Since the spring is upon us and I will be getting very busy for the next few months with calves, planting, consulting, management, ect I thought I would take time today and explain what I call our signature service and also what makes us “tick”.
When I started this company I had a few ideas in mind. The first and foremost was to bring a certain level of education and customer service to an area that is undeserved. The second and most interesting was ranch and/or land management. This is the service (among the many that we offer) that I think about the most. My company from start to finish was designed and set up to actively manage multiple ranches.
I would like to highlight a few of the reasons why this is not only biggest part of my business, but also the service in which we excel.
There are literally hundreds of decisions to make on a ranch at any given time. Take into account a “new” place, whether new to you or undeveloped land, and you take that “hundreds” number and times it by 1000! What we excel in is being able to see and understand customers’ vision and goals and develop the appropriate action plan. I should note that I have one of the best consultants on my staff in Dr. Bill Golden. See web-site for bio. We are also very good in being able to adapt our planning. What I mean is, you can have the best plans but if you can’t adapt and change to the environment, economy, market(s) et all, you have less of a chance to be successful.
Organization:
My friends jokingly call me OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) which is a serious condition and shouldn’t be made fun of or taken lightly. While I don’t suffer from OCD I do pride myself in being a highly organized individual. I take that personality trait and apply it our business. I want to share a quick story with you. I was asked by a ranch owner to come out and speak with him and to do some day labor. I went out and met him, took notes all day and worked for 2 more. I was mowing, cutting brush, burning, and using his tractor to clean up his place. At the end of the second day he fired me. I was broken until he told me that my talents were being “wasted cutting brush”. He then hired a full time hand and hired my company to manage his ranch. I asked him how he came to this conclusion and he said “This place has needed a guy like you for a long time”. “You will keep this highly organized, which is what it needs”. -I like cutting brush BTW.
I keep all our records safe and secure and backed up to online server that uses bank level security. This enables me to keep your ranch running at maximum efficiency, but it also gives me the ability to go back and see what we’ve done, when, and how, allowing us to use your time and resources in the most profitable manor.
Daily tasks:
Whether we hire our guys and place them on your ranch, or we oversee your hired hands, we make sure people are being utilized to their skill set. One of the first things I did when I decided to set up this company was to try to place myself in your (the ranch owners) shoes. I also spoke to many ranch owners in our area to see what challenges they faced. I thought about what would keep me up at night. Since most of the ranch owners in my area are absentee, the first thing that popped in my head was “are my hired employee’s staying on task”? Are the hired hands doing their work? Are they using my resources for their benefit? Are they taking a cut of the contract work? These questions would weigh on me if I were in your shoes. So, I decided this would be an area of focus for us. We developed an organization schedule, a daily task log if you will. I use it on most of the places I oversee. Most of the time it’s as simple as taking notes and e-mailing them to the ranch owner. Sometimes it more complex. Either way, staying on task and using your dollars in the appropriate way is important to us.
Doing the work:
Every ranch really is unique. It has its own characteristics, resources, goals, and planning that are inherent to it. No two ranches are alike. I won’t bore you with ALL the things we do on ranches across our area, but I will give you few examples of what we do. On 1 ranch we feed the horses, miniature donkeys (cute little girls), and take care of the cattle. On another we plant crops and hay. On another we take care of the wildlife, feeders, food plots, ect. On yet another we cut brush and make improvements, build fence, and mow the lawn. On another ranch we do all the consulting, where to put roads, homes, barns, working pens, ect. Finally we also manage a ranch and just sell hunts off it for the land owner. My point is this: there isn’t a task that is too small or too large to handle.
Lastly let me give you a little insight into how I think. There are lots of things I don’t know. While I will strive to achieve anything you can dream when it comes to your ranch, I have no problem telling you “I don’t know”. There are certain times, daily, when I don’t know how to answer a question, or how to proceed with a plan. At that point I will use all my time and resources to think through the issue. I believe that the best trait in a person is his or hers ability to say I don’t know instead of faking it and acting like they do. This gets more people and ranch managers into trouble than I can count. I make it a point to simply tell you what I can and cannot do. It doesn’t do either of us any good to lie about what we can, or cannot, do.
With our consulting services, land planning, contracting, and management we feel like we have all your needs covered. We would love to speak to you about how we might mutually benefit from working together. Give us a call and let’s talk about it.
Thank you for reading
Allen Robinson