Managing the pressures of farming
[Table of Content]
What is Farm Business Planning?
Business planning is the planning of business activities to achieve short, medium and long-term goals, and the allocation of resources (time and money and equipment) to enable those activities to be carried out.
Why is business planning important?
Business planning is important for farm businesses to improve productivity and to plan for business and family needs to be met. There is more stress on the manager and the family without a sound business plan.
What does a good business plan include?
- Involvement of all family partners in the business planning
- Setting clear business goals
- Planning, costing and timing the inputs for planned farming activities
- Assigning people to undertake planned activities
- Regular review of family roles in business to match peoples goals and skills
- Risk management plans for changing circumstances eg drought, crop failure etc
- Regular review of plans during crisis times
- Leave arrangements including holidays for family members
- Family needs to be met in terms of finance and time in short term business plan
- Personal time allocated in short term business plan
Where do I get help with business planning?
- Your accountant can help or refer you to specialist help.
- Rural Financial Counselling service- see guide 10 – page 31
Where can we access training to improve our business planning skills?
A range of skill based training for the following is available in the area of business planning. If you are interested in training courses in business planning please refer to the training directory under the following topics of interest.
- Business planning
- Benchmarking
- Time management