“There's no place else: begin from where you are.”
― Theodore Roethke, Notebooks 1951-1953
I have been teaching the basics of farm and ranch business management for decades, and I have tried just about every possible starting place for explaining the concepts and practices needed to manage the financial and legal realities of a modern business. What I have learned is that the only starting place that matters is the motivation of the business owner.
Most instructors start with the business plan, but I have met very few farmers, ranchers or fishers who start that way. Most of the people I work with start with the physical work and then find me somewhere in the middle once they have formed real questions about how their business is working and how maybe it should work. That’s often a great time to start creating a written business plan - it helps clarify what is happening, and distinguish it from what needs to happen, and what is desired. Most importantly it helps to distinguish between the resources on hand, and the resources needed to make other things happen.
A business plan is a good tool if it is essentially a realistic budget and to-do list. I have read multi-chapter business plans that were masterworks of science fiction and fantasy, and I have seen excellent business plans on two pages - one with a cash flow budget and the other describing how current production and marketing could expand if there were more labor and equipment.
For true beginners the best place to start is with some decisions (and resolutions) about how to manage cash and technology. After that, the next most essential thing is to learn a little bit about paying other people and paying yourself.
The California FarmLink Business Basics Learning Center is a good starting place if you are focused on the physical work and want to minimize your investment in business planning for now. It is a very short introduction to the most basic aspects of understanding what it means to own and operate a business. It includes a few short resources with essential business definitions, a short guide to information technology essentials, an introduction to important considerations for managing cash and bank accounts, and a short presentation to introduce five documents that can help protect you and your family.
In the California FarmLink Business Planning Learning Center you will find resources to help you to develop a written business plan that focuses on how a business will use and earn money. Some of the materials are designed for people who are planning to start a new business, and others are for people who want to create a business plan for a continuing business. Through eight short lessons corresponding to sections in the workbook you will learn basic business language and concepts including how businesses are owned, how owners invest in and are paid from a business, how assets and labor contribute to profitability, how to use cash and credit, and how to ensure that your business is prepared for adversity.
From the Business Basics or Business Planning Learning Centers you can easily navigate to FarmLink’s other Learning Centers:
This Learning Center is for experienced bookkeepers who want to learn about best practices for farm and ranch books, and for farmers and ranchers who are committed to deep engagement with their bookkeeping.
This Learning Center includes beginning, intermediate and advanced resources. The beginning resources are important for first-time self-employed farmers and ranchers. The intermediate and advanced resources are for farmers, ranchers, and tax preparers with specific questions about agricultural taxation.
Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Learning Center
Resources in this Learning Center will help users evaluate aspects of their business to strengthen, select the most effective risk management strategies, and prepare to be able to recover from disaster as quickly and effectively.
This Learning Center contains supplemental materials referenced in the other FarmLink Learning Centers. The best way to get here is from one of the other Learning Centers, but it can also be used like an encyclopedia of business management concepts and tools.
Poppy Davis serves as programs advisor with California FarmLink.
