You know the land like the back of your hand, and your days are spent ensuring your crops and livestock thrive. But let's face it — the business side of farming can be a maze of financial, legal and strategic decisions.

You need a team that understands these challenges and knows how to navigate them. Choosing the right advisory team can make a difference, allowing you to focus on what you do best: farming.

Building and developing a professional services team requires careful planning and execution. It’s a critical investment of your time. In the world of agriculture, few teams have as much influence on your success as your advisory support team.

One of my prerequisites in working with farm families is getting a list of key advisers and their years of service from the start. Harmonizing and strategizing with them as a team is important. Here are the roles you should fill:

This team, working in sync, is critical to your success. And if it is not, you have the wrong team.

Recruitment and hiring

Understand that firms are evaluating you as a prospective client just as you are considering them. There should be some structured effort to hire among a few choices in each service category.

Great tools and criteria are available to help make the best decision. Don’t take for granted that just because dad or grandpa used “Firm X” or “Accountant Z” that those should be the only choices to consider.

Setting team expectations

A noted family business consultant suggests taking a more active role in setting expectations for your team. Like any coach, setting goals and expectations leads to the team working in harmony for success. Consider these key questions:

Regular communication and strategic planning

Communication, with the frank, routine sharing of goals and expectations, is beneficial for everyone involved. Take time at least once a year with each provider not only to deliver work product but also to shape improvement opportunities and overall expectations.

Structured strategic planning (every five to seven years) also is a great time to get more engagement from your advisers.

Synergy and coaching

Each team member brings different strengths and values, and the expectation should be that they work together to best serve the farm. An effective team delivers together more than the sum of their parts individually.

Coaching the team for deeper impact is important. Sometimes, an individual team member may make the most sense to lead and harmonize the others. But the ultimate responsibility lies with you, the farm owner.

Building lasting relationships

True professionals want lasting, long-term relationships that are valuable. Nobody wants to be treated as a number. There is a balance between strictly using requests for proposal based on price and assuming a provider always will be the provider.

Adams Brown can help shape this balance, process, roles and expectations for the advisory team. For more information, visit adamsbrowncpa.com.

Choosing the right advisory team is not just about filling roles but also about building a synergistic and proactive support system that will help the farm thrive. Make the effort, set high expectations and watch the farm reach new heights.

The statements here are intended for discussion purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal or tax advice. Please consult your own business accountants or financial and legal experts.