I was addicted to Farmville. There, I said it.

Mid-August or so I rolled over to wish good morning to Nicole as she was lying in bed with her laptop playing a Facebook social networking game called Farmville. I rolled my eyes, laughed, and didn’t think much about it.

A few days later, I observed how much fun she was having harvesting her crops, meticulously planting them in little rows and aligning the trees just right. This is how my wife is and I love her for it.

Then, I got to thinking: 1) Farmville could be a fun little husband & wife bonding activity…. give each other chickens, apple trees, and that sort of thing. 2) I could take this as a challenge and try and beat her at her own game. Nothing like a little friendly competition, right?

Nicole patiently taught me how to plow, plant, and harvest my crops. She told me about the importance of XP (experience points), which money simply can not buy.

Turns out, there are a bunch of friendly faces playing Farmville, including past & present wedding clients, some big names in the wedding photography industry like John Michael Cooper and Dalisa. Over 60 million people check their farms, making Farmville the most popular Facebook game.

But there are plenty business lessons one can take from Farmville, like investing in proper equipment (tractors and harvesters), having a (business) plan for your farm, being creative, having fun and enjoying the fruits of your labor

To share with you some of the lessons and parallels to business life I’ve learned, I’ve compiled a list of 8 tips to pass along.

How to ‘Win’ at Farmville (and your Business):

1. Be creative and have fun. Enjoy the fruits of your labor and in the end, remember it is just a game.

2. Help others in their farm. By scaring away the crows, you gain coins and valuable XP. Offering value is more important than receiving. The same applies in leveraging the power of online social networking.

3. There may be ‘short cuts,’ they come at a cost. While the soybean-delete method and hay bale buy & sell method work to boost XP, they may cause joint pain from excess clicking.

4. Invest in the right tools to get the job done. The tractor, harvester, and seeder can save you tons of time.

5. Money doesn’t buy experience. but can build XP points by buying & selling buildings. For example, Grain Silos (20,000 coins) yield 200 XP which aids in leveling up. The most profitable crops, like grapes and peas, can only be purchased at the higher levels.

6. Work smart, not hard. Larger farms help to scale your efforts and make you more money quicker. Consider making your farm larger before buying trinkets. At my ‘prime,’ I was earning 75,000 coins each day harvesting hundreds of peas.

7. Have a plan. Like a business, failing to plan is planning to fail. One Farmville neighbor use an Excel spreadsheet to estimate income vs time to maximize her efforts. Others sketch their ideas out with graph paper and a pencil.

8. Steady persistence pays off. Make a goal, invest a little time each day, and stick to it. Then move on. Just like in business, an exit strategy is your only way out.

My goal? To work hard, a little each day, amassing enough coinage to purchase the $1,000,000 villa.

Last night, that is precisely what I did.

Feel free to share your Farmville tips and tricks and experiences by leaving a comment below.