Business Essentials

Learn where your money goes and how to make sense of it

This training package is designed to take the business skills of livestock producers to the next level. 

It builds on the knowledge gained in earlier training programs, such as MLA’s Business EDGE.

Participants will learn how to conduct detailed business analysis to help drive profit and productivity and to have greater control over their business. It is also designed to better prepare producers for dealing with accountants, banks, lending institutions and government authorities.

What you will learn

• the fundamentals of good bookkeeping
• how to calculate accurately your gross profit, gross margins, and net profit to understand performance
• how to use a cash flow budget and monitor monthly cash flow
• how to implement your own financial management system.

Designed to be delivered in five group sessions and one follow-up one-on-one session, this package can be delivered over five consecutive days or over two weeks or if need be, because of geographic location or trainer preference, over a longer period. 

Participants work with their own data on their own devices to ensure relevance to their business. 

Sign up for a Business Essentials PGS course now

Here are the registered PGS Business Essentials deliverers. Get in touch with your local deliverer to register your interest for a course and find out more.

Dollar Making Decisions

Making wiser on-farm investment allocations 

Most producers have a never ending ‘wish list’ of improvements to be made or items to be purchased for their farm. How do you decide which investment has the best return? Or what priority do you give to different investments? This package is designed to train you in applying a rational and repeatable process to weighing up on-farm investment decisions.

What you will learn

• the effect of capital allocation efficacy on farm business wealth creation
• the time value of money
• how to identify key sources of farm business capital and understand their differences
• how to identify key farm business activities competing for capital
• how to conduct, analyse and interpret a partial budget
• to differentiate between competing on farm investments
• how to conduct and interpret a sensitivity analysis to assess the threshold values of key assumptions whereby the investment is no longer viable.

Assessing the economic benefit of on-farm investment opportunities quickly and confidently is an important skill for farm managers focused on improving profitability. 

The returns generated from on-farm investments have a large influence on the operating returns of farm business over time. 

Typically, farm managers who generate high operating returns take a disciplined approach to decisions surrounding on-farm capital allocation. This approach requires understanding important concepts including:

• budgeting
• management accounting
• marginal analysis including partial budgeting
• risk assessment.

Sign up for a Dollar Making Decisions PGS course now

Here are the registered PGS Dollar Making Decisions deliverers. Get in touch with your local deliverer to register your interest for a course and find out more.