Part 2 of my family’s ventures into various businesses, starting from my grandfather investing in land along the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando, which led to cattle farming and orange growing. Our small family business expansion continued with the investment into an egg farm, which was a kind of co-operative that later attempted a transition into a corporation.

The family decided against trading our physical investments for shares, leading to a period of uncertainty until an employee of the co-op proposed to manage the egg farm, thereby revitalizing it.

John, representing the third generation, shares personal experiences of working at the egg farm, facing what he calls a ‘generational ceiling’, and learning invaluable lessons in innovation and process improvement from his first boss.

The story summarizes a few of the challenges and transitions faced by a small family business over generations, touching on aspects like market impacts, generational perspectives, and the significance of adaptability and innovation in sustaining and growing business ventures.

The challenges I faced, the lessons I learned, plus the subsequent training I have received is what makes me, through our business Kuder Consulting Group, a Small Family Business Specialist.

Visit our website to learn more: https://kuderconsultinggroup.com/

00:00 The Beginnings of a Diversified Family Business

00:12 Diversifying Investments: From Land to Livestock

01:18 The Egg Farm Venture: A Story of Innovation and Challenges

03:22 Working at the Egg Farm: Lessons in Hard Work and Innovation

05:33 Navigating Generational Challenges in a Family Business

09:44 The impact of the Cholesterol Controversy and the Decision to Sell

Transcript
Connie:

And then after the

Connie:

the citrus pulp, what else?

John:

So as he was doing that, he

John:

built an office in Lake Alfred, and

John:

as he was doing that, the looked

John:

around for ways, other ways to invest.

John:

And so he invested in land.

John:

And bought land.

John:

, along , what is now the interstate

John:

four corridor between Tampa and

John:

Orlando and he put it together.

John:

Put pieces of land at a time.

John:

As he could buy it and

John:

Dad said, you know, some of it

John:

was bought $25 for the acre.

John:

Which is pretty cheap back then.

John:

Yeah, even back then, I think.

John:

So, he he'd amassed a , pretty sizable

John:

piece of property and we ran cattle on it.

John:

Cattle in Florida is mostly scrub.

John:

, meaning they just, they,

John:

they eat what they find.

John:

We didn't have a feed lot.

John:

The cattle were grew up to a certain

John:

weight age, and then they were shipped

John:

to somewhere to the Midwest where

John:

they were then fattened in a feedlot.

John:

And became beef cattle, but that wasn't.

John:

So we did that.

John:

We grew and he grew oranges.

John:

And, and so, you know, my father was

John:

very involved in that part of it and,

John:

uh, you know, stories of him getting,

John:

getting stuck out at the, in that

John:

land and, and having to walk in and

John:

get on the phone and call somebody to

John:

come and help, and things like that.

John:

Another one of the investments

John:

that my grandfather made was to

John:

buy a portion of a, an egg farm.

John:

There was a large.

John:

Facility that was.

John:

Maybe sort of like a franchise.

John:

They, there was one central processing

John:

plant where the eggs were going to

John:

be washed and packaged and sold.

John:

But a lot of investors invested

John:

in the actual chicken houses, the

John:

land, the buildings, the cages.

Connie:

Almost like a co-op.

John:

Like, it was very much like a

John:

co-op, but all in one big, pretty much

John:

one big facility, one big acreage.

John:

And the parcels were all

John:

adjacent to one another.

John:

And the owners of...

John:

the investors in this weren't in

John:

any way involved in the management,

John:

, they were truly investors.

John:

And the company that did that

John:

processing put the chickens in there.

John:

It was called contract.

John:

We called it contract

John:

farming later, where they.

John:

We contracted, we built the

John:

facility and contracted with

John:

them to put the chickens in it.

John:

And then, um, when they would then

John:

do the caretaking feeding of the

John:

chickens, collecting the eggs processing

John:

and sales and give us a percentage.

John:

And that worked for a while.

John:

And then they, they decided to convert

John:

the co-op into a, , corporation

John:

with shares and they wanted all

John:

those people that had invested in

John:

those land and the chicken houses

John:

to trade that, that physical

John:

asset for shares in the, company.

John:

And my grandfather declined.

John:

Okay.

John:

And so they said, okay, well,

John:

we're not going to put chickens.

John:

I don't know what timeframe, but okay.

John:

Well, we're not going to put

John:

chickens in your, in, back in

John:

your chicken houses, chickens.

John:

There's about a two, two and

John:

a half year time span there.

John:

And then the chickens are taken

John:

out and replaced with younger ones.

John:

So at some point.

John:

That happened.

John:

Okay.

John:

And, fortunately one of the people that

John:

worked in that company was, from a whole

John:

other story, he was rather disgruntled.

John:

I ended up working for him.

John:

He was my first boss, Lloyd Jones.

John:

But, , he, he came to my father

John:

and said, "If you'd like, I'll be

John:

glad to run your egg farm for you."

John:

And so they made a deal and he

John:

ran it for a bunch of years.

John:

Yeah.

John:

So that was my first job in the

John:

company, uh, was, was working at the

John:

egg farm summers, a couple of summers.

John:

Um, and then I went after.

John:

, I met you and when we got married.

John:

We moved down and, uh, you

John:

know, I interviewed with Mr.

John:

Jones.

John:

We were expanding.

John:

We expanded the egg farm.

John:

I want to say.

John:

Doubled the capacity by having satellite

John:

contract farms, where we had smaller

John:

producers, a number of smaller producers,

John:

but ultimately we were expanding.

John:

And we're putting in a new machine.

John:

The new egg grading machine.

John:

It was state of the art.

John:

And that happened to be

John:

the time that I came along.

John:

And so we moved, moved back to

John:

Polk county and went to work.

John:

And I went to work at the egg farm.

Connie:

Yeah, it was always

Connie:

fun to know too then.

Connie:

Uh, chickens do not take off holidays.

John:

They do not.

Connie:

They didn't care

Connie:

that I was in labor.

John:

They wanted to be fed seven

John:

days a week and they were twice a day.

John:

I was only at the egg farm five years.

John:

Okay.

John:

Before we sold it to the fella who

John:

had actually started that go up in

John:

the beginning and said, we're not

John:

putting chickens back in there.

John:

So we didn't, that's funny.

John:

Yeah.

John:

It was funny how that came back around.

John:

The.

John:

The things that I learned, the lessons

John:

that I learned there in terms of

John:

process improvement and, , systems

John:

we're just incredibly valuable to me

John:

and , there are very

John:

universally applicable.

John:

And there was a lot of I want

John:

to say country invention.

John:

I don't know exactly how to define

John:

it, but, he was almost, he had a

John:

real fascination with building stuff.

John:

Who?

John:

Mr.

John:

Jones.

John:

Lloyd Jones.

John:

He he'd love to tinker.

John:

We had a, we had a shop there and he

John:

loved to tinker on stuff, but he had,

John:

he was an innovator and he'd had a lot

John:

of years in the egg industry and feeding

John:

chickens, and he'd figured out a lot of

John:

stuff that didn't work and ways around it.

John:

And, and he'd also, I want to say because

John:

he'd worked other places and seen things

John:

that didn't work, saved us from making

John:

mistakes that we might've made otherwise.

Connie:

So was it difficult for

Connie:

you coming into, so now you're the.

Connie:

third generation, and you've

Connie:

got an older boss there.

Connie:

Who's been.

Connie:

You know, who knows the

Connie:

industry, how was that work?

Connie:

How did that work out for you?

Connie:

Did you enjoy working for him or.

Connie:

What did you learn at?

Connie:

Let's go with that.

Connie:

What did you learn from that situation?

John:

My goodness.

John:

Well, we talk about in our

John:

Kuder Consulting Group.

John:

We've coined the term

John:

generational ceiling.

John:

And I did not so much

John:

experience that with my father.

John:

Not as impactfully as I did with Mr.

John:

Jones.

John:

Because I was there at the egg farm

John:

and, and I wanted to, I wanted to

John:

learn and I wanted more responsibility.

John:

I mean, I started out doing

John:

very, very low-end menial...

John:

I learned how to work really hard and.

Connie:

Didn't you knock

Connie:

concrete off of...?

John:

It was basically,

John:

like sweeping floors.

John:

I was busting concrete,

John:

off of , creosote poles.

John:

I was, , doing various things with you

John:

know, the chickens that needed doing.

John:

I won't go into that.

John:

The first week I spent built bending

John:

wires on a wire bending jig and, and

John:

we did, you know, there was repetitive

John:

things that we did seasonally.

John:

But it was yeah, it's dirty work

John:

and, and I, I expect it to grow into.

John:

To learn.

John:

I wanted to learn every aspect of the

John:

business and understand the planning

John:

that went into planning for the chickens

John:

and planning to have, more chickens

John:

laying eggs, so we were at our maximum

John:

production capacity during the holidays

John:

where there's a lot of baking done.

John:

So from.

John:

Halloween through Easter.

John:

Right because you've got Thanksgiving and

John:

you've got Christmas, the major holidays,

John:

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

John:

That's when people are

John:

cooking with eggs a lot.

John:

So we needed to have our

John:

maximum capacity then.

John:

And.

John:

Chickens have a season that where

John:

they're, you know, laying the heaviest.

John:

And we had multiple groupings of

John:

chickens, we called them flocks.

John:

I think.

John:

Like 25,000 each.

John:

Okay.

John:

Lots of chickens.

John:

But that all had, that was planning

John:

and timing that went into that.

John:

And, and I, I wanted to learn all that and

John:

I was never, I was not included in that.

John:

At one point, I did have a

John:

conversation with him, with Mr.

John:

Jones and

John:

he said, well, you'll be ready to do

John:

some of this stuff, you know, after

John:

you've been here 10, 15 years, cause

John:

he'd been in the business 40 years,

Connie:

right.

John:

That was a turning point for me.

John:

And, you know, psychologically,

John:

because I thought.

John:

No , I'm not going to be here 15 years.

John:

That's where I had to have a conversation

John:

with my father and My father.

John:

This really gets into a whole, we need

John:

to do a whole other podcast about when

John:

you have, , an external or non-family

John:

member manager or professional

John:

manager in a family business and the

John:

communication that needs to happen.

John:

Because ultimately what it amounted

John:

to was Lloyd Jones was afraid that

John:

I was somehow going to replace him.

John:

He felt threatened by my presence.

John:

And my father was very clear.

John:

You're not there to replace him.

John:

You're here to replace me this.

John:

You're just learning, you know, the

John:

business through working through there and

John:

you won't be staying there a long time.

John:

And it was like, well, can

John:

you tell him that please?

John:

'cause he's really pushing,

John:

you know, holding me back.

John:

And.

John:

Again, this is the generational ceiling.

John:

I was very young and I thought,

John:

I, you know, when we're 17, we

John:

think we know everything by the

John:

time we're in our twenties, and

John:

especially after we've had a baby,

John:

we realize we don't know much at all.

John:

Right.

John:

But, but there's still.

John:

You know, Uh, a, uh, there's an energy,

John:

there's a desire to grow that someone

John:

in their sixties, which is what he was.

John:

It doesn't have, you know, they're,

John:

they're more coasting towards retirement

John:

and they're more playing things, a

John:

little safe and just, you know, using

John:

what they've learned over the years.

John:

And, and they've, they've got a rhythm.

John:

Right.

Connie:

And then I remember the day that

Connie:

you came home and said, oh, by the way,

John:

Yes.

John:

Uh, So again, a long story

John:

to get to that point.

John:

But, uh, we, we had the opportunity to..

John:

. The egg business was not a

John:

profitable business at that time.

John:

We were in the middle of what they

John:

call, the cholesterol controversy.

John:

Where doctors were telling

John:

people eat , one egg a week

John:

because eating the cholesterol

John:

in the egg was going to kill them.

John:

That is false science.

John:

It's been completely debunked.

John:

Debunked, but it still, you still see

John:

today, , how many, 20, 30 years later?

John:

You still see product , packaging that

John:

says no cholesterol on it, because

John:

that's how effective that campaign was.

John:

And it was strictly in

John:

a marketing campaign.

John:

That's another rant for another day.

John:

Right.

John:

But we, so it was not a profitable,

John:

very, very, very thin margins.

John:

We unfortunately grew into a size

John:

where we weren't big enough to get

John:

the economy of scale that we needed to

John:

have to weather those difficult times.

John:

And, , it didn't make sense.

John:

We really couldn't shrink.

John:

We were kind of in a rock and a

John:

hard place situation, and we had

John:

the opportunity to sell it and , we

John:

took it and, I was all for it.

Let us show you what you can do!
Legal
Privacy Policy Terms of Use Contact Us
Support
FAQ's Resources Guide
Company
Why Us? Solutions Blog
© 2023 Kuder Consulting Group. All rights reserved.