Cover story: Farming With Non-Family Members
Download this spreadsheet to help you gauge your readiness for working in a non-family business
Bryce Knorr
Published: May 19, 2011
Farming is a family business. But some farmers find advantage in joining forces with other growers who aren’t “all in the family.” While this strategy can provide economies of scale, it isn’t a sure-fire way to success. Making these combinations work takes a special set of both business and interpersonal skills.
But how to gauge if you're ready? Teaming with others may be no less difficult than working with family in a lot of ways. So knowing your readiness for the idea of bringing in outsiders could have some key value for your business.
Farm Futures has tracked the financial performance and practices of non-family farms in its exclusive surveys. We developed this downloadable spreadsheet based on our findings, to help you gauge your readiness for this type of business structure.
Using the link below, download our special spreadsheet and take the quiz. You'll get a numerical score of your readiness for the idea. If you score below where you think you should, look at your responses, and take a hard look at your business to work out the kinks before moving forward.
This spreadsheet is designed to work with Excel version 2002 or higher. Click the filename or the download link to save to your computer.
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Tagged: farm, farm futures, SURE, farming
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