On March 9, 2020, I was scheduled to fly to a conference in Peoria, IL. The conference organizers had booked me to speak about farm business management and offer speed-coaching. At the time, it felt like a milestone as I …
“That cannot be the way to write clearly.” I had shared the introduction of my book, The Farmer’s Office, with my uncle Roman and this was his feedback. The manuscript was in its final stages of editing before heading to the …
I got an email the other day from a farmer/student, Will. He was working through the homework from our class, had a bunch of questions, and wanted to schedule a coaching session to go through them. Something troubled me about this …
Steven had an itch on his back for a couple of weeks. At first, he thought it was just a bug or spider bite… nothing unusual since he works in the fields most days. He figured it must have been …
Talia has been raising and selling livestock for the last 5 years. She sells the chickens, pork and beef at farmers’ markets and direct to her customers who pick up their orders from her farm. Up until this point, she’s …
I’ve long espoused the skills needed for a successful entrepreneurial (farm or otherwise) business: financial acumen: you need to know your numbers and what they mean operational proficiencies: you need to be able to produce a high-quality product efficiently marketing …
This was the feedback I got from one of my culinary school instructors. I recall the specific drawing that prompted this: I had sketched out the plate presentation of a trout dish with green beans and risotto. I submitted the …
Over the last few months, I’ve been working with a farmer on her business plan for building out an on-farm processing facility. She wants to take her heritage breed pigs and create custom, value-added charcuterie. It’s a big investment of …
I started using QuickBooks in 1997 when I had my catering business. Though I always thought of myself as a “numbers person,” I had no idea about balance sheets or liabilities or even equity. As I went through the initial …
A beginning farmer asked me recently, ‘I want to sell my products to restaurants. I know many restaurants usually buy from Sysco… so how do I price my products to compete with Sysco?” In short: you don’t. As I’ve long …