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Business of the Month

January 2019

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January 2019 Business of the Month-Family Farms LLC

Family Farms, LLC (also known as FamilyFarms Group), located at 31832 Delhi Road, Brighton, has been selected as a January 2019 Brighton Business of the Month. The organization is owned by a group of farmers in the US and Canada, Serving as CEO is Shari Rogge-Fidler. Structured as an LLC, they provide a wide range of resources, training and services to agricultural producers.

Their motto is “Keeping Families on the Farm” which means we strive to make family-owned farms more successful and sustainable so that future generations will have opportunities to continue their family’s farming legacy should they choose to do so.

In short, they help farm families maximize efficiency and effectiveness in running their operations as businesses through education, processes, consultative help from our network of subject matter experts, improved decision making, sharing of best practices, networking, implementation assistance, accountability, control systems, management skills and leveraging relationships with other businesses.

There are several subsidiaries/business units of Family Farms, LLC that include:

• Crop insurance brokerage
• Accounting services, consultation and software
• Tax services
• Agronomic consulting and soil health

History

The organization launched in 2007 after the founders saw the extremely rapid consolidation within the pork sector of agriculture, which caused many family-owned pig farms to go out of business or get bought out.  Not wanting to see that happen within the crop sector, they formed the organization to help crop farmers deal with the changes in the industry by providing opportunities for them to ensure a successful and sustainable farming business.

The crop insurance unit was started the following year.

AgriSolutions, Inc. (the accounting services company founded in 1967) and the tax services business was acquired in 2014

The agronomic consulting and soil health business was acquired in 2016.

Successes

The success of Family Farms, LLC is measured by the success of our customers. They often mention these benefits and value they have received:

• Brought their work and family life into balance when previously there was little to no family time being spent; one farm couple credits us with saving their marriage
• Helped one family save and successfully develop their farm operation after the passing of both the father and brother in the same year
• Have helped several farms come back from the brink of bankruptcy to farm profitably
• Helped farm families improve family dynamics and communication within their farm
• Helped farm owners attain needed operating loans after being turned down by their lender
• Identified causes of significant losses on their farm and helped them establish needed control systems
• Have helped farm owners successfully implement use of our unique agricultural ERP system
• Have helped farm owners recognize their farming operation is a business and have helped them gain management skills needed

Just like any business, they have their share of challenges including:

• Growing pains associated with the growth of their businesses over the last 10 years
• Over the last three years, the farm economy has tightened significantly (while the rest of the economy has been in growth mode)
• Helping farmers recognize the value their organization can bring to their farming business
• Finding a way to help more family farms maintain their farming legacy (see future plans below)

Employees

There are about 70 people employed full-time by Family Farms, LLC, plus an additional six people who serve us part-time as independent contractors.

Future plans

A few of their future plans include:

• They are in the process of revising the business model which will open up our services to a much broader scope of farm operations.
• Our CEO has begun establishing an advisory board of top-notch people from throughout the agricultural and business industry to serve as a thought partners for continued growth and development of our organization and pursuit of our strategic initiatives.

They are looking for ways that farms can capture more of the overall money spent on agricultural products.  Right now, farms only capture roughly 10 cents out of every dollar.

They are constantly expanding our value network to include additional exceptional resources who will bring value to their members (and we, in turn, will bring value to them).

About CEO Shari Rogge-Fidler 

Education and Experience

Shari took the helm at FamilyFarms, LLC in May 2018. Shari’s career spans over 25 years and includes farming, teaching, and consulting in agribusiness. As a fifth-generation farmer from Nebraska, Shari has in-depth knowledge of farming operations. She has served as Interim CEO at Applied Geosolutions, Founder & President at Cambium Strategies, Global Coach at MBACASE, Co-Director and Lecturer at Kelley School of Business-Indiana University, VP Sales/Marketing at Wanda’s Nature Farm Foods, and Strategy Consultant at Boston Consulting Group. Her knowledge and experience have uniquely positioned her to lead Family Farms, LLC and its subsidiaries.

She attained her Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Graduate School, preceded by her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with emphasis in International Finance, from University of Kansas. She studied abroad in Scotland and Japan.

Skills and Achievements

Shari has served on numerous Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards for organizations across the United States. She has worked in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, France, England and other European countries.

About Her

Shari and her husband have two adult daughters. She has traveled extensively along the Silk Route, throughout Europe, across China and within Ethiopia.