Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’ve ever looked up at the clock and been surprised at how much time has passed, you were likely experiencing what positive psychologists call a state of flow. It’s in these flow experiences that you lose your sense of self. Your worries disappear and time slows down, says Sarah Gregg, a life and business […] Read more
Find your flow
The path to feeling happier and healthier, from the science of positive psychology
Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise
Guide Books Review: “Your role in the family business will ask much of you — your intellect, your emotional intelligence, and even your courage.”
Reading Time: 3 minutes Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise By Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer Harvard Business Review Press / 320 pages / $38 From the very first sentence on the first page, you’ll recognize this book’s relevance and value to a family farm business. The book can be best summed up […] Read more
Above board
Pay yourself, and put the numbers in your budgets right from the start. It’s better for you, and for the business too
Reading Time: 5 minutes The thing is, you’re going to eat anyway, and probably wear clothes too. When a farmer doesn’t build a salary into their business model, they’ll still spend money on their personal needs and desires. The money just gets sucked out some other way. Of course a salary can take some getting used to, says Julia […] Read more
The Farmer’s Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business
Guide Books Review: In an agriculture where the new mantra is “work smarter, not harder,” Shanks offers an approach that, with discipline, can make success more achievable
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Farmer’s Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business By Julia Shanks New Society Publishers / 288 pages / $24.95 Launching, growing, pivoting and stabilizing your farm business all share one essential ingredient: a solid financial road map. Understanding what makes you money (and conversely, what does not) helps you […] Read more
The 80/20 Principle. The Secret to Achieving More with Less
Guide Books Review: The 80/20 Principle. The Secret to Achieving More with Less, by Richard Koch
Reading Time: 3 minutes The 80/20 Principle. The Secret to Achieving More with Less By Richard Koch Crown Publishing / 336 pages / $21 If it feels like you spend an inordinate amount of time working for an unequal amount of reward or output, you’re not crazy. It’s the 80/20 Principle at play. Also known as the Pareto Law, […] Read more
Defibrillator for your brain
Guide Books Review: Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath
Reading Time: 3 minutes Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen Dan Heath Simon & Schuster / 320 pages / $30 Most of us feel that the way we make decisions is the only natural way to do it. There isn’t a better way. If there was a better way, we’d already be doing it. Or would […] Read more
One-pot cooking makes meal prep a snap
Award-winning cookbook author offers tips on cooking from scratch
Reading Time: 5 minutes Getting a healthy home-cooked dinner on the table night after night can be a challenge for busy farm families. Thanks to an award-winning cookbook from Stratford, Ontario’s Jan Scott, this task just got a little easier. Scott’s Oven to Table cookbook features more than a hundred “mess-free, stress-free” delicious one-pot recipes that can be made […] Read more
Three Lean books to read in 2021
Guide Books Review: How about a holistic approach to management?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Lean in Agriculture: Create More Value with Less Work on the Farm By Vibeke Fladkjaer Nielsen and Susanne Pejstrup The Lean Dairy Farm: Eliminate Waste, Save Time, Cut Costs By Jana Hocken with Mat Hocken The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency, and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work By Ben Hartman […] Read more
How to Discuss What Matters Most
Guide Books Review: 'Difficult Conversations' by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen
Reading Time: 3 minutes Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen Penguin Books / 249 pages / $23.75 I cannot say too much about what a revelation this book was and how critical it is in both a personal and professional setting. If I had known in the past what I […] Read more
A defibrillator for your brain
Guide Books Review: Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
Reading Time: 3 minutes Running a farm business, trying to make a profit, and balancing work and family is (brace for the understatement) hard. We all know the pattern. Too often, we think big, become overwhelmed, and then let some of our achievable ideas, not to mention our innovative dreams, wilt and die like neglected potted plants. We try […] Read more
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