Increase the Viability of Your Farm Business by Participating in our Farmer Cohort Program. Stay tuned for new cohort announcement.
 
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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. 



  Watch an Inspiring Video From Our Last WFN Cohort 

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

E Komo Mai!


Welcome to the Hawaii Farm Viability Portal. This portal contains fun self-assessments, short videos, and testimonies from fellow farm business owners about the tools theyʻve used to improve their businesses. The tools in this portal are designed to help you set goals to improve your business and to learn about some of the skills that we'll be teaching through our free farm viability cohorts and online courses.

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WFN Skill Share!
Celebration & Resource Fair


  Watch our Video and Learn How to Increase Efficiency & Profit On Your Farm  


Mahalo to all who were able to participate in the Skill Share! to celebrate female entrepreneurs and leaders who have helped shape agriculture in Hawaii.

We kicked-off the event, by hearing stories about their mentors and the pathways that led them to where they are today. Mahalo to our honorary guests: Jari Sugano @soaphawaii, Dana Shapiro @hawaiiulucoop , Sally Rizzo @oldkoloa_regenerativefarm, Darien Siguenza from Hawaii FoundHer, Frankie Koethe @KMWP, and hearing from special guest speakers: Gabrielle Roesche McNally @americanfarmlandtrust, Rebecca Frimmer from @thekitchentableconsultants, and Tanya Murray @oregontilth.

Mahalo to our guest speakers from The Kitchen Table Consultants and Oregon Tilth for demonstrating leading financial management and planning tools being used by farm business owners both locally and nationally farmers. In addition to tools, they also shared about skill sets and healthy business habits used to track and analyze cost of production, set sales targets and budgets, and opportunity assessments for scaling-up to meet financial and quality of life goals.


We ended this event with break-out sessions with The Kohala Center, GoFarm Hawaii, The Kitchen Table Consultants, Slow Money Hawaii, FSA, NRCS and CTAHR. Attending these break-out sessions you'll learn how to start developing a capitalization strategy, prepare for a loan, start a market and business plan, sign-up with FSA and learn about the new Micro-Whole Farm Revenue Program and sign-up for liability or property insurance, learn about our upcoming Farm Viability Training starting in Fall of 2022 for Oahu and Spring 2023 for Hawaii Island. 

Access Tools to Increase the Viability of Your Farm Business



The 30-minute Farm Viability Course has three parts. Each section includes an interactive quiz. Those who attended the Skill Share! used the quizes to help them determine which break-out sessions they should attend. Even if you weren't able to attend the event, you can still use these short quizzes to learn where you can start making improvements to your farm business by setting goals to begin tracking and analyzing your finances. We've also included a quiz to help you navigate insurance and contract agreements, since these tools are an important measure towards protecting your finanical and legal risks and creating a viable course for your business. 

Click on FARM VIABILITY COURSES to get started. 
*This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2018-70027-28587.
*This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2018-70027-28587.

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