Clink Fischer

speaker

107 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Oct 2024 last heard Oct 2024

Clink Fischer’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Farm4Profit Podcast · Strategic Succession Planning & Profit Growth with Brain Trust Ag · 7 Oct 2024 podcast

Number one and first and foremost is the ones who have treated their operation honestly as a business versus tying in all of their lifestyle considerations. And so there's that separation between here's our family, We own land. We own a farming operation. We have business management policies and procedures in place. We meet monthly, quarterly, annually to talk about the farm business.

But that isn't what I eat, breathe, and sleep every day as a family person. those operations are the ones that transition the best because we're looking at things a little bit more objectively versus trying to recognize how does land transition? How does the equipment transition? How are we going to be able to support on-farm and off-farm kids?

And it is much clearer and much more well-defined when we have a separate operation versus those who don't. That's why I'm, I'm kind of tying all these pieces together. And that's what we try to do with brain trust egg is recognize a street. Number one, let's let's build an attractive egg business. Number two, let's transition this thing in a reasonable way to keep all the stakeholders involved.

Um,

So the answer is yes and no. Uh, typical attorney, right? Just for the listeners, the default answer for an attorney is it depends. Um, and accountants and bankers and accountants and bankers, anybody in professional services world. But, uh, What I've seen, to answer your question directly, Corey, is yes. However, it took buy-in from both the owner generation and the successor generation. Okay.

And I think that is really where we can make that change happen is if I can convince the owner generation who are in their 50s or 60s that you're not going to be doing this forever. You're not going to be 90 years old and still making all the decisions. If you can transition the management duties early enough, then yes, it is feasible and doable and we can make that thing happen.

And so it takes, like I said, buy-in on both the owner generation. The successor generation needs to approach it in a way that is not, I'm entitled to this. I don't have my hand out, but I have skills and knowledge and am willing to work my tail off to make this transition happen.

And so if we can transition the management side of things before any ownership, before any estate planning or ownership transition happens, if we can make that happen, then yes. We can go from this is a lifestyle that I inherited from my folks to this is being treated as a business. We're actually having business management meetings.

We're actually separating these things away from the family drama. That's where I've seen that actually happen, Corey, is when we have buy-in from both generations.

Oh, completely, yeah. So I think that's where people see that. This is no knock on what has happened from the 1880s to the 2000s. This is just, we're concerned right now about the economic future of our operations. And, you know, there's this general consensus out there that we don't want corporate farms. Okay. How do we preserve a family farm legacy?

Number one, you build something that's somewhat profitable to bring in that next generation. Number two is you have a good plan, a written plan to transition it. It's not that complex, but both of those two things are key and paramount to us preserving family farm operations.

Great question. Number one is willingness. And that's not something that your attorney or your banker or your accountant can provide. It is a personal character trait of having that willingness to say, number one, we're is capable, has the skill set, has the ability to take over some of our management duties. And then number two is that how the heck do you just give up control?

And that's just human nature is we want control. And so in order to give up control, To me, it is for that next generation to show their aptitude, their skill set, their ability to, A, take over the operation and kind of keep things status quo. But also, what are they bringing to the table?

Are they bringing some other type of skills and ability or connections, relationships to the farming operation so that the owner generation says, okay, this thing is in good hands.

right and that is primary and there's uh you know there's there's this idea out there which i i buy into of kind of a life cycle of a family farming ranching operation and number one is you start as a laborer then you slowly transition into a manager and then you transition into a leader And then finally, at the end of that cycle, is we transition into an owner. So what does that mean?

That means that we need to develop the skills to be a good employee. Then we need to develop the skills to be a good manager. Then we need to develop the skills to be a good leader. And then finally, we can actually be a capital alligator, which is what an owner is. And so if we're bringing on kids just because of their last name and not because they've professed any of those skills,

I think we're doing more harm than good into our operations. And so that's the way I look at it. Now, you mentioned something, Tanner, about these ideas of, man, it's kind of bleak out there. And the importance of a peer group, the importance of people who you trust and who you can relate to. And I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about this.

So a couple of weeks ago with brain trust day, we had a, every Wednesday morning we do what's called a sunrise sessions. And that's, it's from six 30 until seven central time every Wednesday morning. And we talk about some Bible study stuff. We talk about leadership things.

Um, just, yeah, just kind of talk about like, where are we at checking in as men and women in agriculture from a personal standpoint, not the business side, not the legal side. And, um, I was on vacation with my family, actually down in Iowa, and I didn't prepare anything for that Wednesday morning.

So 6.30 comes around, and so I show up sitting on the dock of this lake, and I just joined the Zoom call on my phone, and I tell people, like, hey, I didn't prepare anything. I'm supposed to be later here. Let's just open this thing up for discussion. One of the gentlemen...

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