Word Wednesday: Branches

"Improving efficiency on the farm is not only a risk reduction strategy, it's a profitability strategy."
-Bill Casady


Last week's Wednesday Word was "Layering".  Today it is Branches, which is sort of a spin-off of the layering concept for business. 

We've all heard the term "farming" in the real estate business.  You can have a big farm or a little farm but, either way, you need a lot of branches to produce a crop big enough to make a living.  

I live in the Apple Capital of the World, Wenatchee, Washington.  I know quite a bit about growing and selling fruit and how it relates to the real estate business.   

Did you know that apple growers purposely take most of the fruit off the trees while the fruits are still in the bloom stage, or while they are very small?  It is called "thinning".  

See that image on the right with the blossoms?  The big blossom in the middle is called the "King Bloom".   It will produce the largest, healthiest, most profitable fruit for the grower.  The smaller, secondary blossoms are removed while they are still in the bloom stage or after they have formed little fruits.  

Here is the importance of thinning.  If the farmer left ALL those blooms on the tree, it would produce a large crop of small, less profitable fruit, putting a HUGE strain on every branch and giving little reward.  This could, potentially, break the branch, damaging the tree and leaving all the fruit on the branch to rot.  

The farmer pays to have EVERY apple picked. You can't leave the little ones on the tree because, eventually, they will drop to the ground... inviting a rodent infestation.  Why not remove the smaller, weaker, less profitable fruits and spend less time and energy to make more money?  The fruit is worth more and the farmer isn't paying to have the small, less profitable fruits harvested. You want lots of branches, with lots of King blooms to produce a healthy, profitable crop.

These branches can be from lots of small farms or one or two big farms.  It doesn't matter as long as you are producing the most profitable crop, with the least amount of expense and effort.  

Are you getting the correlation here?  How is your business like growing fruit? Who are the "secondary blooms" in your business?  Can you see how too many low-profit prospects can torpedo the time and energy that you could be putting into the King Bloom prospects, allowing you to make more money and have more time?