Now your book becomes useful.
Open last season’s book. Look for three numbers.
The three numbers
- All the money that came in.
- All the money that went out — including your own work.
- The cost for one bag, from lesson three, for each farm on its own.
The first two tell you if the farm gained. The third tells you where.
Then ask four questions
Which farm gained, and which one lost? Many farmers are surprised. A farm can give plenty of bags and still lose money, if it is far and transport eats everything.
Which cost was the biggest? That is where a change helps most. Taking a little off your biggest cost beats taking a lot off your smallest.
What did I buy that gave nothing back? Every farm has one. Something bought because it was bought last year.
Which money finished first? If money for weeding finished in August, then next season you keep it aside early. You do not hope.
Now choose
Next season is now a choice, not the same thing again.
Plant more of what paid you. Change or leave what did not. Buy the thing that brought back its cost. Stop buying the thing that did not.
Some of your choices will be wrong. That is fine. The book will tell you next year. Each season you will be a little less wrong.
What you have now
- Farm money kept apart from house money
- A book that writes both directions
- A cost for one bag, to hold against any buyer’s price
- A part kept aside on the day you sell
- A way to know the real price of borrowing
- A season planned from real numbers
You do not need a bank. You do not need a big phone. You do not need an accountant.
You need a small book, and the habit of writing on the same day.
Start with the book. Everything else comes from it.