LittleValleyFarm
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Has anyone found a written business plan useful? Also, anyone been audited by IRS after recording farm losses over a few years? Just trying to plan ahead!
LittleValleyFarm":slo88mfw said:Thus far any change in business expenses was easy to evaluate against the total profitability (or lack thereof) of this endeavor. Growing a little bigger changes things. A cash only system can no longer be maintained. B&M, do you recommend any software? Also, do you take a computer/device out to the corral or just transfer information later? It would seem like my iPad could be useful out there, but I haven't downloaded the "manure resistance" application yet!
Dun's strategy sounds very familiar for some reason
dun":wfb9q5c7 said:Is "Buy high, sell low and make it up on volume" a legitimate business plan?
LOL....plans change practically daily....Getting a nice rain right now that wasn't in "My Plan"...now what? :lol:cowboy43":369buruk said:Having 10 years of off and on extreme weather , record breaking droughts, for some reason a business plan does not seem to work.
Business plans, cash flow projections, etc. etc. require 110% honesty or you can make them say anything you want them to say. Bankes love them....it fills the file up and makes it look "complete". A cigar box works just as well. When all the bills are paid and you have money in it you're making a little money. When it's empty and you still owe money you're in the hole.cowboy43":3q1xfqdt said:Having 10 years of off and on extreme weather , record breaking droughts, for some reason a business plan does not seem to work.
cypressfarms":2xfo3dz4 said:And buy low/sell high is not a plan.....
cypressfarms":17jf80ze said:Maybe because I went to LSU and graduated in Management - but I really believe in planning. That also means planning for the unexpected as well. I had to write a "Emergency Procedure" for a plant that I managed at. It was good real life practice. when you are forced to think of all possible detrimental things that could happen (for the plant that meant fire, train derailment, hurricane, tornado, chemical spill, bomb threat, flood, employee going postal, etc.etc.etc.). Having an idea of what catastrophic events could happen, will inevitably make one prepare for those events.
Maybe I'm anal, but I'm known at work as "Mr. plan B". I also have a second (third or forth) action in my mind just in case things don't go as planned. If they go as planned, great. If not, then at least I've given thought to how they should be handled. Maybe it's the boy scout in me
Why would someone NOT have a plan for their cattle operation? And buy low/sell high is not a plan.....
Heck, I have LIFE goals; one was to be an executive (as in VP or higher) by the time I turned 45. That changed at 39 when I had cancer. My list got "re-arranged", and executive is nowhere on the list. However "good dad" is at the top.
TexasBred":3g8rc4au said:Business plans, cash flow projections, etc. etc. require 110% honesty or you can make them say anything you want them to say. Bankes love them....it fills the file up and makes it look "complete". A cigar box works just as well. When all the bills are paid and you have money in it you're making a little money. When it's empty and you still owe money you're in the hole.cowboy43":3g8rc4au said:Having 10 years of off and on extreme weather , record breaking droughts, for some reason a business plan does not seem to work.
In reality I use a simple Quicken accounting program. For a small or even large operation it gives you more infromation than most of us can absorb.
cowboy43":25bourhh said:I am not being sarcastic , I am serious, when I retired in 2005 at age 60 I had 70 cows and as many calves paid for. My plan was to improve my herd and hold one years calf crop till the next year and sell as heavy weights, that way I would be raising my own stockers. I managed to do that for one year and then a 2 year drought hit dryest on record. I sold off both calf crops and then all cows keeping 15 heifers. Then the wettest year on record hit had 9 inches in one night and 5 heifers drowned and went down the creek. I bought a few cows back and was way understocked with a large amount of stock piled grass. Then the dryest 2 years on record hit again beating out the other record. After 2 years of no rain and all the stock pyled grass gone, I sold out again the place would not even support 25 cows. I now have 3 cows, 2 calves and one old broken down bull. It is now raining again and at 67 years old and cows selling for 1500 to 2000 dollars a pair, I am making plans to get back in somehow, the moral is the weather will knock all man made plans to be nice. :cowboy: :lol2: :cry2: :???: :dunce: all my moods