OUCH! That probably hurts! For some of you, that might be true and that may resonate with you and how you are feeling. The good news is I’ve spoken with hundreds of agents about farming and many of them have felt the same way. So if you feel like a failure, you aren’t alone!
One of the most common conversations I have with agents around geographic farming is about “failure”. When I talk to these agents, I can hear the disappointment in their voice. A common thing I hear is that they have either tried farming and failed or they are terrified of failure, so they just never start. If you fall into either of these camps, its ok, most agents do!
The agents who have “failed” usually make the same mistakes that many others before them have done. As a result, they feel they are an utter failure themselves.
The list is very common:
- They “tried” farming.
- They didn’t get the response they wanted so they gave up.
- They spent a ton of money and didn’t get the return they were hoping for.
- They spent a ton of time and gave up before seeing results.
- They picked a farm that wasn’t a good fit.
The list goes on and on! The good news is there really only about 7 common failures when it comes to farming, and each one of these is avoidable with the right training and support.
So let’s dive in.
Budget
In my experience, this tends the be the first-place agents fail. Many agents get the idea that farming is a good fit for them and they jump right in. (It’s great to take action!) They get an idea and they run with it. The problem is that many agents don’t plan on a budget. They just shoot from the hip without thinking about the short term and long term costs. If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ve probably heard me talk about 3 parts to a budget.
Money – Time – Energy
If you want to succeed you need to ensure you have a healthy budget and a long-term budget for all three of these. The quickest way to fail is to run out of time and money. Then your farm isn’t really a farm, it’s just a failed experiment. If you want to avoid this, it takes careful planning, a system that works and a budget to back it up. That ties in nicely to the next reason agents struggle with failure.
Commitment
I’ve heard it time and time again… “I tried farming once” or “I sent out some postcards for a few months”. The lack of commitment is why so many agents fail. A lot of it stems from the previous reason, they don’t budget correctly. This leads them to running out of time and money and then as a result, they give up and don’t stick with it.
Imagine if a farmer planted seeds, watered it for a few weeks and didn’t see any growth and then just gave up? That would be just silly. It would have been a waste of time and effort if there wasn’t a commitment in the first place.
So in your own farm, of course you aren’t going to reap the benefits if you don’t commit. If you want to see the fruits of your labor (pun intended) then you need to commit long term. AT A MINIMUM OF ONE YEAR! (Keep that in mind with your budget as well!)
Expectations
What ties in more perfectly with commitment than expectations? One of the best ways to help you stick with your commitment is to have the right expectations up front. You can’t expect to not spend any money, spend no time, put in no energy and be willing to take no risk and walk away with a million bucks.
Many agents fail because they think if they spend a few bucks and send it out a few times they are going to be next big hit in the neighbourhood. You must be realistic, but also base it on what you are committed to doing. The great thing is when you have the right expectations backed by a strong commitment and a healthy budget you are halfway there.
Mindset
How do you stay committed and set the right expectations? With the right mindset. When you truly understand what faming is and learn to get into the right farming mindset you can drastically increase your chances of success. In some of my courses and training sessions I talk about the right mindset you need to succeed. An important one to focus on is to stop thinking transactionally and become the ambassador and the expert. This simple mindset shift will transform the way you grow your business, what you do, how you grow and ultimately determine the trajectory your business heads in.
There are a number of other mindsets you may need to shift, but I’ll save that for another day!
Scale
Another huge source of failure is how agents scale (or “Un-Scale” as I call it). Most end up scaling down, and then have to scale back.
One of my mantras in farming is “It’s better to scale up, then scale back”.
So many agents have a fear of missing out and they think they need to go big, or it won’t be worth it. This leads to failure, fast! You blow through your budget, you haven’t tested your marketing, your systems aren’t in place etc. Basically, when you scale too big too fast without having a proven plan and systems, you just tell more people that you don’t know what you are doing.
The agents who have really succeeded with farming at a high level have always scaled up. Start smaller than what you thought and build on your successes.
Planning
You’ve probably heard it before – “Failing to plan is planning to fail!”. If you haven’t created a long-term plan, the odds of you getting to the “Total Farm Domination” level is next to zero! You need to know where you are headed, what you are going to do, what you need to get there and how you are going to pay for it. Haphazardly trying to farm will ultimately end in failure which will cost you money, time, and stress. And worst of all, could really damage your reputation. This can all be avoided with a bit of planning up front and ongoing planning to ensure you stay on target.
Training/ Strategies
And finally, the last (and most avoidable) way to fail at farming is having no training and a lack of effective strategies. Let’s be honest, if farming was easy and everyone was doing it correctly, I wouldn’t be here! One of the most common things I get asked by agents is what should they do once they have a farm picked out? Choosing a farm is critical, but having the right strategies and training is going to be the difference between massive success and possible failure.
I saw a need for great training, support and to share strategies that actually work. The great thing is you can sign up for my courses, watch my show, follow my newsletter, and listen to my interviews on other shows to get ideas on how to grow your farm. You don’t have to do it alone. I’ve created a lot of resources and tools for you to up your farming game.
Whether you get support and training from me or not doesn’t matter, but you do need to ensure you are going to get good advice and follow proven strategies. Or you risk experimenting on your own and falling down the failure rabbit hole.
Conclusion
Now, you can do it on your own and try and figure it out, but I can’t guarantee you success. For every agent who succeeds in farming there are probably 5 others who failed. Most fail because of a combination of the above reasons or many of their own reasons. But the the good thing is you don’t have to. You don’t have to be a statistic. You can start your farm with an understanding that you can avoid some of the most common failures and increase your chances of succeeding. You can scale your current farm knowing that you are going to succeed because you have a solid plan and the right mindset.
So what are you waiting for? Go start your harvest! Here’s to success!
Happy Farming!
Ryan Smith – Founder/Creator
Launch Your Farm
Be sure to check back on our blog and show to get awesome information about geographic farming!
Blog – http://www.LaunchYourFarm.com/Blog
Show – http://launchyourfarm.com/category/interviews
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