March 9, 2016

Holyoke Community College Kittredge Center Room 303, 303 Homestead Ave, Holyoke

CISA (Community Involved In Sustaining Agriculture) will hold a ten-workshop series on Reducing Risk & Increasing Profitability with Sound Decision Making starting in January. This series will provide farmers and business owners with sound business decision-making practices to reduce their financial risk. These workshops will provide tools for and examples of building decision making into the cycles of farm life to improve long-term profitability and sustainability. Examples in the workshops will be farm related, but the skills and methodology will be relevant to all businesses. Participation in the whole series is encouraged, and to be eligible for free one-on-one consultative support, you must attend three workshops and be a cohort meeting participant.

Dinner will be served at each session. The cost to attend the series is $90 for Local Hero members, or $18 for each individual workshop. The non-member fee is $110 for the series, or $20 for each individual workshop. Register online at buylocalfood.org or contact Devon Whitney-Deal at [email protected] or (413) 665-7100. If cost is a barrier to your participation please feel free to contact Devon to discuss options as we want everyone to be able to get the training they need to effectively operate their business.

Business Decisions You Can Live With:
When farms assess new enterprises, investments, markets, or products, they need to consider many factors, including how the new activity will impact personnel needs, family life, seasonal schedule, and existing enterprises. In addition, farmers also need to assess and plan for new risks that may arise as a result of the new activity. This workshop will discuss the broader context of business decision-making and include a panel of farmers, Wally Czajkowski– Plainville Farm, Allison Landale– The Bars Farm, and Sorrel Hatch– Upinngil Farm, that have extensive experience making a great number of business decisions throughout their years of operation. They will share the broad implications of business decisions they have made, giving participants examples of how they identified and weighted risks, challenges, and opportunities on their farm.

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