Description
Building Farm Profit Into the Picture
If you’ve been struggling to make your farm operation profitable without driving yourself into the ground, this financial planning course is for you. Ultimately, it will help you with the delicate balancing act that all farmers must succeed in: balancing healthy profits with healthy land and a healthy farm family and personal life. You will learn how to make financial decisions toward farm & family values and goals, and how to build profit into your plans up front, rather than hoping there is something left once expenses are subtracted from income. If you have been struggling with the financial statements in your business plan, this is a great course to help you focus in on these and get clear on your numbers.
Webinars
The bulk of the course happens on your own time, with discussions, readings, and assignments here in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, live webinars will be woven into the online interface for 6 weeks each Fall to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from presenters and ask questions in real time. If you miss one, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.
Your Instructors:
- Phil Metzger is a farm & natural resources development consultant, retired from a 31-year career as a resource conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Phil instructs on various topics including: farm, personal & business financial planning, goal setting, improved decision making, business & land planning, biological monitoring, and reading the land. He is a certified educator of Holistic Management (HM) and has practiced HM, including Holistic Financial Planning, for over 15 years.
- Allyson Angelini has a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from UMass Amherst and has worked on dozens of farms in New England and Italy. She owns and operates Full Heart Farm, which she purchased in 2012 at the age of 24. She serves as a mentor for Holistic Management International and is a member of the National Young Farmers Coalition. Allyson was named one of CT Magazine’s 40 Under 40 in 2015, as well as eWomen Network’s Emerging Leader of the Year for 2015. In BF 203, Allyson shares the details of how she plans and manages her farm’s finances using Holistic Financial Planning.
Cost
299
Who
- ALL LEVELS: This course is intended for farmers with at least one season of management experience and some record of their farm’s income and expenses (even if this information is stored on scraps of paper in a shoebox).
- This course will move at an intense pace, with time to catch up at the end. If you have not yet started farming, you are welcome to take the course, but you MAY need to do extra legwork to research realistic potential expenses and income for your planned enterprises.