Farm Financial Management Boot Camp (August 2023)

Boot Camps are multi-day events limited to ten businesses or less that combine networking, learning, focused work time, individual consulting, and business pitches. They are designed to take you out of the day-to-day operations of your farm business and encourage focused, strategic business development.

Farm Boot Camp will address situations and scenarios unique to diversified farm businesses. It will give you the tools you need to build a more resilient farm business.

Boot Camp is right for you if:

• Your farm is profitable and you want to take its performance to the next level.
• Your farm’s market position and profitability are eroding and you know you need to adapt.
• Your farm has never reached profitability and you know things need to change.
• You need to raise money and know you need to get prepared to be successful.

Walk away with:

• A realistic and clear business model path that you can articulate to anyone who asks
• Financial systems and reports that will stand up to scrutiny by banks and investors
• A credible business plan with realistic assumptions about future growth
• A digital financial package to share with your stakeholders and support your fundraising

Notes and Logistics

We recommend that you register two people from your business so you can work together on course content in the afternoon. **Registration includes 2 people from the same business.**

Registering indicates your interest in attending a 4-day Boot Camp series, delivered in two 2-day sets:

• Part 1: August 1 and August 2
• Part 2: August 15 and August 16

About the Instructor

As Farm Outreach Specialist for FFI, Andy Larson works with entrepreneurial farm businesses to build farm financial management capacity and access the capital they need to grow. He brings his expertise in farm business and marketing, agricultural lending, and grantsmanship to Farm Boot Camp.

Andy’s background includes working as an Agriculture and Commercial Loan Officer at a community bank, providing commercial credit to family farms and small businesses in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. His portfolio included crop farms, dairy farms, and a wide variety of local food farms. Andy also worked in university extension in both Iowa and Illinois, providing programming on the business and marketing side of small farms, local foods, and sustainable agriculture. In addition, Andy grew up on a dairy farm, and now lives with his wife and three daughters on a small-scale poultry farm just down the road, where they produce free-range brown eggs for local restaurants, retail stores, and farmers markets.

Scholarships are available, learn more here.