Workbook
Level 1 · Agriculture as Business
Work through these exercises with your own product, market and numbers. Review your answers with a mentor, a farmer group or a business adviser. Print this page to fill it in by hand.
Exercises in this level
- 1.1 · Describe your product and your buyer
- 1.2 · Talk to your customers
- 1.3 · Build your own cost sheet
- 1.4 · Risks and my responses
Part 1 · Farming as a business
Exercise 1.1 · Describe your product and your buyer
- Write down one product you grow, make or sell (or would like to).
- Write down who buys it today, or who you think would buy it. Be as specific as you can: a household, a market trader, a restaurant, a processor.
- Write down what that buyer cares about most when choosing where to buy.
Part 2 · Customers and markets
Exercise 1.2 · Talk to your customers
- Choose three possible buyers of your product and write their names or types.
- Prepare three questions for each. Use the table above for ideas.
- After talking to them, write what surprised you and what you will change.
Part 3 · Costs and prices
Exercise 1.3 · Build your own cost sheet
- Choose one product and one season or batch.
- Fill in the table above with your own items and amounts. Use real figures from your own records or from a quick check at the market.
- Divide the total cost by the amount you produced to find the cost of one unit. Compare it with the price buyers pay.
- Write down one cost you could reduce and one you may have forgotten.
Part 4 · Risks and records
Exercise 1.4 · Risks and my responses
- List the three biggest risks to your product or idea.
- For each risk, write one thing you could do to reduce it or to cope if it happens.
- Start a simple record: choose one notebook and write the first entry today.