Navigating Your Ag Business: From Stress to Success
Navigating Your Ag Business:
From Stress to Success
An online course designed to support farm businesses to make decisions, take action to move their farms forward, and reduce the farm members’ stress
Navigating Your Ag Business: From Stress to Success is an online course designed to support farm businesses to make decisions, take action to move their farms forward, and reduce the farm members’ stress.
What will I learn in this course?
You will learn how to:
- Prioritize your current unique stressors
- Select which financial camp you are in
- Develop your vision and goals for the farm and family
- Design an action plan to address your identified stressor and reach your vision and goals
Course overview
The course follows a three-step process by answering three questions: 1) Where is the farm now? 2) Where do you want the farm to be, and 3) How do you get there?
The course provides a mix of lectures, videos, homework assignments, de-stressing activities, and live-virtual group discussions. It provides participants with a framework to identify your current stressors, evaluate your financial position among three “camps”, develop your vision and goals for your farm and your family, and develop an action plan to address your identified stressors to reach your goals.
Activities include Money Habitudes, gathering information about the history of the farm and how it is currently operated, collecting financial information for analysis, conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats), exploring participants’ visions for the farm, and developing next steps.
The 6 modules
- Module One: Where is the farm now?
- Module Two: Live zoom session #1
- Module Three: Financial viability
- Module Four: Where do you want the farm to be?
- Module Five: Live zoom session #2
- Module Six: How do you get there?
Navigating your Ag Business: From Stress to Success registration has closed for the January 2024 session.
For information when the next session begins, please fill out the course waitlist form below!
Frequently asked questions
How much does this course cost?
The 2024 course is grant-supported and free of charge. Future courses will have a fee of approximately $150/Farm (farms can have up to 5 members participate in the course for this fee).
Who should register for this course?
Farmers who are considering a change, faced with a big decision, or farmers who want to carve out time to plan for the future of their business and need an accountability structure to commit the time to plan.
Can I register at any time?
The course opens on January 1, 2024. There is approximately 2 – 3 hours of work in Module 1 to complete to be fully prepared for the Friday, February 2, 2024 Live Zoom session. Materials will be mailed to participants. Early registration is suggested so that these materials will arrive in time for participants to start and complete Module 1 before Feb. 2.
Approximately how long does the course take to complete?
The course runs from January through March. The self-paced work takes approximately 10-15 hours over the three months. There are two live Zoom sessions that will be 1 ½ hours each. There are optional “office hours” in February on various financial analysis topics. And a one-to-one Zoom meeting for farms to discuss their top priority issues with a facilitator.
What materials will I need to complete this online course?
You must have internet access. A camera and microphone for the Live Zoom sessions would be beneficial, but are optional.
You will receive a hard copy of the course manual. This manual has the worksheets and other materials the facilitators will ask you to complete.
Other software that will be used in this course:
- Adobe Reader: Download the latest version of Adobe Reader to view PDF (portable document format) files. Note: Do not select the optional offer for McAfee Security Scan Plus.
- Word Processor, Presentation, and Spreadsheet Software: Choose from the following options:
- Microsoft Office (free for UW-Madison students through Office 365 portal; for PC or Mac)
- Google Docs (free cloud service; web browser-based)
- OpenOffice (free download; for PC or Mac)
Is this online course accessible for people who require special needs or services?
Yes. UW-Madison has specific accessibility requirements regarding online content, both to benefit learners and to comply with the law. We have designed the Navigating Your Ag Business: From Stress to Success online course content to meet those requirements.
Who should I contact if I have more questions?
For more information, contact Joy Kirkpatrick at joy.kirkpatrick@wisc.edu or 608-263-3485.
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This material was developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection Farm Center.
This material is based upon work supported by USDA-NIFA under Award Number 2020-70028-32728.
