Planning your entry

There might be better or worse times to start your transition or new farm enterprise.  Starting too soon can cause difficulty if you haven’t worked through the feasibility of your idea, learned production and pest management techniques, identified a market or accumulated sufficient reserves to address cash flow needs.  Potentially viable enterprises often fail, not because they aren’t a good idea or for lack of effort, but because of a strategic or operational challenge that in hindsight could have been addressed with additional planning, agreements, investment, training or partners. 

The Organic Path provides a wide variety of areas to assess your readiness and construct a checklist of required skills, plans and assets.  These tools will help you answer questions like:

• This idea is big in California, but are maritime consumers ready for it?
• I have the money to buy a farm, but should I start my own farm now or should I work as an apprentice for a year?
• I can plant and grow this crop, but do I have the knowledge and tools to deal with a potential disease outbreak or weed infestation?
• I know what equipment I need.  I can afford it.  But what will I do when it breaks down?
• Looking at my cash flow statement, I won’t be bringing in any revenue until late in the season.  I won’t actually break even until year 3.  Do I have the cash reserves or off-farm work to carry me through that period? 
• Do I have enough time to balance both off-farm work/farming?

Next page