WINNIPEG – Farm women must learn to have fun while wringing every last dollar out of their farm businesses, two sisters told the Manitoba Farm Women’s Conference Nov. 13-14.
As Barbara Thrasher and Madelon Smid ran through their list of business tips for the 200 people in the audience, coffee table-sized coins propped up their trademarked Smart Women method to achieve a prosperity attitude.
Thrasher runs a national marketing company in Edmonton while Smid is a writer and professional speaker from Stonewall, Man. Both grew up in Rosetown, Sask., granddaughters of Austin Thrasher, who helped found The Western Producer and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
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While they grew up “townies,” they say farming, like all business, relies on certain principles.
“If you don’t value your labor costs per hour, your management of the books, your fuel to get to market and a decent profit margin – which is 50 percent on a jar of jam or a hand-sewn object – then you’re just feeding a hobby,” Thrasher said.
She said businesses should either go after customers who will pay more, or spin out all the angles of the product.
She used as an example Deb Hagman of Sangudo, Alta., who grew her wild boar meat venture into a bow and arrow hunting event with barbecues, sausage-making and archery equipment sales.
Banks have centralized, and decisions about loans will be made on the numbers in a business plan, not by local staff who know the owner’s character.
Thrasher advised people to write a good business plan, establish a sound personal credit rating and then find investors by approaching seniors groups, investment clubs and community futures groups, and by advertising in newspapers.
Smid said women must learn psychology as well as economics. Simplifying life can bring joy as one goes back to the basics.
“The women we interviewed for the Smart Women book chose focuses and priorized,” she said.
“Let go of the things you hate doing, that you’re not having fun with.”
Thrasher said people will get sick if they don’t heed their instincts and get rid of what is making them uneasy.
She advised farmers to be excited rather than scared about change.
“There are better cash crops around, new processing. Diversify. You don’t have to leave the farm to find opportunities,” she said.
“Get more information, attend workshops, go for coffee at the co-op and talk to people who are doing new things.”
Smid said wheat has been regarded as a staple food, but some are making money with wheat weaving crafts or making heat therapy bags filled with wheat kernels. These are little projects, but it’s a start to finding more value in the crop.
Technology can save time, the sisters said. Using e-mail and internet chat lines can help people avoid “the meeting” and a two-hour drive on snowy roads, while still conquering isolation.
But Thrasher also warned not to jump into the flavor of the month. Ideas need research. What if all farmers decided to switch from growing crops to staging carnival rides, she asked.
