Final report for WPDP23-010
Project Information
California’s farms and ranches face unique challenges as small business entrepreneurs, especially disadvantaged farmers who experience factors such as:
- Vulnerability to environmental risks, market volatility, and under-capitalization
- Regulatory and and product liability risks
- Playing a critical role in community food security
- Specialized operational issues including: understanding methods and costs related to the production of crops and livestock and the seasonality of fisheries; ability to assess marketing plans including packing, cooling, shipping, estimated prices and volume and inventory vulnerability (such as to power outages); utilizing agricultural liens including special federal liens for perishable agricultural commodities; managing risk on low-collateral loans, assessing unique risks related to environmental, labeling, food safety and labor regulations.
CAMEO and FarmLink are partnering to train the next generation of farm service providers and educators to specifically address these topics. Participants will hear from experienced small farm business development professionals on what to expect when advising a small farm business. They will also receive FarmLink’s “Resilience Self Assessment,” a comprehensive tool to assess the business health of small farm enterprises, covering a suite of farm business topics, from business entity structure and securing land tenure to credit management and compliance with environmental regulations. Service providers will learn the “ins and outs” of providing specialized assistance to small farms and upon completion of the course will be able to use the RSA in their advising work.
Our target audience is professionals that serve, or would like to serve, small and sustainable farm and ranch businesses, and are motivated to provide more strategic guidance to their agriculture clients.
The overall goal of this project is to increase the capacity among small business advising organizations (i.e. Small Business Development Centers, Community Development Corporations, community-based NGOs, extension educators) to effectively serve sustainable farm and ranch businesses. Through a partnership with the CAMEO network of small business advisors, FarmLink will support a growing ecosystem of at least 50 small business service providers, enhancing their knowledge and skills to address specific issues critical to small, sustainable farm business management. This project will also strengthen a new partnership with CAMEO (established through the current Western SARE project) for future engagement including further training opportunities made exclusively to course participants, as well as future opportunities to serve FarmLink’s clientele through its business education, capital and land access programs.
Participants will increase knowledge of the unique risk profile of small, sustainable farm and ranch businesses, and how to identify issues that might threaten the farm’s ability to operate. The proposed program will also increase participants knowledge on a comprehensive suite of topics paramount to small, sustainable farm and ranch business success. At the end of the project, participants will incorporate new tools to approach these topics when working alongside small farm owners and operators.
Through group co-hort trainings and follow-on support from FarmLink, participants will learn how to apply FarmLink’s Farm Business “Resilience Self Assessment” (RSA) tool as a comprehensive diagnostic and guided approach to small business technical assistance and counseling with farm business clients. Through the RSA tool and associated group curriculum, participants will gain insight on how to assess a farmer’s baseline business skills and practices, and find a supportive community to address and prioritize which business skills and practices farm clients should have in place.
TIMELINE (please note the cycle will repeat in the same timeframe in 2023 and 2024, which encompasses the project timeframe):
- Project Period: June 1, 2023 - December 31, 2024
- Planning Period: June 1-June 27
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- Participants: FarmLink and CAMEO- Recap feedback from 2022 cohort and adjust/add material based on input from participants
- Recruitment: June 1 - 30
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- Participants: CAMEO
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- Expected Outcomes: Marketing, recruiting, and networking to garner interest and gather participants to apply for the cohort.
- Info Session: June 28
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- Participants: FarmLink, CAMEO, and prospective participants
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- Expected Outcomes: Information sharing to prospective cohort participants including expectations, goals, learning targets, resources.
- Application Review: July 1 - 31
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- Participants: FarmLink, CAMEO
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- Expected Outcomes: Ensuring participants are appropriately vetted and will benefit from the project
- Participant Notification: August 1 - 31
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- Participants: CAMEO
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- Expected Outcomes: Finalization of participant cohort, and confirmation of participation
- Classes: September 26 - November 14, Tuesdays 12-2PM
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- Participants: CAMEO, FarmLink, Project Cohort Participants
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- Expected Outcomes: To fulfill objectives outlined in the project proposal.
Cooperators
- (Educator)
Education
Participants will increase knowledge of the unique risk profile of small, sustainable farm and ranch businesses, and how to identify issues that might threaten the farm’s ability to operate. The proposed program will also increase participants knowledge on a comprehensive suite of topics paramount to small, sustainable farm and ranch business success. At the end of the project, participants will incorporate new tools to approach these topics when working alongside small farm owners and operators. Through group co-hort trainings and follow-on support from FarmLink, participants will learn how to apply FarmLink’s Farm Business “Resilience Self Assessment” (RSA) tool as a comprehensive diagnostic and guided approach to small business technical assistance and counseling with farm business clients. Through the RSA tool and associated group curriculum, participants will gain insight on how to assess a farmer’s baseline business skills and practices, and find a supportive community to address and prioritize which business skills and practices farm clients should have in place.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Participants are exposed to different entity structures commonly seen with small-to-medium farms.
People, Resources and Activities - A Framework for Structuring a Farming, Ranching or Fishing Business.
- Business model and business structure
- Evaluating ownership
- Evaluating land tenure
- Evaluating activities
- Profit motive
- Start-up versus functioning
33 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
Participants understand how to communicate with their clients about their records and what questions to ask.
Participants are introduced to an accounting framework for understanding liquidity and building wealth and setting up or cleaning up bookkeeping systems.
- Types of Accounting
- Evaluating the Balance Sheet
- Evaluating the Bookkeeping Set Up
- Discussion & Q&A
32 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
Participants learn how to support farmers, ranchers, and fishers in filing their taxes and/or finding the right tax preparation professionals.
Assets
- Sources
- Re-creating an Asset List
- General Ledger + Detailed List
- Income Tax Return
- County Business Property Tax Return
- Discussion & Q&A
Taxes
- Evaluating a Tax Return
- Taxable Income
- Tax Formula for an Individual
- When should a new business file?
33 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
Participants learn how to communicate with clients about their cash flow needs, and examples of common scenarios.
Cash inflows
- From Operations = changes cash and income statement income
- From Borrowing = changes cash and balance sheet liability
- From Owner Contributions = changes cash and balance sheet equity
Cash Outflows
- For Operations = changes cash and income statement expense
- For Asset Acquisition = changes cash and balance sheet asset
- To Pay Debt = changes cash and balance sheet liability
- Owner Draws = changes cash and balance sheet equity
29 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
Participants learn about labor issues on small farms and different risk mitigation strategies.
- Labor
- Labeling
- Food Safety
- Zoning
- Environmental Regulations
Labor and Insurance: 33 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
Environmental Regulations: 30 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
An introduction to ways to think about profitability and wealth creation.
Annual Profitability
- Cash increase(decrease) does not measure profitability
- Net profit (loss) does not measure long term wealth creation
- Gross margin and net margin are measures of profitability
- Gross margin helps you determine if you can scale
- Cost of production and cost to harvest and pack
Wealth creation
- Business wealth vs. personal wealth
- Losing money while increasing wealth
- Return on investments and return on assets
- Labor efficiency vs. asset efficiency
- Credit: How much is “enough”?
29 participants surveyed (45 of total 71 who completed the survey) reported increased knowledge, and new attitudes toward utilizing new knowledge in their day-to-day work with farmers and ranchers.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
Overall, this project surpassed its goals (50 service providers reached), and engaged 71 service providers, serving small scale, sustainable and organic agriculture in California and beyond. These participants reported knowledge gains, specific advances by topic and learning objective (Education and Outreach Initiatives section in this report), and many report that they will apply these learnings to their daily work. A number of new working collaborations were also formed, including a mixture of non profit and extension programs from the following institutions: American FarmLand Trust, Plaza de Nuestra Comunidad, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, WSU Food Systems Program, California Food Policy Council, Blackstone Tax & Financial, UC SAREP Small Farms Team, NY Farmnet, Foodshed Capital, Practical farmers of Iowa, Big Picture Harvest, North Coast Growers, and University of California agricultural extension (Natural Resources-UCANR).
During the first period of this project, (2023) FarmLink convened a cohort of 38 service providers and professionals to learn how to best support farming and fishing entrepreneurs across business management topics. They learned how to address common questions and what questions to ask in order to dig deeper into a client’s unique situation. This six-part series addressed business structures, accounting & bookkeeping, taxation, cash flow management, labor & insurance, and environmental regulation. Participants not only enhanced their knowledge but learned the limits of their expertise and when it is best to call in a professional to address specific issues. 25 out of 27 survey respondents reported knowledge gain and 100 percent of respondents will be able to apply what they learned within the next year. 26 out of 27 respondents plan to participate in ongoing professional development related to this course.
In 2024, FarmLink hosted the two (2) sessions of Train the Trainer, for a total of 41 participants. The first, “Evaluating and Supporting Farmer, Rancher, Fisher Clients” program from June 4-June 25, on Tuesday afternoons. The updated iteration provided business advisors content on business structure, labor law, accounting, taxation, credit, contracts, insurance and environmental and regulatory compliance. 21 business advisors gained robust knowledge of resources and access to expert advice that improved their ability to work with clients and stay up-to-date on relevant risks and mitigants. Additionally, farm, ranch, and fisher-serving professionals expanded their network of fellow service providers and took advantage of peer-to-peer learning groups and potential referrals. TTT participants ranged from nonprofit farmer-facing staff, business advisors from state and regional agriculture agencies, university employees, agriculture finance lenders, and independent service providers in farm and small business tax, accounting, and law. Participants were based nationally in 11 states (NY, VA, OR,RI, CO, WA, PA, NE, TX, SD, AZ), and represent 16 California counties (Kings, Nevada, Yolo, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Kern, Ventura, Fresno, Madera, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Humboldt, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey).
A second session in 2024 was also convened a TTT sessions were held on Thursdays from September 5-September 26, 2024, focusing on training service providers to help farmers with recordkeeping, and advising on how to engage a tax preparer. 20 participants learned how to use bilingual resources produced through the University of Arkansas Tax Evaluation tools, as part of the USDA’s Tax Education and Asset Protection (TAEP) national initiative. FarmLink developed resources specific to California agriculture, and primarily small scale, sustainable and organic direct market operations, that direct clients towards the appropriate online lessons on the topics of Tax Filing, Records, Entities, and Special Tax Rules for Ag Income as an initiative with the Office of Taxpayer Education. Service providers gained insight into limitations on advising outside of their scope of expertise, and language for how to direct a farmer to other relevant service providers. Peer-to-peer learning and connections for participants were also fostered. Support from this Western SARE project assisted in growing new resources through the TAEP programming through Utah State University.
Of the total participants, 45 respondents submitted feedback, with 28 reported the intention to use knowledge learned during the cohort. Of these 45 respondents, the following identified (number in parenthesis by topic or curriculum module) new knowledge to be applied in their daily work with farmers and ranchers: Business Structures (33) Accounting and Bookkeeping (32); Taxation (33); Cash flow management (29); Labor and Insurance (33); and Environmental Regulation (30).
Client testimonials received through program evaluation and feedback:
“I work directly with a farmer that I will likely be able to use some of this knowledge to help support. I also applied for a CDFA Farm to School grant that would focus on business development & technical assistance & if I win the funding, then I would definitely have an opportunity to use this knowledge in a broader way.” -Executive Director of farm-serving non-profit from Ventura County, CA.
“I provide a lot of 1:1 TA to producers on biz management and financial literacy so this will all be very relevant. In particular, this course made me realize that I need to get closer not only to farmers' business finances but their personal financial picture as well, in order to advise them in a truly holistic way.”-Director from Washington state farm non-profit.
“I like how Poppy [instructor] spoke on the intersectionality of finance, law, culture, history, and identity when it comes to running a farm business, especially small scale farming. Her explanation of the topics organized high level concepts into digestible lessons. As a novice in this field I greatly appreciated how she taught the class and felt that I could follow along without difficulty.” Manager from Virginia non-profit that specializes in small business lending.
Frances Andrews, of "Frances Andrews Books" has been a participant of this program beginning in 2023, and grown her involvement both within the training community generated by this project, and direct support of FarmLink clients as a consulting educator and technical assistance provider. A current project involves offering a new, advanced "Bookeeping in Practice" curriculum, and cohort. Currently, Francis is supporting project staff in prepare and facilitate group presentations on a monthly basis during the project period (est. January - July 2025) on curriculum around QBO bookkeeping adoption, and cash flow budgeting. She also offers open office hours on a monthly basis to support participants 1:1 in establishing or cleaning up their books, and quarterly close.
Attached is her written profile and testimonial. CA FarmLink_Profile_Frances Andrews
During the first period of this project, and its second year of hosting the program, FarmLink gained insight that there is a need to continue to facilitate professional development spaces like this in order to find more business service providers who are willing to learn about and work with agricultural businesses. This space also serves as a good way to meet those service providers and build working relationships that ultimately serve farmer’s needs. There is an opportunity to do research on the correlation between farm size (by product, scale and/or sales) and their perceptions on being able to afford working with service providers that ultimately makes their businesses more viable. Based on feedback and industry need, it would be ideal to pilot several more targeted sessions by areas of focus like tax, bookkeeping, business entity selection, succession planning and sunsetting a business.