A key part of the support and its success of Profit Planner over the last few years has been the delivery of workshops and training.

Workshops and training have provided many learnings.

Here are some of the feedback highlights:

This is the feedback from a typical workshop

COMMON ISSUES FACING HORTICULTURAL BUSINESSES

“These are the critical issues facing our business…

• Scale of business – need to reduce overheads
• Margin squeeze
• Imports and globalisation
• Dealing with adverse weather
• High cost of money
• The need to provide better information to our key stakeholders – family members and banks
• Dealing with risk
• Staff – access to skilled labour
  
  

KEY OUTCOMES FROM ATTENDING WORKSHOPS

By attending the workshop we gained the following outcomes – we were provided with the following:

• Tools to deal with key issues
• Shared knowledge and expertise to consider issues
• Understanding of new software program and its use/ benefits”
  
  

COMMON LEARNINGS FROM ATTENDING WORKSHOPS

Participants have reported the following learnings from workshops

KEY LEARNINGS

BLOCK PROFITABILITY

• Aim to be a profitable grower not necessarily the best grower
• Better understanding of looking at costs more closely
• Business - using profit planner to evaluate costs/ profit in my business
• Removing unprofitable blocks
• The value of knowing costs & anticipating future costs/ returns

CONFIDENCE & CHANGE

• Be prepared to change fast
• Felt more confident having attended the workshop
• Need to spend time away to plan our business change

DECISION MAKING

• Doing home work on decisions
• Getting advice on decision making
• Carry out cost structures & financial returns
• Tools to help make decisions

IDENTIFY POTENTIAL EFFICIENCIES

• Efficiencies - Profits - Decision Making
• Efficiencies
• Concentrate on improving businesss efficiencies
• Use of labour efficiently
  

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

• Better understand financial data
• Better way of doing things
• Perhaps its not all doom & gloom
• Spend time working ON your business
• Using data for use to access capital
• Work with what you have got
  

THE IMPORTANCE OF MEASURING & MANAGEMENT

• Measure where you are making loss & profit
• Measuring your business - costs & returns
• Need to measure business performance
• Management of orchard
  

RELATIONSHIP WITH BANKS & THE NEED TO PRESENT

• Banks - collect data to present to the banks annually
• Have a good relationship with banker

BUSINESS & SUCCESSION PLANNING

• Important to have a business plan
• Flexible short term plan
• Have a strategic plan
• How to model Statistic
• Implementing strategies
• Planning processes looking forward
• Profitability/ sustainability
• Understanding current opportunities & threats to our industry
• Develop systems
• Succession plan
• Succession planning (important)

SYSTEMS DRIVE CHANGE

• Systems will drive change
• Sustainability
• Training

MANAGE RISK

• Manage risk
• Production
• Marketing
• Financial
• Human resource
• Legal

ASSESS OPPORTUNITIES

• Cost benefit
• Capacity
• Finance