Business Structure

Agribusiness Management events and meetings

Thinking about starting or expanding an agricultural or food-related business but not sure where to start? Book an entrepreneurial coaching session with The University of Maryland’s Entrepreneurial Coaching Team for farm and food entrepreneurs.

Archived Baltimore County Ag Insight newsletters.

Summertime and the season is busy. Planting, harvesting, marketing, coordinating employees, and dealing with customers leave little time in the day to prepare for the busy fall agritourism and direct marketing season. But, now is just the right time to plan ahead for the Fall “crunch” time.

Farmers are repeatedly advised to diversify into new enterprises in order to generate additional income. It’s not unusual for me to visit a farm that grows vegetables, fruit, has some livestock for direct marketing meats, chickens for eggs, offers agritourism events and farm tours, and is considering how to enter the craft beverage market. If diversification is really the business model for success, what does that mean for farmers?

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.

Business organization structures can provide many uses in agriculture, but the majority of Maryland farmers do not utilize one. Utilizing the proper one can help limit liability for the farmer, protect personal assets from business liabilities, and provide a mechanism to transition the farm to the next generation. Picking the right business structure can be a difficult proposition for a business owner.