The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: Maysie on January 21, 2019, 03:18:52 pm

Title: Business Plans for Smallholding
Post by: Maysie on January 21, 2019, 03:18:52 pm
We need to formally write up a business plan for our holding to focus our mind regarding the direction we intend to take and avoid the lonely trail down dead-ends which wont work for us financially. 

I have downloaded a few templates from the interweb, but really would not know a good template from a bad one, so does anyone have any help they could offer in terms of good templates they have used for a small farming/agricultural fledgling business?  Most of the templates/examples I have gathered are not related to farming/agriculture in any way (unsurprisingly). 

It will be the first time that I have written my own business plan, so any tips or advice to offer? 

This is for our own use only, so is not required to raise funds or anything similar.  Use will be purely a 'focus the mind' excercise, but we do want to have a decent shot at getting it as professional as we can. 

TIA.
Title: Re: Business Plans for Smallholding
Post by: doganjo on January 22, 2019, 05:26:32 pm
Have you tried the Business Gateway one - fairly simple I think -

https://www.bgateway.com/resources/business-plan-template (https://www.bgateway.com/resources/business-plan-template)

Basically
1. keep it simple
2. draft out a description of what you want to do on your smallholding, and what it consists of (Executive Summary)
3. State names of you, partner, family, whoever else will be working on the smallholding, and what assegts you bring to the project (Key Personnel, Skills, Equipment)
4. Draft out headings of what you would like to do (Vision or Mission Statement)
5. Lay out details of any marketing you've done or intend to do (Marketing)
6. Lay out a simple time plan (3 to 5 year Timeline)
7. lay out a simple financial cost and income plan(Financial Projections)

HTH
Title: Re: Business Plans for Smallholding
Post by: Maysie on January 24, 2019, 09:44:11 am
Thank you. 
Title: Re: Business Plans for Smallholding
Post by: dshine92 on August 28, 2022, 03:55:31 pm
[member=175813]Maysie[/member] - did you ever complete yours - would you be willing to share it with someone who is now in the position you were back in 2019?? 

We are just starting out and need to create a business plan to apply for a loan and grants.

TIA.

p.s thanks doganjo - using this BGateway template still seems the best one.