Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Criteria On Formulating Farm Business Planning Finger Lakes

By Ines Flores


Planning is critical for success of both new and established farming businesses. The plan should not only exist in your mind, but also need time to formulate thoughts, evaluate the progress and strategies for problem solving. Your plan should be realistic, simple, specific and complete. Thus, the guidelines below on farm business planning Finger Lakes are essential to prospective farmers.

Drawing a good plan has an advantage when you want to get credit from financial institutions. A good business plan goals should be specific, measurable, time bound, achievable and realistic. A good budget will help secure a loan from a financial institution. There are short-term goals, which are meant to be accomplished within one year and long-term goals, which are expected, go for two years and above.

Make a plan that is easy to read and understand. This will enable easy implementation of your plan. Remember any plan no matter how good it appears, must be revised from time to time. This will help suit the situation at hand. Apart for goals, ensure the objectives and dates are in relation to the operation of farm enterprises.

Get a mission for the farm. The mission statement should incorporate the objectives of the public, customer's, employees, owner's and financial institutions. Let the mission statement give a highlight on the reasons for the existence of the business its use and the direction it will take. Plan for aspects like production, financial, human resource and marketing. Let the plan cover details from planting to harvesting.

Financial statements are important in helping assess the overall success and profitability of your enterprise. The statements are prepared at the end of the financial year. The balance sheet will show how much your agricultural enterprise is worth. The records are used for future reference by lenders when processing of a loan. Use the current rates to assess your assets and liabilities. In addition, factor in depreciation of machinery and tools where applicable.

Prepare an income statement to show whether the farm business is running at a profit or a loss. The statement covers a given accounting period, usually one calendar year. You may use the cash or accrual method to prepare the statement. However, using the accrual method shows the true financial position of a farm.

Include in your plan implementation strategy. Doing research to gather all relevant information is of no use if the plan is not implemented. It is considered as doing things in the right way. You will realize some of the issues for implementation are not possible. Going through the plan therefore will help identify such hindrances and look for solutions.

There are many risks and uncertainties in farming. Some are natural like diseases and pests, adverse weather conditions among others. It is, therefore, important to formulate an exit plan in your plan. Quitting may be unpopular for you however; it may turn out to be the best decision for your land and family because of illness, death of a close partner, old age, lack of finances among other factors.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment