Exploring Markets and Profits – Online Course

Testing the Feasibility of Your Farming Ideas

Have an idea for a farm enterprise but not sure if it’s feasible? This course will help you explore the potential markets and profitability of your ideas, picking up where BF 101: Starting at Square One left off. (You do NOT have to take BF 101 before taking BF 102).

Target Audience

Beginner – Aspiring farmers who are actively planning farm start-up. Beginning farmers in their first few years who are looking for some help exploring marketing, development of budgets, and tools to help achieve profitability. This is an intro-level course that is designed to be taken after BF 101. You do not have to take BF 101 before taking BF 102, however, you will likely get more out of BF 102 if you go into it with some existing knowledge of the concepts and terminology commonly used in business planning.

Course Objectives

This course will help you:

• Begin developing a business plan
• Explore parts of a marketing plan
• Explore market channels and concepts for selling your product
• Begin to develop enterprise budgets and understand the potential for profitability with selected agricultural products

Webinars

The bulk of the course happens on your own time, with discussions, readings, and assignments in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, webinars will be woven into the online interface of the course to allow you to meet on a weekly basis for 6 weeks each year to learn from presenters and ask questions in real time. If you miss one, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.

Webinars

Live instruction for the 2021-2022 season will begin on Thurs. Jan 13, 2022 from 7-8:30pm Eastern time, and continue for 6 weeks, with the final webinar on Thurs. Feb 17. While we encourage live attendance so you have the opportunity to engage with the presenters and ask questions, all webinars we will be posted in our online classroom for students to watch anytime. Once you have enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all materials indefinitely, and can return to participate in the live webinars as many times as you wish.