What to do when you hate the business side of farming

You became a farmer because you love growing things.

You love being outside. You love working with your hands. You love the satisfaction of planting seeds and watching them become food.

But then there's the other stuff. The marketing. The bookkeeping. The customer emails. The social media. The pricing decisions.

The business side of farming. And you hate it.

You avoid it. You put it off. You do the bare minimum. And then you wonder why your farm isn't growing the way you want it to.

You don't have to love it friend. But you do have to do it.

You're not alone in hating this

Most farmers feel this way. You got into ag to raise crops and animals, not to be a marketer or accountant or social media manager.

The business side feels like a distraction from the real work. It feels like something you have to do to support the farming, not part of the farming itself.

And you resent it. You resent that you can't just grow beautiful food and have people buy it. You resent that you have to sell yourself. You resent that growing good food isn't enough.

That resentment is normal. And it's also keeping you stuck.

Because you can grow the best tomatoes in the county, but if nobody knows about them or can't figure out how to buy them, you're not going to make it.

The business side isn't optional. It's part of the work.

You don't have to love it

I'm not going to tell you to find joy in bookkeeping or get passionate about spreadsheets.

You don't have to love the business side of farming. You just have to do it anyway.

Thriving farmers don't necessarily love every part of their work. They just do the parts they don't love because it's necessary.

You water the plants even when you don't feel like it. You feed the animals even when you're tired. You do farm work all the time that you're not particularly excited about in that moment.

The business work is the same. It's just work. Not all work is joyful. Some work is just necessary.

Make it as easy as possible

If you hate the business side, at least make it easier on yourself.

Simplify it. You don't need a complicated marketing strategy. You need one simple thing you do consistently. Pick the easiest channel and just do that.

Batch it. Don't spread business tasks throughout your week. Do them all at once at an hour of the day when you have brainpower to do so (be honest, is your 9 pm self really that great at writing your weekly newsletter?). One hour, one day, knock it all out. Then you're done until next week.

Get help. If you can afford it, hire someone to do the parts you hate most. A bookkeeper. A virtual assistant to handle emails. Someone to manage your social media. Your time is valuable. Use it on what you're good at.

Use templates. For emails, for social media posts, for customer communication. Create templates once, reuse them forever. You don't have to reinvent it every time.

Make it simple. Make it quick. Make it repeatable. So it takes the least amount of energy possible.

Stop waiting to feel like doing it

Yeah, that motivation is not coming…

You're never going to wake up excited about bookkeeping. You're never going to feel inspired to write marketing emails.

So stop waiting to feel like it. Just schedule it and show up.

Every Tuesday at 10 am, you do business work. You don't have to want to. You just have to do it.

Motivation is overrated. You need a system, not inspiration.

And once you stop waiting to feel like it, the work actually gets easier. Because you're not also fighting the resistance. You're just doing it.

It gets easier with practice

The first time you write a marketing email, it takes FOREVER. It feels awkward. You hate every second of it. I know, I’ve been there too remember?

But the tenth time? It's faster. The fiftieth time? You barely have to think about it.

The business work you hate right now will get easier the more you do it. Not because you'll love it. But because you'll get better at it.

And things you're good at are less painful than things you're bad at.

So the fastest way through hating it is to just do it enough times that you don't suck at it anymore.

The real problem

You hate the business side of farming because it doesn't feel like "real" farming to you.

Real farming is in the field. Real farming is with the plants and animals. Real farming is the physical work.

But that's not accurate. Real farming includes all of it. The growing AND the selling. The production AND the marketing. The field work AND the business work.

You can't separate them. They're both part of stewarding a farm business.

And until you accept that the business side IS real farming - just a different kind of work - you're going to keep resenting it.

The marketing is farming. The bookkeeping is farming. The customer emails are farming. It's all farming.

Just different tasks within the same work.

What if you treated it like any other farm task?

You don't love weeding. But you do it because it's necessary.

You don't love mucking stalls. But you do it because the animals need clean bedding.

You don't love fixing equipment. But you do it because things break.

What if you treated the business work the same way?

Not as this separate, resentful thing you have to do. But as just another necessary farm task. Like weeding. Like feeding. Like fixing.

It needs to be done. So you do it. Without the drama about how much you hate it.

Just: this is the work. And I'm doing the work.

The choice you're actually making

Every time you avoid the business side, you're choosing something.

You're choosing to stay small. You're choosing to make less money. You're choosing to stay invisible.

Not on purpose. But that's what happens when you don't do the business work.

Your farm can't grow if people don't know about it. Your revenue can't increase if you don't market yourself. Your business can't be sustainable if you don't manage the money.

So the question isn't "do I have to do this?" The question is "what am I choosing by not doing this?"

And if the answer is staying stuck, staying small, staying broke - maybe it's time to just do the business work. Even though you hate it.

The practice

This week, try this:

Pick one business task you've been avoiding. Just one. The email you need to write. The bookkeeping you need to catch up on. The social media post you need to make.

Schedule one hour to do it. Put it on the calendar. Treat it like feeding the animals - it's just work that needs to be done.

Show up and do it. Don't wait to feel like it. Don't wait for inspiration. Just sit down and do it. Even if you hate every second.

Notice how you feel after. Not while you're doing it. After it's done. Notice the relief of having it finished. Notice that it wasn't actually as bad as you built it up to be.

That's the practice. Not loving it. Just doing it anyway.

And over time, it gets easier. Not because you start loving it. But because you stop fighting it.

It's just work. And you know how to do work.

If this resonated, you might also want to read:

The energy drain of unmade decisions - What avoiding the business work is actually costing you

Why farmers choose busy work over important business tasks - Understanding why you avoid the business side

The mindset that separates thriving farms from struggling ones - How to show up even when you don't want to

Hey, even if you hate the business stuff, you’re still doing a good job!

If you need support actually doing the business work instead of avoiding it, I'm here. You can schedule a free chat with me anytime at FarmCoachKatia.com/work-with-me