How do wheat farmers survive the ups and downs of good years and bad years? They Plan for Zero. Photo by Becky McCray.
There will be times in business when your income is zero. You might as well plan for that right now.
For farmers, a wheat crop might be entirely hailed out, and they may lose the entire year’s income. They have to plan for that or it’s going to put them out of business. The same thing can happen to any business. There will be times when at least part of the business generates zero income, whether that’s a zero for the month or a zero for the year.
Small town people use a couple of different tactics to plan ahead for those lean times. One tactic is to think long term. Knowing that I have to plan for five years of really variable income, what I can do now to make that better? That’s taking a really long term perspective.
When my friend Rob Hatch‘s business received a windfall of unexpectedly strong sales, he said he kept thinking to himself, “plan for zero, plan for zero.” So he set aside money for future lean times. That’s taking a long term perspective.
The other tactic is cultivating multiple lines of income. This also comes from farming. If you know that your entire wheat crop may fail, then you may also plant milo or soybeans, or you may take in livestock and raise cattle to help even out the variation.
That’s also something that any of us can do. We can look at our business and say, “What would be another line of income that would be compatible here that would help even out some of the volatility that I know we’ll face?”
Small town people also extend this further, to even unrelated businesses, like say a liquor store and a cattle ranch. When the cattle market is headed down then we like to hope that the liquor market at least will be stable or maybe will be up.
Plan for Zero is one of the Small Town Rules that any business can use to thrive in today’s economy.
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- Downtown is your town’s core: How to make your case - February 22, 2021
- Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns - December 10, 2020
- In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
- Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
- How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
- The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
- Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
- Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
- Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
- Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020
