Congratulations on your interest in starting your own agribusiness! Farming is an exciting and challenging career and new farmers require a broad range of skills be successful. Farming as a business is much more than just production. In order to be successful, proper business management is critical to ensure financial viability, desired mission impact, preferred lifestyle, and a good business reputation.
Business management can be overwhelming to new business owners who tend to take on many of the management functions on their own. At GoFarm Hawaiʻi we’ve been advising agribusiness owners for over 14 years and we’ve learned that being part of a training program with a cohort of others and/or seeking one-on-one advice from programs like our own is a vital component of success for most beginners. We’ve included links to our program and others that provide support at the end of this section and throughout the Guidebook.
As an agribusiness, you will need to think about the following business functions:
- Business Planning
- Defining goals and your business model
- Identifying and negotiating land options and related infrastructure
- Establishing your business
- Knowing resources and developing networks
- Production management
- Developing needed skills and resources
- Production planning and crop scheduling
- In-field research and labor/yield tracking
- Financial (accounting, financing, taxes)
- Ensuring financial feasibility
- Developing accurate and up-to-date records
- Sales/marketing
- Developing consistent and purposeful efforts to increase customer value and revenues
- Establishing markets, and building relationships
- Creating efficient delivery and superior customer service skills
- Regulations/compliance
- Ensuring compliance with construction, land, labeling, food safety, organic, pesticide, taxes, labor laws
- Human Resource Management
- Personnel decisions
- Health and safety
We hope we have addressed many of these functions within this Guidebook or pointed you in the right direction towards seeking additional information or assistance.
While much of the information in this Guidebook is relevant for agribusinesses in general, the focus is on traditional crop producing farms and value added producers. We understand that the industry includes ranching, livestock, forestry/logging, nurseries, etc. and have included some potential resources for those sectors of the industry in the “Additional Resources” section below.
Business Resources
GoFarm Hawaiʻi AgBusiness: https://gofarmhawaii.org/gofarm-business-services/
Hawaiʻi Small Business Development Center: https://www.hisbdc.org/
The Kohala Center: http://kohalacenter.org/business
Additional Resources
Hawaiʻi Beef Industry Council: https://www.hawaiibeef.org/the-beef-story/raising-cattle-in-hawaii
Hawaiʻi Dept. of Agriculture Swine Task Force Report: https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Appendix-C.pdf
Hawaiʻi Pork Industry Association: http://hawaiipork.org/
University of Hawai‘i – College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Publications: https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/site/BrowsePubs.aspx
Hawai‘i Forest Industry Association: http://www.hawaiiforest.org/index.php
Hawai‘i Floriculture and Nursery Association: http://hawaiisflowers.com/