Hunting vs. Farming

When I first started hunting as a 19-year-old, I had no idea where to look, when to look, or what to do once I got there (aside from pulling the trigger). I shot this stag at 2.00pm on a wintery August day as I bumbled up a low-lying creek just outside Ross on the South Island of New Zealand. Anyone who knows much about hunting would describe that as opportunistic, to say the least. 

Most businesses are started in a similar way. Like rookie hunters, you put in lots of work, without much reward and you take any opportunity that comes your way, good or bad. As time goes on, you become better at identifying where to look, when to look for it and what to look for. You become a better hunter.

 The challenge with hunting though, is that it’s energy-sapping and it’s unpredictable. For all that effort, you may still come back empty-handed. Business owners stuck in the hunting mindset are often living from sale to sale, wondering where their next transaction will come from and what they’ll have to do to get it. 

Farmers, on the other hand, have a much easier go of it. They’re not focused on one’s or two’s, they have a paddock full of animals, and one way or another, there’s always a meal available.

In business terms, the ‘Farmers’ are the owners who are focused on cultivating customers not hunting them. They focus on activities which improve the ‘farm’, things like marketing to attract more leads, systemising to improve consistency and training their team to better serve their customers. 

All of that sounds like a lot of work, right?

It is.

But once the farm is set up, who would you rather be, a hunter or a farmer?