# 4 - Run your farm like a professional AFL team

Imagine you are the manager and coach for the Adelaide Crows AFL team.

Your role is simple. Hire and train the best team to win the premiership.

You have to focus on

• Ensuring you have the best forwards, midfield and back
• Ensure you have enough money to get the whole thing to work
• Ensure the players work as team
• Ensure they remain focused on training
• Ensure they focus on winning the game
• Ensure each player does their job properly and focuses on their job
• Ensure the fans keep showing up to cash flow your business

Running a farming business is no different to this.

As the leader your goal is to:-

• Ensure you are clear on the objectives and goals of the business
• Ensure you recruit the right team
• Ensure each team member works together as a team
• Ensure you manage this process, and hire and fire accordingly.
• Ensure you have enough money to pay for everything
• Ensure things get done on time on budget

The problem is (more often than not) YOU are the leader and the PLAYER of ALL positions.

Can you imagine being the manager of an AFL team AND being ALL players on the field? You really would become the jack of all trades and the master of none.

While you are doing the job in the attack, who is looking after protecting your goal posts?

As an owner, you wear so many hats. You are:-

• The CEO – the person that has to set the direction of the business
• The Marketing Manager – manage the website, social media presence and finding customers
• The Operations Manager – ensure that all of the jobs get done on time
• The Human Resource Manager – ensure you hire the right people, keep the team motivated and doing the right things
• The Administration Manager – someone has to clean the sheds and maintain the yards and its often you
• The Finance Manager – you need to pay the bills, set budgets, read profit and loss statements

And somehow – you need to fit this in ALL while still being a parent, friend, look after your health and have a relationship!!!!

Just by writing this I feel burnt out!!!!

If you’re not careful – the business takes control of you instead of you controlling it.

In this week’s free podcast we explore ‘How to build a team to get things done’.

We have also included a really good resource here where we outline every job that gets done on a farm so you can see what each role on your farm needs to do.

Download it here

See you next time,

Andrew Roberts

p.s take some time to clarify all of the roles in your business. It will really help you look at your business just like an AFL manager/coach would. It will help you see ways to create more efficiency.