ABOUT THE COURSE

Are you a business advisor who wants to help small farmers and fishers grow successful businesses? Join our community of practitioners in this introductory short course for business technical assistance providers. See Who should attend below. Join us October 3-November 14, 2023 for:

Evaluating and Supporting Farming, Ranching and Fishing Clients - an introductory short course for business advisers

Participants will learn how to apply our Resilience Self-Assessment, a comprehensive tool utilized in California and nationwide to assess the baseline business skills and practices employed by a farm, ranch or fish business. For business advisors serving farm and fish businesses, this tool helps guide their approach to support business owners in prioritizing which practices to establish and skills to enhance.

Topics will include: business entity selection, accounting, tax implications unique to small farms and ranches; assessing and securing land tenure, credit management, regulatory compliance and other risk mitigation strategies. Attendees get access to our “FAQ” on applying the Resilience Self-Assessment as a tool to support your work.

What you'll get out of this course

How do we best support farming and fishing entrepreneurs? Not sure how to address their questions? Not sure what questions to ask? This six-part series will enhance your approach to assisting small- and mid-scale agriculture and fishing businesses.

Learn what to expect while working alongside farmers, ranchers and fishers
Examine farm business development with our Resilience Self-Assessment, a tool that helps evaluate business health and resilience
Expand your professional expertise and network to make a significant impact on the success of farmers, ranchers and fishers

More About this Course

California’s small farms, ranches and fishing operations face unique challenges as businesses and entrepreneurs. Learn how to support their resilience. Guided by lead instructors and agricultural business experts, this series will share insights into the unique risk profiles of farmers, ranchers and fishers. It will also offer connections between peer advisors seeking to identify, and address, issues that might threaten the long-term viability of these businesses.

WHO IS THIS CLASS FOR?

We are looking for highly motivated service providers that want to enhance their strategic guidance to their agricultural clients. The course is open to professionals that serve, or would like to serve, farmers and ranchers. We strongly encourage the following types of professionals to apply:

Business Advisors such as employees of a Small Business Development Center or Women's Business Center or other nonprofit business assistance provider
Bookkeepers, Tax Preparers, EAs, CPAs
Realtors
Appraisers
Agricultural lenders
Insurance agents
Extension agents
Nonprofit staff

CLASS DATES

This 6-part online class will be held October 3-November 14, 2023 (skipping Tuesday Nov.7 for Election Day) with weekly, one-hour virtual sessions Tuesday afternoons from 12:00pm - 2:00pm. We will use the last 30 minutes of the scheduled time for optional peer to peer discussion/office hours.

PROCESS

Complete this interest form to express your interest and commitment in this program. California Farmlink is following up with applicants and will send you the registration link for the program.
Once you have filled out the questionnaire all applicants will go through a review process by California FarmLink.
California FarmLink will schedule one-on-one zoom meetings with those that meet the criteria above.
A Train the Trainer Participant Agreement will need to be signed.
A commitment of 5-6 classes is required.

If everything checks off thus far, please continue and apply by answering this series of questions. This will count as your Interested in Joining the Program Application.

PARTICIPANT CRITERIA

A qualified applicant will:

Answer all questions in this registration.
Be passionate about helping agricultural clients grow and thrive.
Demonstrate an interest in serving or growing their professional guidance of agricultural clients.

COST

This class is valued at $700, thanks to a grant* the course will be subsidized at $200 with option for a refund upon completion of all 6 sessions. If you need a scholarship please contact Asia Hampton, asia@cafarmlink.org.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATIONS

California FarmLink, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) with 23+ years serving the California agricultural community as a lender, land access specialists and business educator for an informative series on the “ins and outs” of providing specialized assistance to small farms. Focused on sustainable and organic agriculture as well as economic and environmental resilience. Our strategic initiatives include: Wealth Building, Resilience and Succession, and Equity and Conservation on Working Lands.

CAMEO's mission is to grow a healthy, vibrant, thriving environment for all entrepreneurs and start-up businesses by advancing the work of our statewide member network. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for all entrepreneurs, to build wealth and strong California communities. Our member organizations provide entrepreneurs with small and micro-business financing such as loans and credit, technical assistance and business management training. CAMEO members annually serve 15,000 very small businesses with training, business and credit assistance and loans. These firms – largely start-ups with less than five employees – support or create 35,000 new jobs in California. These very small businesses create a total of $1billion in economic activity. Federal taxes paid increased 35% over a five-year period. Local small businesses have a multiplier effect on their local economies that is twice that of big national chains.

RECORDED INFO SESSION FOR MORE DETAILS

CAMEO and California FarmLink hosted the Growing Successful Agricultural Business - Info Session on June 28, 2022. Review the meeting takeaways to learn what the course will cover, the participant criteria, class schedule, logistics, and more.

Info Session Recording

ABOUT THE LEAD INSTRUCTOR

Poppy Davis is a business and policy adviser to agricultural and food and beverage enterprises, and to nonprofits and local governments. She provides farmers and ranchers with training and technical assistance on issues such as business formation, land tenure, credit, taxation, liability, regulatory compliance, and value-added inventory. She also worked eight years at the USDA, most recently as the National Program Leader for Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. She holds a Juris Doctor from Drake University Law School, a Masters in Journalism from Georgetown, and a BS in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis. She is the author and architect of FarmLink’s “Resilience Self Assessment.”

Other members of FarmLink’s Lending team will also participate during the series, offering valuable perspective on how a CDFI like California FarmLink approaches capital access with small farm entrepreneurs operating across 35+ California counties.

"This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2022-38640-37490-WS3SI through the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under project number [WPDP23-010]. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture”

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.