5 Steps to a Family Legacy

Hi friend. Have you heard about our group coaching program AgBiz Academy? It’s designed specifically for business owners in the ag industry. My team and I will help you achieve your goals of financial clarity, business prosperity and family harmony.

AgBiz Academy is opening again in December and we’d love to have you join us. If you’d like to learn more or apply, follow the link below.


LET’S TALK ABOUT FAMILY LEGACIES

I’m sharing a sneak peak into some of our AgBiz Academy content in this article. I hope you enjoy!

Have you wondered how you might ensure a family legacy in your farm, ranch or agribusiness? Today I’m going to break down the five essential steps to ensure your family business is around for the next generation. Based off the 5 F Framework, developed at Patten Bookkeeping & Consulting, I’m going to review the most important factors to consider. Utilizing this framework will help you achieve your business and personal goals.

Step 1: Foundation

You will need to create a firm foundation for your family business to ensure its lasting legacy. This is the time to decide an entity type and ownership of the business.

Action Items:

  • Choose Entity Type - LLC/ Corp/ DBA

  • Determine Initial Ownership - Who and how much

  • File Documents- Organizational Paperwork, EIN, etc.

Step 2: Fundamentals

During this stage in the framework, you'll ensure the fundamental business tasks are completed and that there is transparency and accountability in the financials of the business.

Action Items:

  • Determine Bookkeeping Systems - QuickBooks, Excel, Etc

  • Determine Bookkeeper(s)- Who does which bookkeeping tasks. Checks and balances are always a good thing.

  • Set a Financial Meeting Schedule (Monthly Recommended) - Keep it the same day each month for consistency.

Step 3: Formulate

This stage of the framework will help you and your family make business and strategic plans for the business. Also included in the formulate stage, is determining roles within the business and how each member is compensated.

Action Items:

  • Determine Values your Family Business Aspires To

  • Formulate a Mission Statement- What your business does in a paragraph. Include values, customers, prodcuts, etc.

  • Choose KPIs/ Financial Ratios to Track (Add to Financial Meeting) - I like this to be a combination of production values and financial values. Grazing, overhead, profit, etc.

  • Determine Roles & Compensation- Who does what and what are the7 paid? Is the compensation reasonable and fair? Don’t forget privileges like vehicles, gas, housing, grazing, groceries… these things add up quickly!

  • Set an Employee Review Schedule (Quarterly Recommended)- Are employees doing their part? Is their role changing? Is compensation still reasonable and fair?

Step 4: Follow Through

Potentially the most impactful stage in the framework, follow through is when you and your family members ensure that everyone is accountable for their actions and working toward shared goals.

Action Items:

  • Continually Review Values, Mission Statement & Strategic Plans - Update as needed. Things change, be flexible.

  • Set Leadership Meetings (Monthly or Quarterly Recommended) - Big picture planning

Step 5: Family Legacy

It's time to determine your family business' transition strategy. Without a solid plan and buy-in from everyone, you cannot guarantee what will happen when you are gone.

Action Items:

  • Determine Future Business Ownership - Who and how much

  • Determine Ownership Transfer Method- Gifts, sweat equity, upon death of a current owner, etc

  • Other Considerations - Life Insurance, etc.

Now you have a roadmap to get where you want to go, but maybe you need additional support?

Our team is ready to support you in the following ways:

Thank you for your time!

All my best,


Michelle Patten

Working from Home: 4 Ways to Make it Fun

Though there are many benefits to working from home for both employees and companies, it is easy to miss some of the fun that comes from working in a more communal setting. As we wrap up our Working from Home series, we are going to look at some ways to create a job you love while working remotely! 

  1. Create a Fun Workspace

Motivate yourself by making your space a place you enjoy. Invest in some comfortable office furniture, put that unique painting up on the wall, or decorate your desk with pictures of your loved ones. The possibilities are endless to make your workspace a place you like spending time in, and you don’t even have to worry about your co-workers’ tastes! 

  1. Embrace Flexibility

One of the greatest benefits of some work from home positions is flexible scheduling. Here at Patten Bookkeeping & Consulting, we can set our own schedules within some basic parameters, which allows us to attend to responsibilities with our families, ranches, and communities, along with our work. If your employer and the nature of your work allows, adjust your schedule or location to what works best for you and your business.  

  1. Make Time for Face Time 

Even though some people are more introverted and do their best work independently, it is important to make time to interact with colleagues and clients during work, as well as family and friends outside of work. There are many applications that allow you to connect with others through video anywhere you have wi-fi. A couple of our favorites are Zoom and Google Meet. Messaging and email are great tools, but nothing can replace the personal touch that can be communicated through video, or even better, in person. 

  1. Know When to Stop

If you have a more sedentary job, it is particularly important to get up and move throughout the day. Try doing a few stretches at your desk or take a walk outside in the sunshine. Grab a healthy snack or a drink of water. Sometimes when you work at home it can be easy to blur the lines between work time and personal time. Once you have completed the tasks or hours you need to do, make sure you step away from work to avoid getting burned out.  

How do you make working from home fun? Let us know in the comments!


—Ashley DeVore, Director of Operations

Join our Facebook group The AgBiz Community to join in on great agribusiness discussions!

Working from Home: 5 Tips for Reducing Distractions

In the last post in our series, we discussed how to be productive when working remotely. Read this post to hear 5 tips for cutting down distractions which is key for productivity. Even if you do not work from home full time, you will still find some information that can help you become more focused in your everyday tasks.  

1.       Close the Door

It sounds obvious, but sometimes the simplest actions can produce the biggest results! Wherever in your home you have set aside as your dedicated workspace, make sure you can close the door to the room to keep yourself focused on the task at hand.

 2.       Organize Your Workspace

When your desk is cluttered, it can be hard to stay focused or find the things you need to complete your work. Even taking a couple minutes at the end of each day to tidy up can make a significant difference. The same principle applies to organizing the workspace on your computer. Develop a system for naming documents and do not fall into the trap of having a ridiculous amount of browser tabs open when they aren’t needed!  

 3.       Turn Off Notifications

Notifications can be helpful (especially for appointment reminders), but they can also interrupt the flow of your work if you get too many. If you already have a habit of regularly checking your email, do you need to hear that sound every time you get a new one? Do you really need alerted every time something happens on social media? Consider where you can cut down on notifications or turn them off altogether.

 4.       Use Time Blocking

Time blocking simply means setting aside certain periods of time within your day, week, or month to work on specific tasks or types of tasks. Rather than jumping from one task to the next, time blocking allows you to plan what you will work on and for how long. It takes a little more preparation up front but keeps you from wasting time wondering what to work on or what your priority should be now. You can even utilize a timer, so you are not distracted by looking at the clock.

 5.       Set Boundaries with Family During Work Hours

Finally, if you work from home, you will need to have some boundaries in place if your spouse or other family members are around during your work hours. Depending on the work you are doing, those boundaries may mean defining certain hours you should not be disturbed, establishing a closed/open door policy to communicate whether it is ok to interrupt, or even creating a sign to hang outside the door. On the note of distractions—try to give your full attention to your family when you are off work so that they do not feel like they are competing with your job.

—Ashley DeVore, Director of Operations

Do you need help getting organized or developing a time blocking system to tackle your workload? Schedule an initial consultation here to learn how our Operations Consulting Services can help improve your business!

Looking to connect with others working in agriculture? Join our Facebook group The AgBiz Community.


Working from Home: How to Be Productive

Many people are working from home these days—whether by personal choice or due to COVID-19 protocols. Our business model at Patten Bookkeeping and Consulting allows our team to primarily work remotely, which is awesome! While working from home has its perks, there are challenges that can come with it as well. This is the first in a series of posts where we hope to address some of those challenges and help you to make the most of your time working from home.

1. Create a Dedicated Workspace

This doesn’t necessarily have to be an office separate from the rest of your house, but having a spot set aside specifically for work helps you stay organized and lets your brain know it is time to get into work mode.

2. Set Working Hours

Keeping a consistent schedule helps you (and potentially your co-workers/clients, if applicable) to know when it is work time and when it is not. It is important to make boundaries with your time since it is harder to “leave work at work” than if you go to work at a traditional office.

3. Identify Your Most Productive Working Time

We are all wired to work the most efficiently at certain times of the day. Understanding that fact can help us be strategic with how we structure our time. Once you have identified your most productive times, try to tackle your most important, difficult, or technical tasks during those hours.

4. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Evaluate what kind of work you are doing and how technology might be able to help you do it more effectively. Would a dual screen setup help you complete your computer tasks more efficiently? Is there is a software program or an app that could make things easier for you?

5. Reduce Distractions

We always have distractions to deal with in every environment, but working from home can have its own unique kind of interruptions and things that attract our attention. Try to reduce distractions to make the most of your work time and be fully present with your family and friends during non-work hours. We will have a future post all about this topic!

6. Take Breaks

Make time for down time throughout your workday. It can be hard to stop working, especially when you feel like there is so much to be done. However, we cannot work to our full capacity if we never take a break. Look away from the screen, take a walk, grab a quick snack—then you can dive back into your work feeling refreshed.

What else has helped you to be productive while working from home? Let us know in the comments!

—Ashley DeVore, Operations Manager

For a place to discuss all things agribusiness, join our Facebook group The AgBiz Community.

Email Management Tips to Improve Your Efficiency

Managing your email is an important but often overlooked aspect of keeping your agribusiness and personal life running efficiently. Email is often the means that you are informed that your bills are due, that your monthly bank statements are available, or that a customer (or your bookkeeper) is reaching out to you. It is important that you see the emails you need so that things do not get lost in the shuffle. Here are a few tips to help you leverage your time spent on email to help your farm/ranch be successful.

1.     Set Aside a Time to Review Emails Regularly

When you wait too long to check email it is easy for things to get lost and you may miss important deadlines. It can also get overwhelming when you have too many unread emails. It is important to make time each day to check if there is anything that urgently needs your attention.

2.     Don’t Check Too Often

On the other hand, you can get so consumed with email that you are sacrificing time and attention that could be spent doing more valuable things for your business or family. A good rule of thumb is to check in the morning and quickly respond to any pressing matters. If needed, set aside a longer time later in the day if there are things that cannot be handled quickly. Notifications can also be really distracting, especially if you are a person that gets a lot of emails. Try turning off those notifications instead. If you need help remembering to check, make yourself a daily calendar reminder.

3.     Unsubscribe or Change the Frequency of Your Subscriptions

Your inbox can get flooded by emails that you do not even read but then have to spend time deleting. If you do not read the promotional emails or newsletters from a certain company, unsubscribe from their list (this option can usually be found at the bottom of the emails). If you do not want to unsubscribe completely, many companies offer the opportunity to change the frequency or type of emails that you get from them.

4.     Review Junk Mail/Spam Periodically

Though most of the time the things in that folder are truly junk, there are times that an important message accidentally makes its way in there. Check periodically and add those contacts to your address book so that their emails go to your inbox instead. That folder will automatically empty itself every 7 to 30 days depending on your email provider, so you will want to find out that time period and check it regularly enough to catch any that were misdirected.

5.     Use Your Account’s Features to De-Clutter Your Inbox

Most accounts have features you can utilize to sort your emails such as—Labels/Filters for Gmail, and Folders/Rules for Outlook. These features can be used to your advantage so that it will sort your emails for you as you receive them. That way you will know exactly where to look for them, rather than wasting time searching through your inbox.

What other tips would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

—Ashley DeVore, Executive Assistant

For more resources on helping your agribusiness thrive, join our group The AgBiz Community.

 

Financial Bookkeeping Maintenance Part 1 : Intentionally Reducing Stress

If there is one day each year I dread, it is the day my kids 4-H Record books are due! Every 4-H parent, child, or leader knows exactly what I am talking about. My 10-year-old and I had been sitting at the table for 6 hours trying to determine what he had done in his Market Beef project for the entire last year.  My neighbor stopped by and said, “Yep it’s just like doing taxes, you wait until the last few days before its due and then sit there for a week straight working on it.” Yikes, that statement really made me think.  Look at all the stress created, not just for me, but for my kids. If we only had done a little each week, we could be out enjoying the beautiful summer weather! 

Sound familiar to anyone?  Why do we ignore our bookkeeping until the end of the year and then torture ourselves to either get our taxes done or provide the information to our loan officer? If managing our financial status is key to continuing our legacy and enjoying the agricultural lifestyle, why does it end up last priority?  Shouldn’t we know our financial status more than once a year? 

There are lots of legitimate reasons for procrastination to creep in when it comes to bookkeeping. Your reason could be lack of time, accounting is intimidating to you, you fear facing financial realities, or you just can’t resist the beautiful weather outside. Many times, not knowing where to start or what steps to take can be the biggest hurdle.

Down below you’ll see a link to download a weekly and monthly checklist designed specifically for agricultural businesses. Give it a try! Purposefully spending 30 minutes a week on bookkeeping will allow you to determine the success of your business monthly and eliminate a pile of stress at the end of the year. Imagine how empowered you will feel when you call your accountant with all your financial information ready long before Tax Day. Make your bookkeeping and financial maintenance a priority!

-Cheyenne Garrison, Bookkeeper

Stay tuned for future posts in the Financial Bookkeeping Maintenance series!

  • Part 2: How to Reconcile Bank and Loan Accounts

  • Part 3: Agricultural Payroll

  • Part 4: Income Statements & Balance Sheets

Download the Agribusiness Daily, Weekly & Monthly Bookkeeping Maintenance Schedule here.

For more tips and great conversations, join our Facebook group The AgBiz Community.

Are You a Leader or Manager of Your Ag Business?

“Efficient management without effective leadership is like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.” --Anonymous

For many of us in the agriculture industry, being a manager comes naturally.  We excel at coming up with a set of processes to carry out daily on our farm or ranch.  We’re really good at telling those involved in our operation, whether it be our self, spouse, child, or employee, what to do and when to do it. Have you ever considered what kind of legacy you could leave if you not only managed your team, but lead them? 

On most of our farms and ranches, we are responsible for carrying out both the management and leadership duties, but it is vital that we distinguish between the two.  Managing includes diagnosing a problem or opportunity within your business, creating a strategy to seize or correct it, and then implementing a process to take advantage of opportunities or correct the problem.  Managers tend to focus on the short-term issues: How many replacement heifers are we going to keep this year? What is the best crop rotation this year? How are we going to keep our dairy herd from getting mastitis? 

Leadership on the other hand is creating a long-term vision for your ag business and inspiring those around you to want to “buy in” to that mission.  Leaders address questions like: Where will the farm or ranch be in 20 years?  Will it pass on to future generations?  What types of cattle breed or crop enterprises do we want involved in?  How will land and labor be acquired to help us reach our long-term goals?       

To become a better manager and leader of your operation, consider doing the three following things. First, start with self-reflection. What are your strengths and weaknesses?  We all have them. Secondly, surround yourself with people you trust to help you make the best decisions for your farm, ranch, or agribusiness.  This may come as a shock to you (I know it is for me), we don’t know it all.  Owner/operators are better leaders and managers when they include their spouse, children, feed or chemical rep, veterinarian, bookkeeper, business consultant, and marketing expert in their decisions.  Lastly, be sure to strike a balance between leadership and management.  Your legacy depends on it.

—Chasi Stonehocker, COO

Looking for more resources to help build your legacy?

Join our free Facebook group The AgBiz Community.