Ready to turn your farm dream into a real business?
Start Your Farm Now is a practical business course for people who want to start, organize, and grow a farm enterprise with more clarity and fewer expensive mistakes.
This course walks you through the real-world decisions behind launching a farm business: choosing the right enterprise, understanding your market, planning your finances, forming your business properly, building your brand, and learning how to sell what you produce.
Instead of romanticizing the idea of farming, this course helps you look at the numbers, your lifestyle, your customers, your business structure, and the practical steps required to make the whole thing work. You’ll learn how to think through profitability, marketing, branding, planning, and the hard realities that many new farm businesses face.
By the end, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what kind of farm business fits you, what it will take to run it, and how to move forward with a stronger plan.
What's in the course:
Module 1: Entrepreneurship 101
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: The Reality of Starting and Running Your Own Business
Lesson 3: Not Knowing What You Really Want
Lesson 4: It Might Not Be a Fit Now
Lesson 5: The Family Falls Apart
Lesson 6: Running a Business That is Really a Hobby
Lesson 7: Poor Enterprise Selection
Lesson 8: Poor Market Selection
Lesson 9: Not Charging Enough
Lesson 10: Blow Up Financially
Lesson 11: Failure to Keep Records and/or Actually Look at Them
Lesson 12: Lack of Confidence
Lesson 13: Failing to Acknowledge How Hard This Really Is
Lesson 14: Not Taking This As Serious As You Need To
Lesson 15: Not Realizing, This Is A Lifestyle
Lesson 16: Focusing on Ideology, Not the Necessary Reality
Lesson 17: Poor Execution
Lesson 18: Poor Time Management
Lesson 19: The 10x Problem
Lesson 20: Obsessing on Specifics
Lesson 21: Too Much D.I.Y.
Lesson 22: Bad Business Partners
Lesson 23: The Relationship Falls Apart
Lesson 24: Life Gets In the Way
Lesson 25: Fighting Reality, Failure to Pivot
Lesson 26: Putting It All Together
Module 2: Whole Life Context
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Introduction
Lesson 3: An Overview of the Framework
Lesson 4: Where Do You Want to Go
Lesson 5: Where Are You At Now
Lesson 6: Why Do You Want to Go There
Lesson 7: Is It Just You Doing This
Lesson 8: What Do You Need to Create a Life Like That
Lesson 9: Putting It All Together
Module 3: Financial Planning For The Entrepreneur
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: What is Financial Planning
Lesson 3: What is the Financial Function of the Business
Lesson 4: Where Are You At Right Now in Terms of Savings
Lesson 5: Where Are You At Right Now in Terms of Debt
Lesson 6: What Are Your Current Living Expenses
Lesson 7: What Is Your Current Monthly Income
Lesson 8: Is It Enough or Not
Lesson 9: How to Increase Savings
Lesson 10: Creating a Business Budget
Lesson 11: Planning for Profitability
Lesson 12: Now Make Your Decision Based on Numbers
Lesson 13: Managing Expectations by Setting Success Metrics
Lesson 14: For The Now, But Think Long Term
Lesson 15: Other Considerations
Lesson 16: Don’t Blow Yourself Up Financially
Lesson 17: Putting It All Together
Module 4: Market Analysis
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Checking Out the Competition
Lesson 3: Potential Market Streams
Lesson 4: Competition is Good
Lesson 5: Your Existing Network
Lesson 6: Real World Proven Strategies
Module 5: Enterprise Selection
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Defining Your Farm
Lesson 3: Choosing an Enterprise, The Analysis
Lesson 4: Pros and Cons of Pastured Poultry
Lesson 5: Pros and Cons of Pigs
Lesson 6: Pros and Cons of Grassfed Beef
Lesson 7: Enterprise Math, Pastured Poultry
Lesson 8: Enterprise Math, Pork
Lesson 9: Enterprise Math, Grassfed Beef
Lesson 10: Enterprise Math, Potential Farm Profits
Lesson 11: Selecting a Butcher
Module 6: Forming and Organizing Your Farm Business
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Why This Process is Important
Lesson 3: Hobby or Business
Lesson 4: My Five Rules for Business Formation
Lesson 5: Formalizing Your Business, The Process
Lesson 6: Know Your Local Laws
Lesson 7: Create an Operating Agreement
Lesson 8: Choosing a Business Structure
Lesson 9: Obtaining Your Federal Tax ID
Lesson 10: Maintaining Regulatory Compliance
Lesson 11: Setup Your Business Bank Account
Lesson 12: Accounting, Finding A CPA
Lesson 13: Accounting, First Year To Do's
Lesson 14: Software & Technology
Lesson 15: Insurance Basics
Lesson 16: Transactional Sales
Lesson 17: Putting It All Together
Lesson 18: Putting It All Together
Module 7: Branding
Lesson 1: Starting to Think About Your Farm Brand
Lesson 2: 3 Base Principles
Lesson 3: What Goes Into Branding
Lesson 4: Where Does Branding Go, Websites
Lesson 5: Website & Email Capture
Lesson 6: Where Does Branding Go, Logos & Print Material
Lesson 7: Where Does Branding Go, Social Media & In Person
Lesson 8: Where to Go From Here
Module 8: Marketing
Lesson 1: What is Marketing
Lesson 2: 3 Keys to Marketing
Lesson 3: What Are You Actually Selling
Lesson 4: Understanding Your Customer
Lesson 5: Selling Through Your Story
Module 9: You
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: 8 Macro Lessons on Running A Business in Reality
Lesson 3: Failing is No Longer an Option
Lesson 4: 6 Problems You Will Probably Encounter & How to Deal with Them
Lesson 5: Building Multiple Forms of Capital
Lesson 6: The People In Your Life
Module 10: Transitionary Considerations
Lesson 1: Keys to Success
Lesson 2: Expectations
Expert Series
Video 1: Darby Simpson Farm Marketing
Video 2: Greg Judy, Profitable Methods Used to Heal the Land with Mob Grazing
Video 3: Greg Judy, The Economics for Leasing Land, How to Find It and Develop It for Maximum Income
Podcast Section
Podcast 1: VOC 228, Rob Javan Part 1
Podcast 2: VOC 229, Rob Javan Part 2
Podcast 3: VOC 230, Rob Javan Part 3
Podcast 4: VOC 231, Rob Javan Part 4
Podcast 5: VOC 232, Rob Javan Part 5
Guides and Resources
Broiler Cost Analysis spreadsheet
Choosing a Butcher guide
Choosing a Farmers' Market guide
Balance Sheet template for Mac
Balance Sheet template for Windows
Income Statement template for Mac
Income Statement template for Windows
There are 111 instructional videos totaling approximately 27 hours and 51 minutes.
There are also 5 podcast files totaling approximately 5 hours and 32 minutes.
Together, the course includes approximately 33 hours and 23 minutes of video and audio content, plus 7 guides and financial resources.
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