The Importance Of Personal And Business Goals In Business

In order to achieve both personal and business success, goal setting is a very important tool. It is part of a strategic planning process. Throughout the planning process goals should be constantly written and referred to, they should also be checked continuously to ensure the business is on the right track. During the time in which we got to spend at the dairy farm in Gippsland run by Annette and her husband Jim, she was able to describe to us some of the main goals they have, both business and family. Business goals are described as what you want from the farm business, some of these which Annette described included:

Generating an adequate and secure income to meet the needs of her family and employees.

Conducting business in both an ethical

Cows have a gestation period of 9 months, so this happens during June ensuring that the cows will be ready for the next Autumn calving season.

Around 100 calves are born in August and towards the beginning of Spring. Spring is the time of year that Annette’s farm is starting to plant crops that might be needed for feeding to the cows in late summer, e.g. maize.

Various factors contribute to the success of farmers in the dairy system. These factors range from production to management and marketing practices. Annette’s dairy farm is successful for many reasons, this is because she uses diverse production systems and has many measures to control the cost on her farm. She also uses various marketing strategies to source the highest profit level for her milk each year and even season.

On Annette’s dairy farm there are always risks in her day-to-day operations which have to be managed. Some of these include:

Technical risks, for example production and yield risks. Which are affected by climatic factors, diseases etc.

Financial risks. This includes changes in interest rates, ability to meet their debt repayments, their finance availability, and changes in the value of land prices