An American business advisor recently traveled through western Canada speaking about turning your farm into a dynasty.

Carl Gould from New Jersey is with Seven Stage Advisors, and says diversifying your operation can change your farm from a legacy into a dynasty.

"Farming is one of the unique types of businesses that when you have a bad year it strikes you twice..., and so diversification allows your farm, or your company, and in this case almost weather proof your business, but it just gives you other ways for the business to earn revenue, it gives you a slightly different client base, and it gives you more opportunity for your business to grow."

At Gould's talks, he discussed how to get the next generation involved.

"The way that you make a job interesting and compelling is you also stress how you do something and why you do something, not just the what. Businesses have gotten very savvy over the years in being very good at describing what are the side benefits of a particular type of job, and are there any technological, or techniques, or ways that you're slightly different. By doing that you can make the job more interesting and other aspects of the job interesting."

Gould says family farms can get into different lines of business by building on the strengths and interests of all family members.

He adds if you're good at building relationships, you may struggle with the details, and vice versa.

"Understanding the blind spot of a business and correcting that area, we have learned can impact your business by 10 to 30 per cent, and add to it's growth and efficiency just by correcting that blind spot."

Gould notes it's worth while to evaluate your business and fix the blind spots.