For a basic post on “profit,” read what Dad wrote on the topic here: https://stockmanship.com/?p=427
Or, you can read the text of the post below.
Profit
Sun, 03 Jun 2007
People like to talk about goals. I only have one. That is to do better or to know more than I did yesterday.
People in business should have only one goal. That is to be profitable. There are other things you would like to have happen, but put profit first. Kit Pharo states, “ranching can and should be very profitable.” There are a few people who think this way but not nearly enough.
Profit comes from a combination of knowledge and work. Knowledge is harder to come by than in the past. Things are changing fast. Some of the things that worked years ago don’t work that well today. Some do, some don’t. In the past, we learned from the older people around us. As kids we worked cleaning out the barn, feeding the animals, and just doing chores. If we did it wrong, someone made us do it right. Right was if it was profitable, wrong and you lost everything. Right wasn’t perfect but was at least good enough to stay profitable.
Then ranchers and farmers started using equipment to do the work. They didn’t need the kids to help, in fact it was like they were in the way. Now the young people weren’t learning from the older folks. Learning from the older people was important because they knew how to be successful or they would have been out of business. With the young people not learning the basics at home, we have kind of lost the ability or desire to teach at home. Now it is left to higher (or lower) education to teach the things the kids used to learn growing up. The education system seems to have no interest in profit. In fact, they have been telling us for years that ranching isn’t profitable or, at best, only marginally profitable. This statement is not to try to make the universities look bad but was said to wake you, as an individual, up. It is your business. It is your job to improve it, not someone else’s.
Understand what about marketing allows us to make a profit.
We should raise or grow something that other people want to buy. We should sell this at a price they can afford to pay. We should do this at a profit to us.
Realize what assures us of a profit. Produce for your customer. They are your business’s friend. Treat them that way. They have only so much money to spend or are willing to spend on your product.
Use good money management. It is better to have a profit on ten animals than a loss on a hundred.
Learn how to sell and when to sell.
Be willing to sell at any time. Be willing to sell any animal you have if it is overpriced.
Don’t plan to make a profit in the future, prepare and have a profit now.
With a profit we can Smile and Mean it!
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