At the beginning of March, HMI completed our Whole Farm/ Ranch Business Planning Series in Willits, California, with 32 participants involved in the financial, marketing, and business planning courses. Lead instructor for this program was Certified Educator Richard King. As has been the case in previous courses, participants enjoyed the small group work and learning from each other.
Marketing planning included focusing on developing an elevator speech for each farming operation and honing in on the best marketing channels for each operation. Using this information participants had the opportunity to map out their marketing plan for the year and get feedback. This plan looks at both strategy and implementation.
After the marketing plan work, the group turned to business planning and looking at different business plans as well as the key sections of a business plan and how this document must be developed to clearly articulate an operations strategy and tactics for success. Again working in small groups helped participants learn from each other’s operations and determine what they needed to work on when they got home.
Our thanks to the California Farm Grange School for hosting this series and providing a great meeting place as well as all their gracious support and outreach for the series. Thanks also to the Christano Family Fund for their support of this program and for providing scholarships.
Here's what the participants had to say about key take homes from the courses:
Really enjoyed working through real life examples with the other farmers.
The program got better each session.