In April, University of Maryland Extension Ag Marketing Program, in partnership with Future Harvest CASA, conducted a new seminar series titled “Wheels Up”/ a Maturing Business Assessment Program. The "Wheels Up" series is for farmers with 3 or more years of business experience. As their businesses have grown and matured, critical issues have surfaced that were never anticipated in the original start-up plans. They now know what their businesses strengths and weaknesses are, but not how to correct or improve their situation. Very often the timing of these growth decisions comes simultaneously with increasing demands of family, community, and/or off-farm employment.
The "Wheels Up" program is designed to help farmers identify the critical decision points in their business development continuum, anticipate personal and professional demands, and develop action strategies that will work best given the farmer´s individual situation and goals.
The program consists of four evening sessions amounting to 12 hours of class time plus "one-on-one" consultation support by appointment. Class components: revisiting mission and goals and handling change in a business, addressing production and human resource challenges, understanding what a financial statement can tell you, and developing diversified marketing strategies.
Due to facility space size, there was limited seating for this past April’s sessions. However, we received several requests for additional session opportunities. We are moving into a very busy time of the year for producers, so while we want to offer more “Wheels Up “ programs, we want to match when these sessions are offered with producers’ availability. If you’re interested in attending this business management series, please email me the preferred month and location that would be best for you. This is not a commitment to attend, but feedback for better planning of program dates and locations. Please email your response to gsmyers@umd.edu.
Thanks for your valuable input and time.
Sincerely,
Ginger S. Myers