Why did Tierra Miguel close? That is a convoluted question. I was once told in my Navy career "never air our dirty laundry." What I am writing here isn't written out of spite nor is it passing judgement. I want to attempt to capture the salient points so that TMF can still help others - if by avoiding them. Also when I was volunteering at La Milpa, one day I got an email from Lesley saying the farm was closing due to labor issues. Then that was it. There was no closure. Perhaps this will supply some.
First, the farm isn't exactly closed at this time. Operations have been suspended. The limited staff is all gone or there isn't enough to complete the job. The second to final blow was the lack of operating funds. But before we get to that we should look at what started all of this.
1. Location, location, location - It is probably the most important. An hour from San Diego and an hour and a half from Los Angeles was too much. Even though we delivered it was too much. The amount of time it took to get the deliveries to the customers was too much. If we got off schedule by the slightest bit it had a domino effect so that the last stop of the day we were a good hour or more late. Then there was the cost of the gas and driver.
We did try and get customers to the farm. But with such a drive very few people wanted to come out on a regular basis. So to get people out we had to do something big that took manpower we didn't have. The events we did have were nice but could have been much better.
2. Debt - This one will kill any farm. We had debt from the very beginning and we continued to amass more. Most of it from the grant that we were working. I'm going to touch on that one at the very end because, though I didn't have anything to do with it, I am not pleased with the grant in any form. But the number two thing to do is be debt free. You can't survive with debt hanging over your head in this line of work and be small. You need to create an economy of scale if you want to play around with debt.
3. Lack of continuity and poor management - I like to look at unicorns as much as anyone. I also like to be one with nature and let the universe take care of things for me. But then I smack myself out of my nap and hit the Quickbooks. A business is a business. It doesn't matter if it saves lives or helps end them. The rules of a free market don't care how altruistic a businesses' goals are. They only care about the bottom line. Period. The type of people that gravitate to a biodynamic farm are incredible but rarely do they possess the business acumen necessary. Then there is the problem of continuity. Again the type of person who finds themselves drawn to a place like TMF soon finds themselves drawn somewhere else. I think this is great, personally, not business-wise though.
4. Lack of a clear vision - This goes hand and hand with lack of continuity. Every time someone new came about there were new ideas. Ideas are great. But ideas don't pay the bills. Results from tangible actions do. But rarely did a new idea blossom to completion. Some of you out there might be familiar with the term "change management." There are CEOs out there who get the mega-bucks and their only job is to get a business through a transformation - transformational leadership is what it is called. These guys and gals don't run a business on a daily basis, I think some wouldn't even be that good at it. But what they excel at is taking a business and turning it around and/or leading it through a major change. And when it is done they leave. That is their skill set and it is rare and very valuable. So how could a small non-profit like TMF expect to go through constant change and succeed?
I'm getting myself all worked up so I am going to leave it at this for now. I'll put up Part 2 tomorrow.
First, the farm isn't exactly closed at this time. Operations have been suspended. The limited staff is all gone or there isn't enough to complete the job. The second to final blow was the lack of operating funds. But before we get to that we should look at what started all of this.
1. Location, location, location - It is probably the most important. An hour from San Diego and an hour and a half from Los Angeles was too much. Even though we delivered it was too much. The amount of time it took to get the deliveries to the customers was too much. If we got off schedule by the slightest bit it had a domino effect so that the last stop of the day we were a good hour or more late. Then there was the cost of the gas and driver.
We did try and get customers to the farm. But with such a drive very few people wanted to come out on a regular basis. So to get people out we had to do something big that took manpower we didn't have. The events we did have were nice but could have been much better.
2. Debt - This one will kill any farm. We had debt from the very beginning and we continued to amass more. Most of it from the grant that we were working. I'm going to touch on that one at the very end because, though I didn't have anything to do with it, I am not pleased with the grant in any form. But the number two thing to do is be debt free. You can't survive with debt hanging over your head in this line of work and be small. You need to create an economy of scale if you want to play around with debt.
3. Lack of continuity and poor management - I like to look at unicorns as much as anyone. I also like to be one with nature and let the universe take care of things for me. But then I smack myself out of my nap and hit the Quickbooks. A business is a business. It doesn't matter if it saves lives or helps end them. The rules of a free market don't care how altruistic a businesses' goals are. They only care about the bottom line. Period. The type of people that gravitate to a biodynamic farm are incredible but rarely do they possess the business acumen necessary. Then there is the problem of continuity. Again the type of person who finds themselves drawn to a place like TMF soon finds themselves drawn somewhere else. I think this is great, personally, not business-wise though.
4. Lack of a clear vision - This goes hand and hand with lack of continuity. Every time someone new came about there were new ideas. Ideas are great. But ideas don't pay the bills. Results from tangible actions do. But rarely did a new idea blossom to completion. Some of you out there might be familiar with the term "change management." There are CEOs out there who get the mega-bucks and their only job is to get a business through a transformation - transformational leadership is what it is called. These guys and gals don't run a business on a daily basis, I think some wouldn't even be that good at it. But what they excel at is taking a business and turning it around and/or leading it through a major change. And when it is done they leave. That is their skill set and it is rare and very valuable. So how could a small non-profit like TMF expect to go through constant change and succeed?
I'm getting myself all worked up so I am going to leave it at this for now. I'll put up Part 2 tomorrow.
Sounds like you have quite the lessons learned here, Chris. Very expensive lessons in terms of spiritual cost. I bid you good luck in applying them at Imagines.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It hurts very much. It's hard to let go of a place like TMF. It took a lot for me to finally say goodbye. Coupled with a mini-emotional breakdown. But you only truly fail if you repeat mistakes because you didn't learn from past ones.
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