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What are the main items to consider when creating a business plan for your farm or agricultural business?
Last Updated: April 04, 2007
A business plan for each individual farm or agricultural business should be custom made to provide a road map for the direction of your business and provide justification for securing funds.
The main parts of a business plan are:
* summary page of business plan,
* mission/vision statement,
* business goals and objectives with a time line,
* business description,
* market analysis and summary,
* financial plan,
* management structure,
* contingency plan, and
* other supporting documents.
Your local Cooperative Extension office may be able to refer you to workshops and courses in your area that will help you complete a business plan. You might also take a look at the following documents.
Ohio State University offers an excellent fact sheet on the basics of a business plan. It can be found at: ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/1101.html
North Carolina State University offers helpful PowerPoint presentations on developing a business plan for value-added and alternative agriculture at www.cals.ncsu.edu/value-added/Developing_Business_Plan.ppt.
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Youth Entrepreneurship
What do kids know about business? You'll be surprised!
E-Commerce Learning Modules
- Direct Marketing for Specialty Food Products. Learn strategies to direct market and sell specialty food products.
- Electronic Retailing. More and more of our communication and social behaviors involve computers and networks. Nonetheless, it is not as simple as it might appear to connect the dots on electronic retail and turn it into a successful venture.
- Going Global: A Guide for e-Commerce Expansion. A worksheet driven learning lesson for the established e-commerce business exploring export/import opportunities.
- A Primer for Hispanic Small Businesses. In both English and Spanish, this module was founded in the belief that e-commerce education should not only be available to Spanish Speaking business owners but also that small business stand to benefit greatly from the patronage of the Spanish speaking consumer.
- Marketing Food Specialty Products OnlineThe purpose of this learning module is to assist food retailers in making decisions on the use of online technologies in their marketing and planning strategies.
RESOURCES:
Build Your Business
- Online Tutorial on Farm Leasing
- Strategies to Improve Farm Business Management
- Visual Merchandising: The Silent Salesperson. View a recording of a marketing workshop conducted by Glenn Muske, Oklahoma State University. The workshop covers some key aspects of display as a sales tool. The workshop is approximately 45 minutes long.
Building Entrepreneurial Communities
- E-Commerce Module:Connecting Rural Communities
- Strengthening Competitive Advantage of Rural Businesses with e-Commerce and Experience Economy Strategies
- Mini-Course: Developing Diversified & Value-Added Agribusinesses
Blogs to Watch