Back in April I wrote about a friend of mine who was shopping for retail space for her business. She often asks me for advice, and in this case my advice was always the same: “Do the math to see if you can pay the rent and pay yourself.”
That wasn’t specific enough, so I tried, “How much product do you have to make and sell in order to pay the rent? How much time will that take? How much time is left over to make additional product that will bring in the income you need?” When she told me how her day job could cover her (what you might call your “off-farm job”), I told her, “Don’t ask your day job to pay for your business.”
I’m not saying any of this like I’m some expert at doing the money-making math. I wasn’t taught how to do that kind of math in school and had to learn it from experience. Like so many, I jumped in enthusiastically, not doing any math at all, only to find out I was overly-optimistic about the income potential. That certainly goes for the publication you’re reading right now – On Pasture!
With that in mind, this week I have some articles for you from On Pasture’s “Money Matters” category. Yes, it was ALWAYS the least read category in the entire library. But one reader told me that, though they hated reading these articles, they always thought about On Pasture before spending a dime. So maybe it did some good after all.
Enjoy, if you can.
Hugs!
Kathy
Joe Carey has some thoughts on efficiency and the math that will help you measure it. And if you’re not into math, that’s ok. A lot of what he’s talking about is just thinking through decisions to get to where you want to be.
Don’t Play Their Game, Play Yours! Focusing on Efficiency Creates Profitability
Since Joe brought up the idea of inputs in the last article, I thought you’d like this piece from Hugh Aljoe that gets you thinking about where you can reduce inputs.
Hmm…it seems that just remembering that you’re in this to win this might get you to readjusting your priorities. Check this out from Dave Pratt.
Shannon Hayes is doing the math to see what she needs to charge for her farm products. It’s a good lesson in knowing your value!
And here’s the funnies!
