Registration for the 2019-20 winter is now closed.  For more information about future classes, email jed@farmsmartmaine.com.  Thank you!
This winter, give yourself the time and space to think about where you're running to.

"We're always running, running, running, and sometimes I just want to stop and really think about where we're running to." One of the farmers I work with made this comment to me last spring, and it struck me as a sentiment that's resonant with many of my other clients as well.
If you're craving the time and headspace to reconnect to the reason you got into farming in the first place while brushing up on your business skills, this winter's edition of the NxLevel Farm Business Planning course is designed specially for you.

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Over the course of six winter sessions, you will get a chance to connect with other experienced farmers in a low-key environment while picking up some new business management skills. This course will help you to:

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• Reconnect with your "why" that got you into farming in the first place.
• Establish/revise your vision statement, AKA "Where you want to be."
• Brush up on your bookkeeping, financial, and personnel management skills.
• Determine which parts of your business are helping you toward your vision - and which are not.
• Restrategize your branding
• Develop a plan to to get you to your vision.

When and Where Does the Course take place? The course takes place in Augusta, at the Maine Department of Agriculture offices.
The Schedule is as follows:

• Session # 1: Business Planning Basics, Purpose & Vision
• Session #2: Keeping Better Books and Understanding How To Read Them
• ​Session #3: How to Discover Where You're Making (or losing) Money
• Session #4: Marketing
• Session #5: Cultivating Your Farm Team
• Session #6: Your Strategic Plan for Growth, Investment, Finance, and Retirement.

All class take place from 9-3:30 PM. Lunch is provided.
Who Should Take this course? This course is designed for farmers with at least 2 years' of experience who are ready to restrategize their farms' business plan.
Who Should Not Take this Course? People who are just starting their farms will not be able to take full advantage of the course material. Maine is lucky to have many good business planning options for beginning farmers, including the "So You Want to Farm in Maine?" course offered by the Cooperative Exension and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners' Farm Beginnings course.
FSA Certified. If you need to attain Borrower Training Credit in order to obtain financing from the Farm Service Agency, look no further! This course is FSA certified to provide Borrower Training.
Remote participation available. While all six sessions will take place live in Augusta, you can participate in one or all of them remotely via any internet-linked computer. Recordings of each class will also be available to all participants.
A la carte registration available too. Don't want to sign up for all six sessions? You can sign up for just the ones you want to attend as well.
Cost is $275 per farm. Up to 2 people from each farm can attend each class.

What farmers have said about previous editions of this course:
"Well worth the time and money, wish would have taken it when first started farming. . . Course is informal with like minded students and instructor. Therefore discussions are relevant and enlightening, as opposed to standard course where applications are more standardized."

​"It is a very worth while course and every farmer should have these business skills."

Got questions?
Click here to contact Jed.