The Farmers Club Newsletter

The “Club Notes” for Friday, the 15th of December 2023

By Dwain Duxson

If you can, please get your family, friends and colleagues to sign up. See the website link here.

Incentivisation is motivation

I was listening to the Founders podcast featuring Les Schwab on my trip to and from Bendigo yesterday. Les started a Tyre (they say Tire) business in the US 71 years ago and has passed on himself, but the company still remains to this day. See here. Les was the master of incentivising his people, and it was the superpower that grew his business in the US from zero. In Ag, we aren't big on incentives compared to, say, the Real Estate industry. It just hasn't been part of our DNA over the years. But I think if we want to attract people into our industry or get them working in our businesses, we need some sort of incentive to do so. And that also means the current people within our business need to be incentivised as well. Perhaps that's a good starting point. And how you do that is only limited by your imagination. I think by fairly incentivising your people, you will be very surprised by the outcomes. I will explain how we incentivise our people another day. Do you have or are you a recipient of incentives? Reply to [email protected]

Taking the call

I missed a call from a landline number the other day and rang it back. It was an Ag business, and I got the young lady at reception. So I said it, Dwain Duxson, here; I just missed a call from this number. She said right, I will go around the office to see who it was. I said thanks and waited. She came back about 5 minutes later and said she asked around but couldn't find out who had rung me. This sort of situation happens regularly to those businesses that still rely on a landline number. I mean, how inefficient is it to have a person who answers the phone and then has to run around the office and find out who made the initial call? I mean, these days, many aren't answering landline phone numbers because of those annoying calls you get from people trying to sell or give away something. If I were a business I would arrange your staff with mobile and have all their numbers front and centre on the website. Or an inbound 1800/1300 number that gets directed to a mobile so you can track who it was. Do you dislike answering those landline calls, too? Reply to [email protected]

Workwear is the new Activewear

We wrote about how Farmers are leaning towards uniforms more with logoed shirts and the like. Do you remember the time when people would never go down the street in their gym gear? Well, now everyone does. I remember when Activewear took off, and we thought it was a real opportunity for the Wool industry, and it was, but somehow, the industry got outmuscled by better marketers, which meant it missed the boat somewhat. But not everyone gets around in Activewear; it's not the dress code of Farmers, that's for sure. When I was in Bendigo yesterday, I was in the market for some new FXD shorts, as my wife Paula kept wearing mine around the Farm. So I punched Workwear into Google Maps and couldn't believe how specialty Workwear Shops came up. It's a growing sector, and an increasing number of businesses are taking pride in how they represent their company. What's your favourite brand of Workwear? Reply to [email protected]

Wagga Wagga Sheep and Lambs - Heavy Lambs up but no interest in Mutton

End of message.

Dwain Duxson
0427 011 900

Random and associated Ag articles and images.