Business administration and country farming encompasses all aspects of running a successful agriculture enterprise. It involves identifying consumer demands that the farm can satisfy and determining the best way to mix basic resources like labor, land and capital, to maximize the return. It also involves making decisions that balance economic, environmental and social considerations as well as addressing regulatory and Agritourism challenges.
The development of an innovative big idea and creating and practicing an “elevator pitch” are essential first steps to becoming an agricultural business leader. Next, create an action plan for your business that explains how to translate the big idea into reality. Then, you must identify and analyze the agribusiness risks that could impact the plan. Find a financing solution that best meets the needs of your business.
In addition to planning for the future, effective farm managers are constantly working to evaluate the efficacy of current practices, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of new technology. They should be able to obtain and interpret information quickly. This includes inputs from other farmers, extension staff and private agribusiness firms as well as research workers and their friends. They must also be able to think in a creative manner and conduct mini-trial and error experiments.
Budgets are an important tool for analyzing the business of a farm, but their reliability can be limited due to the high levels of uncertainty. Budgets should be supplemented with probability distributions for weather events as well as price. This way, the risk to the operator is assessed and the impact of various options can be analyzed more efficiently.