The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops, and Staff - and Making a Profit Paperback – October 9, 2009

This is THE farm book I was looking for. Everyone else will tell you how to raise crops out in the field but very few are telling you how to manage that business in the farm office. That is what this book does.

For the beginning/want-to-be farmer this book is priceless!!! It answered many of our questions regarding what it means to be a farmer and helped us to develop the 'farm as a business' perspective, especially with respect to taxes, keeping track of farm income/expenses, plugging leaks, etc. The author presented a very simple and excellent method for keeping up with these necessary details. The example worksheets for budgeting/tracking the productivity of various farming ventures, discussions regarding the separation of personal and farm expenses/accounts, marketing strategies, etc. help to further effectively illustrate the author's points. Discussions regarding increasing the farm's assets versus investing outside the farm were useful for pointing out the importance of planning for retirement and recognizing that expenses are not investments, but simply expenses. We also appreciated the discussions regarding increasing efficiency (blocking tasks, making a calendar, scheduling time for important tasks, etc.), employee management (weekly meetings, multiple employees on big tasks, breaking up large tasks into smaller ones, rotating/mixing up hard and fun tasks in the same day, etc.), and business plan development (staying focused, keeping your goals in mind, dropping non-profitable activities, etc.). In short, the book is easy to read and flows nicely from one topic to the next. It is clearly written from a hands-on management perspective making it very practical and useful.

Wow, this was one of the best business books for a "small business owners approach" I have ever read. And I read a lot. This book is so spot on and truly educational for a small business owner, not just an "Organic Farmer" business handbook. If you are considering starting a business, this covers all the business operations side that can be adapted to any business. If you learn the lessons and approaches in this book, you will understand how to identify profitable profit lines within your various products and sales channels. You will be able to effectively manage your business instead of letting it manage you.As someone that has owned or run a number of small businesses, Big-4 consulted to Fortune 1000 organizations and a Sr. financial analyst forecasting over $1B for the US Navy technology programs with multiple designations and top-tier degrees, I can not recommend this book more highly than the review above.

the book gives good account on the finance on running the farm with good insight in managing cost and profit

I have found this book to be very helpful in starting my market garden business, it has given me a full prospective on farming for market as well as the business side of farming. There are many helpful hints on equipment as well as business strategies. The disc and spreadsheets are extremely helpful to getting started with your record keeping. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in starting there own business in farming, I have used it many times any will go back to it in the winter when planing my next seasons strategies. This was a wise purchase for me and that is why I gave it five stars.

For the beginning farmer, this book is an excellent resource. It's chock full of practical suggestions (based on the farmer's years of experience) and examples for keeping records on the farming enterprise. At this point I'm about half-way through the book and have not yet accessed the CD which is included, but I expect the remainder of the book and CD will be just as useful as the first half. Sometimes I feel "organizationally challenged" but with this book I do not have to "reinvent the wheel" and can make better decisions about my farm because I will know precisely where I stand with the finances.This book not only addresses finances, but also time-management issues which are just as important as the dollars and cents. The happiness factor is greatly enhanced when your life is in balance and you feel like you are reaching your goals. This book also addresses dealing with staff which is a huge topic in itself.Thank you, Richard Wiswall, for writing this book and saving me several hundred hours of my life trying to figure out how to balance the books and keep my sanity. You are as much of a hero to me as Joel Salatin is for his insignts and leadership in organic farming.

I bought this book at a pretty high price looking for some advice about profitability unique to organic farming. Unfortunately the title is misleading in that regard. The book is about the business aspect of farming in general and the author throws in the word organic now and then. For example, I would like to know about the costs specific to purchasing OMRI approved products for pest and disease control, none of which were mentioned.The author goes a little far afield in writing of accounting methods, investing and estate planning. Useful to know but there are plenty of really good books on those subjects.The book has some useful pearls but nothing unique.It's well written and a good read but it's not the best resource for somebody looking to start an organic farm.And the Amazon price is much higher than that for comparable books, especially when you buy the kindle version and don't get the companion CD.