We're Excited to Kick-off our Farm Viability Cohort
Farm Viability Training is underway for farm business owners on Hawaii Island. This 12 week, cohort-based training will support participants in creating a farm viability strategy for their farm. The cohort will begin with one-on-one consultation sessions with The Kitchen Table Consultants, followed by an in-person training on Saturday, 11/5/22, followed by virtual sessions and coursework you can finish at your own pace. A stipend of $500 is available for selected cohort members. Priority will be given to female farm business owners. To inquire about more information for future training events, please email: India@oahurcd.org.
Week of 10/12 to 10/31
Attend one-on-one consultation with KTC and receive a high-level financial review, basic bookkeeping and COA training
Objectives:
- Have all cohort members set up in QuickBooks prior to in-person training
- Have all cohort members at the same level of financial competency
- Cohort members understand the benefits of taking time upfront to organize their COA and cleaning up their books (specifically for this training)
- Develop and compare financial ratios with other cohort members using a standard format for organizing COA and budget
Virtual Session - [View Following Your One-on-One Consultation & the In-Person Workshop]
Getting Started on the Rigth Foot: Bookkeeping Foundations and Chart of Accounts (COA) - Speaker: Kitchen Table Consultants (KTC)- Coming Soon!
Objectives:
- Learn bookkeeping basics and how to setup your COA to track progress & to support other business analysis and projections.
IN-PERSON TRAINING - November 4th, (Friday), Onomea Farm Hub (28-1099 Old Mamalahoa Highway, Pepeekeo, HI 96783)
Train-the-Trainer Event- Train the trainer on financial foundations for beginner to advanced beginner farmers. Led by Kitchen Table Consultants (KTC). 9am-3pm.
Objectives:
- Financial foundations for beginner farmers
- Review balance sheets: forecasting and red flags to look out for
- Learn KTC’s 10-step budget building model with cash-flow forecasting add-on segment
- Discuss challenges and best practices with sales forecasting
- Train on KTC’s farm viability Chart of Accounts (COA) structure for Profit and Loss (P&L) + balance sheet documents
- “Setting-up Benchmarking with Your Farmers- Setting Up for Success”
Farmer Cohort Training, 11/5 (Saturday) Onomea Farm Hub (28-1099 Old Mamalahoa Highway, Pepeekeo, HI 96783), 9am-4pm.
- Meet-and-greet with other farmers!
- Increase participant’s understanding of financial statements and confidence in interpreting useful information from data
- Tips and techniques for reading financial statements to evaluate the health of their business
- Spot opportunities to improve profitability and growth
- Budgeting as a tool to help farm business in the long run
- Learn to use KTC’s opportunity assessment model
- Perform a case study using a real life example by choosing a cohort member’s farm operation!
- Determine the action steps/timeline required to reach goals in case study.
Virtual Training Session, 11/15, 4pm-6pm- Led by Oregon Tilth’s, Introduction to Cost of Production
- Learn how to determine the cost to produce a single crop and to how use cost information to for business planning and decision making.
- Learn about the Know Your Cost to Grow and how to setup to track your cost of production for a single crop
- Learn how to use cost of production information to analyze your profit margins and make decisions to add, drop or change the price of your crop
- Learn about upcoming opportunities to participate in Know Your Cost To Grow, a program designed specifically to support multi-crop vegetable farmers with determining costs of production
Virtual Training Session: [Date TBD] 4-6pm - Led by Farm Commons
- Reducing Risk Through New Crop Insurance Opportunities and Other Affordable Strategies
- Understand insurance options for general liability, property and new crop insurance for small, diversified ag operations
- Learn how to use contract agreements through your farm lease, contract grows, or employee or partner agreements
Virtual Training Session: [Date TBD], 4pm-6pm - Led by KTC - Identifying and Setting-up Systems to Track Key Performance Indicators
- Hands-on activity for identifying key performance indicators (KPI) for your business
- Setting-up systems in QuickBooks to track and analyze KPI
- Review budget of cohort member & hands-on activities and small group discussions
- Tracking KPI with other farm businesses
- Strengthen budget building to track KPI
- Opportunity assessment skills
- Using KPI & Actual Budget Information to Make Decisions & Assess Opportunities
- Encourage additional farmer-to-farmer learning on budget building, KPI and opportunity assessment skills
VIRTUAL TRAINING SESSION: [Date TBD] 4pm-6pm, Developing a Viability Strategy - Led by KTC
- Look at financial benchmarking versus budget comparisons
- Understand the scale necessary for your operation to create a living wage
- Conduct a SWOT analysis of you operation based on income goals
- Identify which crop(s) and/or enterprises are profitable based on COP information
- Develop S.M.A.R.T. goals for scaling-up by crop and enterprise and understanding what investments will be essential to meet these goals
- Learn what scale you will see a return on investments
Virtual Training Session, [Date TBD] 4pm-6pm - Accessing Market Channels and Credit - led by KTC
- Learn about the current lending environment in Hawaiʻi
- Learn about FSA credit programs for family farms
- Learn about progressive lenders and capital investors
- Prepare and pitch presentations to creditors and/or capital investors
- Hear examples of marketing strategies for accessing premium market channels
