The million-dollar Valentine

Greetings from the LOVE YOUR FARM FAMILY Company. You are indeed eligible to win ONE MILLION DOLLARS! What’s the catch?

Send us your top 10 ways that you show love and appreciation in your family business. We’ll draw on February 14, 2004. We know all farm families could really use some extra cash this year.

Skeptical? Well, this is how it works. If every family business would work hard at showing love and appreciation to their workers, especially family members, you’d be amazed at the benefits! The No. 1 reason that businesses don’t last or pass on to the next generation is lack of appreciation and recognition. Our firm specializes in helping people learn to show love and appreciation to one another. We guarantee that you’ll see a wonderful return on your investment when you follow our loving guidelines and act on them!

We figure that many farms just don’t make it because the HEART has gone out of the family. What can anyone do to keep PASSIONATE about their family and their business goals? These are the questions that keep us awake a night!

Here’s the sample winning entry from last year:

1. Dad and Mom hug each other every morning in front of us!
2. Dad makes time for fishing, sledding and going to hockey games. We do lots of this together in the winter, but even make time during the busy season.
3. I know that Mom and Dad are proud of how hard we work. They tell us what our help means to them. We know we’re appreciated by the words we hear from our parents.
4. We share a lot of laughter as a team. Man, you should hear the corny jokes that fly around! Even in the heat of long, hard days, we can usually find something to lighten up about.
5. Dad tells his son that it is OK to make mistakes. That’s why “Junior” is learning to handle some of the marketing and make crop plans on some of the land.
6. We’re all getting older, and our parents ask our advice. We can provide advice and help without being asked because we know our parents feel loved by our actions, too.
7. In our family, we’re all lifelong learners, and we have confidence and trust in each other’s abilities to grow and keep working hard to make our business profitable.
8. We show respect for each other’s privacy and talk things out when there are issues to be dealt with. We don’t gossip or trash each other with negative thinking.
9. Dad and Mom have a few toys that help us play together as a family. The canoe and the sleds have really been enjoyed for many years.
10. We all agree that the bottom line of a family is LOVE. We all look for new and fun ways to show love and appreciation as we grow a profitable business.

Last year, the Sweet Family of Loveland, Man., won our contest. The net worth of their farm has increased by ONE MILLION DOLLARS over the last 10 years since they started paying attention to the emotional climate of their farm. Our company defines the emotional climate of a farm team as the outward expression of what is going on inside people, and it has the power to affect the family and business either positively or negatively. A positive emotional climate is essential in the development of an effective, sustainable and profitable farm family business.

Enjoy the red foil hearts on your Valentine’s table … our gift to you.

Send us your top 10 tips for showing loving and appreciation on your farm.

You just never know, THE MILLION DOLLAR VALENTINE may be yours as the emotional climate of your farm family business helps increase your net worth!

You can’t afford to lose the farm because of hard feelings.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely.

THE LOVE YOUR FARM FAMILY COMPANY