Dollars and Cents

I’m questioning whether I truly have 24 hours in a day or if I’m losing some of it somewhere. So much to do, so little time!

From the field:

This week the focus has shifted to funding of this whole operation. We're getting some real movement on that front, so I've been providing a lot of information to keep the momentum flowing. My self-imposed deadline for all of this is March 30th. This will allow me to have the drones purchased by the last day of March, and they're running a promotion right now that should save me some money.

A few more calls - some to follow-up, and one that was a first touch point. The farmer actually said no to the service, which, to be quite honest, caught me off guard. I've been used to such a positive reception so far, that to hear the word "no" was not the expectation. But at the same time, it was totally fine, I know there's a lot of interest out there. We'll just move on to the next one on the list!

From the office:

Had an interesting call yesterday with a gal down in Tennessee. She's running a full-service accounting practice and would like to branch out to offer fractional CFO services to her clients. The purpose of our call was for her to get a feel for what the client would most appreciate from this service. She's also putting together a referral program for these CFOs. If they refer a client to her, the first month of service revenue will go directly to the CFO, and then an ongoing revenue share as long as they client stays with her. Pretty cool idea on her part to generate some fast business!

I tell that story because now that I'm freed up from the traditional 8-5, it seems that there are new ideas everywhere I look. Now it's a matter of focusing on the best options and giving them time to grow.

Aside from that, it's been more of the same. The Upwork work is continuing to flow, and I just got my first invitation to apply for a role. I'm taking that as a really good sign, and that my profile on the site is starting to gain more visibility.

What I'm reading:

What AM I reading? Well, this week has been a variety of little things probably not worth mentioning, but there was one thing that stuck out to me.

The 20 year corn price chart.

I only know enough to be dangerous with stock/commodity charts, so I could be totally misinterpreting this. However, I think the patterns of this chart are interesting. There was a big trough in 2009-2010 - could've been correlated with the recession starting in 2008. Then from 2014-2021ish there was another longer trough. However, inbetween those two troughs was a large spike where prices sometimes stretched over $8/bushel. Fast forward to 2024, it looks like we're heading towards the bottom side of another one of those spikes. Will we bottom out and stay at $3.50 corn for the next 3-7 years? If the pattern stays the same, it's a strong possibility.

But here's the other thing - with the impact inflation has had since the last trough, this really means that $3.50/bushel in 2024 is not the same as $3.50/bushel in 2017. It could be even harder for farmers to squeeze a profit out of their crops if this plays out.

Let's hope I'm wrong on this one - when it comes to predicting market behavior, I usually am.

Thanks for hanging in - until next week!