Chapter 11 – Opportunity Cost

Go to chapter 12 of this eBook by clicking this link…“Poultry Project Reporter 2.0”. Click here to find the next chapter.

I’ve got two things for you today:

Thing #1

In my next lesson, I’m opening the doors to my all-new premium business planning program, Poultry Project Reporter 2.0

This new program will help you deliver that winning poultry farm project report (financial plan) from scratch, step-by-step.

And in no time at all.

I’ll send more information about Poultry Project Reporter 2.0 tomorrow. So keep an eye out for that chapter.

Thing #2

Like I mentioned in one of my first chapters…

…when planning a poultry business, it’s important to tread carefully in decision making.

Being decisive does two very beneficial things:

1. Cuts off wasteful diversions & distractions
2. Gets the right things done (profitably & quickly)

The combined benefit?

In a word, or two – OPTIMUM EFFICIENCY.

(Sounds good, but what does that really mean?)

a. optimum from Latin optimus meaning “best, very good”

b. efficiency from Latin efficere meaning “to work out, accomplish”

Put them together, you get:

To get things done (finish them) in the best possible way. The result being “very good (couldn’t be better)”.

A lovely idea.

However, often things don’t immediately go this way.

In business and life generally,

Mistakes are both common and, of course, costly.

They cost you both time and money (and/or other resources).

And because all of life’s material matters are finite, this reality adds only greater injury…

…so that, if you’ve wasted time or money the impact is ALWAYS much bigger than the initial paper loss.

Why?

Because of one KEY (hidden) factor:

Opportunity cost.

Let me explain:

Want to find the real cost of waste in business?

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THE BREAKDOWN:

Here’s the real cost…

Don’t just count the value of the material loss –

But ALSO count the value of what you could have gained should you have used it (the opportunity) profitably.

Just think it through…[the following may take a few minutes, but stick with me here.]

Say you started a poultry farm.

It took you 3 years to plan, 1 year to acquire, you left your job, you used all your savings (plus a small Gov’t loan) and did it on land you acquired.

You buy your equipment, your chicks and you launch.

Things start slow, start to grow and then get busy.

You spend 12 hours a day on it: handling the birds, dealing with suppliers, keeping customers happy, planning marketing, overseeing staff…

Hard work but you enjoy it. Your flock is healthy and you have good sales.

From this, there is cash flow and you feel things are going in the right direction…

But somehow, when you look at your bank balance, it’s negative.

You find yourself paying out all that’s paid in, leaving nothing left for you.

And what’s worse is that all your time is taken up, with nothing to show.

You look at the numbers and you blame your cost prices being too high and sales prices being too low.

You take action.

But still you lack the margin to make it worthy of continuing.

You ask for help and begin to study ways to make a turn around…

…but it all seems like a case of “too little, too late.”

With mounting costs and owing obligations, you see where it’s headed & you decide to bail (before things get worse still).

You exit with a hard stop selling off the equipment second hand and the flock to another local farm.

You steady yourself back into employment and chalk up the loss to inexperience.

But the gnawing thought keeps pricking your mind:

“How much did all of that really cost me?” (And, of course, “how could I have avoided this?”)

You sum up.

And between the savings and remaining debt on borrowings you arrive at a round figure.

Anyway, as painful as it feels, you reckon in perhaps 4-5 years or so of employed earnings (& saving up), you could get back to square one.

NOW STOP RIGHT THERE.

(Spent savings & acquired debt only amount to material loss.)

But what about opportunity cost?

Let’s take a look at what the sum of wasted monies REALLY look like:

Add to the material loss…

(a) 3 years planning time (desk research etc.)

(b) 1 year acquisition time (meetings & scouting trips etc.)

(c) loss of employed income in the meantime

(d) what your land could have profited you if it were used…well…profitably

(e) 6-12 months of operational time involvement (x12 hours per day)

(f) general inflation – prices only go up, year-on-year (yesterday’s money WAS actually worth more than today’s devalued cash)

(g) business earnings you’ve missed out on above and beyond what your old job would have paid you

(h) asset (transfer) value for exit sale

When you compare the two costs – well, you can’t really compare:

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When you get a real idea of the true scale of the loss – you see how IMPORTANT making the right decisions in the first place, really is.

To put a figure on it’s value…

…we’re probably looking at decades to recoup the true losses.

And comparing the earning potential of employment to business ownership, your old job at best offers very static/inflexible returns (& going back to that route, you might never overtake your mistake).

Business growth on the other hand is uncapped. You can literally MULTIPLY your earnings rapidly within only a few cycles of trade.

So, even if the first attempt was a loss – getting things right the second time might overshoot you into clear profit, perhaps only in a year (even months).

So, in light of this we ask:

How can we confidently do things differently in business?

Or even better,

How can we start up a poultry farm with optimum efficiency?

The KEY?

Decision making.

Let’s start today by establishing a CLEAR, financial route to producing long term poultry farm profits.

With that:

In your next lesson, I’ll invite you to join my brand new business planning program, Poultry Project Reporter 2.0

Yes, I’ll send you what’s in the program, how much it costs, and how it can help you. I’ll also help you decide whether or not this program is right for you.

So keep an eye out for the next lesson.

And we’ll speak together then.

Speak soon,

Temi

Go to chapter 12 of this eBook by clicking this link…“Poultry Project Reporter 2.0”. Click here to find the next chapter.