughly and ensure that your product or service meets their needs in every way. Ongoing, thorough market research is essential when you specialise.

3. Stressing the inherent strengths of your company and the USP (unique selling point) of your product or service over its competitors, i.e. innovation, flexibility, personalised service etc. through targeted marketing efforts aimed at the niche market.

4. Emphasising in your marketing the non-price elements that differentiate you from the competition. Niche players should be able to charge a premium price and sustain a high profit margin, something that is clearly a very attractive option for smaller firms.

Click on the following link to enjoy an inspiring story about niche marketing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQMvoOVIR_s

The biggest Procrastinator

I’ve got to be the biggest procrastinator in the World! For years and years I have been planning and preparing to launch my business, writing on the products, writing the business plan – rewriting the business plan, deciding a name for the business, changing the name of the business, printing business cards, designing leaflets, ditching them and creating new ones – everything but actually selling something and making some money! Well, at least you can expect some good products, I’ve been writing on them and improving them for 10 years.

They say that the only cure for procrastination is to put yourself in a situation where you have no choice but to take action. Well, we’ve just put the farm (and family home) on the line as security for a mortgage to pay for the neighbouring property. It used to be part of the farm, but the place was split up  and sold separately long before we bought our farm. The great thing is, that the property includes a bungalow, which will be ideal for when Richard’s elderly Mum and aunt need to be closer to us. It has been a dream to buy that property ever since we moved here and it has featured on my goal list and been posted on the wall for almost as long. So the Universe has now provided me with the object of my desire and we now have to find an extra £2400 per month to pay for it.

I have two choices: I can get a job, as Richard wants me to, or I can finally get this business started and sell some products. Guess what I would prefer?!! So the biggest procrastinator of all times is about to pull her finger out and start a FARMtastic business which will hopefully help thousands of people all over the World.

The Team

Nothing is more important to a business than a strong and motivated team. If you are blessed with dedicated and loyal employees, who are excited about what they are doing, you have a huge advantage over the competition. So how do you make sure that you have a great team? There are many principles involved and I can’t cover them all here at this stage, but the single most effective measure you can take is to be genuinely interested in your employees. Find out what makes them tick, what are they excited about? And what do they find a real pain? When you know them as individuals – their strengths and weaknesses – you stand a better chance of developing them as a team.
A good team will thrive with a strong leader, whom they respect. If your team isn’t coming together as a unit, you may want to look at questioning where you can grow and develop personally, in order to become the leader they can all look up to. Be the kind of leader, who can inspire a great team!

Financial planning

In the vulnerable start-up phase finance is probably the biggest threat to survival. We often need to inject considerable amounts of working capital to keep the business floating until the sales take off. A lot of us like to focus on immediate rewards and put all our efforts into the day-to-day running of the business. However, it is well worth taking some time before, or during the initial start-up, to really get to grips with the finances. You might not find it exciting and you may have a real phobia about figures, but get over it. Finance is the lifeblood of your business and you need to be in control of it – anticipating all possible outgoings and surprise expenses, and being absolutely clear about how your business needs to perform in order to meet those outgoings during the start-up phase, until you have built up some emergency capital resources.

Believe in yourself

Henry Ford once said: “Whether you believe you can, or you believe you can’t – you’re probably right.”

When we are thinking about doing something we haven’t done before, the single biggest factor deciding whether we are going to do it or not is the level of our belief. If we think we might succeed, it is likely that we will give it a go. If we believe that we are not capable of successfully doing what we want to do, the chances are that we won’t even try. The truth is, that we don’t know what we are capable of doing until we try, and it is so sad that many people choose the “safe” option of doing nothing. When you come to choose what to do, just remember that most people won’t regret what they did do, the majority regrets what they didn’t do.

Why wait?!

I have been waiting to launch FARMtasticWOMEN.com for so long, hiding behind excuse after excuse: “the kids were to young”, “the farmwork to demanding”, “maybe when the children are both in Secondary school..” “I need to finish the MSc first..”, “I’ll start tomorrow – next week – in the summer”, but you know what? There will never be a right time, so I’m just going to start right here, right now.

I have no products yet,  but they will come.

I have no structure, but that will develop.

I have absolutely no visitors to my blog, but I do hope you’ll all turn up and join me for this exciting ride into the world of entrepreneurial rural women.