The secret is out. Put the date in your diary. We are delighted to announce that this year’s Women & Agriculture Conference in association with FBD Insurance will take place on Thursday 24 October. We’re heading back to the beautiful setting of the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa in Sligo and although tickets aren’t on sale until September, be sure to sort cover on the farm or book the day off work now.

In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be revealing our top speakers that will entertain and inspire at our annual event, and one of the first to be announced is Margaret Hoctor from Kilmullen Farm in Wicklow. Margaret is no stranger to Irish Country Living – or indeed our Women & Agriculture Conference. Her unemployment to on-farm success story is nothing short of inspiring as Maria Moynihan previously wrote “she swapped her high heels for her wellies, her Blackberry for a bucket and her office for the orchard”.

Telling her story of resilience will however, just be a small element of her talk. Instead as a life coach, she will talk about the lessons she learned, lessons that are of real and practical relevance to our audience. Margaret says: “October 2013 was a time in my life that will stay with me for a long time. I was 20 years working in marketing research, 16 years with the same company when I saw the writing was on the wall. At the time I was heading up teams that were doing door-to-door or phone research but everything was moving online. There were redundancies across the board, I knew I was on the firing line.”

Margaret Hoctor (Bourke) for Women and Agriculture booklet

On top of that, in the same year, a romantic dinner resulted in a house fire that saw her kitchen burn down while a suspicious mole led to a cancer scare (which thankfully, proved to be just that; a scare). Needless to say, it was a time of stress and strain.

“I didn’t know where to go next, what would I do with my life?” But I remember that day when I rang my husband Eamonn (Burke), he said to me, ‘You can do anything you put your mind to. Come home and we’ll work it out’.”

Margaret said from the day she met Eamonn, she was a working professional, always had her source of income, her own independence. “But we looked at the situation together and realised there was opportunity for us both on the farm.”

Since then, the couple have built their farm business. Now, they are seasonal producers of Bord Bia Quality Assured lamb, available from this weekend until December. They sell it direct at farmers’ markets, online and through collection on the farm. They also use all the apples on their farm for their Kilmullen Apple Juice, which is also sold through the farmers’ market and speciality food stores and they have diversified into growing sweetcorn. On top of that, they have built a full horse livery business.

All this has required hard work, strategic thinking, and having a little faith in themselves. Margaret shares some of the lessons she learned along the way as she and Eamonn built their farm business.

Every skill is transferable

When I first started working on the farm with Eamonn, I could have thrown my hands up and said, ‘I don’t have a clue’. But the truth is I had been working in a high-paced industry for two decades and picked up a lot of skills along the way. I knew business. Farming as a business needs a plan so I started introducing weekly strategy meetings. Now they were a bit more casual to the strategy meeting I was used to – with the dog at our feet and a cup of tea and a scone on the table, but we still treat it as business. We plan for all eventualities whether that is a HSE inspection or getting all our systems in place in the cutting room. Of course, there will be weather and all the unpredictability that comes with farming but when you have the basics covered, it means you aren’t always fire fighting. That weekly meeting keeps us on track. We ask what can be achieved that will save us a headache later?

No matter what business you are in, never underestimate the power of conversation, you need to know where people are coming from.

Keep challenging yourself

The most powerful questions we ask ourselves are: What can we do? Why can’t we do it? When can we do it? Where can we do it?

We were selling apples at the time and some lambs so we started saying why can’t we sell all our apples? Why can’t we sell all our lambs directly? What are our obstacles? How can we change?

When you start challenging yourself, you begin to realise that the obstacles that you think are in your way aren’t as big or insurmountable as you think.

Stop and listen

A lot of people think selling is all about speaking, but whether you’re selling or farming, so much of it is about listening. I could be talking to a customer who is telling me about a dinner party they are having on Friday night. Just listening to them, I know they have six people coming and one has dietary requirements, that’s a leg of lamb and I can give advice on a suitable recipe. That is the kind of information that people really value and encourages them to come back to you again and again. No matter what business you are in, never underestimate the power of conversation, you need to know where people are coming from.

Bring people with you

Realise you don’t have to do it all yourself. I remember when we talked about moving from a DIY livery to full livery, Eamonn said it would be too much work. But when you build up a business you don’t have to, if it’s successful and growing, then you can afford to bring people on board. Yes, it may be overwhelming for a while as you put in the hard graft to set it up, but bringing people onboard means you can then move onto the next area of expansion in the business.

Margaret Hoctor will be speaking at the Women & Agriculture Conference in association with FBD Insurance on 24 October.