How to Business

In the past people traded with whatever goods they had. But these days we can't conduct business without money - our income, writes Susan Pletts.

Budgeting is knowing how much money goes in and out of your business, and cash flow shows when this will occur, writes Susan Pletts.

Working without a budget is like swimming in a rough sea with no life saver – you’re sure to drown, writes Susan Pletts.

Measuring your land will tell you how much of a crop you can plant and how much livestock you can keep, writes Susan Pletts.

We can't escape maths, so learn to love it, because it's something you can't do without when it comes to running your business successfully, writes Susan Pletts.

Bankers and people involved in finance use many fancy words, and knowing what they mean is necessary if you want to make money, writes Susan Pletts.

Many emerging farmers struggle when working out how much to charge for their produce to cover costs and make some money too. Susan Plett's lends a hand.

An important part of your business plan is describing where and how the product produced on the farm is to be sold and the prices that will be achieved.

A farmer's production plan, describing the farm’s resource potential, the type of enterprise, planned production output, and the existing output is an important part of a business plan.

There are many complicated financial topics that concern all farmers, from pay as you earn (PAYE), value added tax (VAT), provisional taxes, income tax, management accounts and financial statements.

With farming profitability under pressure, it often happens that a farmer works all year to produce a crop to sell, but at the end of the season does not have enough money to repay the production loan.