Kansas AgriTourism News

September 2005 Greetings! While the entire state has been pretty hot and dry for a long time, Kansas agritourism farms are moving steadily towards the fall season with enthusiasm! Many of us have been to the workshops, and we are doing our homework now preparing the promotion and publicity, so we have every reason to expect this to be the best year ever. One more thing you might want to be working on now is your application for one of the Kansas Agritourism Scholarships (see the article below.) The deadline for applications is October 30, and you know how busy you are going to be in September and October. Becky Walters Joel Wimer Right now is the time to organize a group to tour other destination properties, and put in for a scholarship to help defray the costs. It's also not too soon to look at the winter conferences and Expos, and start making your plans - especially if those plans might include a scholarship to help pay for your trip! Please feel free to contact me or Joel Wimer, our vice- chair, regarding the Kansas AgriTourism council. We'd love to learn how the council might help your business grow! Becky Walters, Chair for the Kansas AgriTourism Advisory Council

In This Month's Issue: Feature Destination: Harvest Farm, Turon, Kansas When You Must Borrow Money to Grow Your Business, Part III Kansas AgriTourism Scholarships

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This Month's Featured Destination:

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When You Must Borrow Money to Grow Your Business, Part Three

As we are either starting or expanding our direct farm marketing businesses,
the inevitable dilemma occurs:

"I don't have enough capital to do it right. Should I borrow, or should I just start small?"

Note: This is the third of a series of articles about this timely dilemma, based on a series of interviews with Dennis Lawson, who works with Kansas farms and ranches for Frontier Farm Credit. To read part one, click here.

In the first article of this series, we talked about selecting a lender with the same business strategies as yours, and about what kind of information your lender will need before considering your loan application. In the second article, we talked about “assets,” “liabilities,” and your “owner’s equity.” You can review these articles by going to http://www.kansasagritourism.org/ask/ask_home.htm, and scroll down to the articles section.

In this article, we are going to briefly look at the documents known as your “Income Statement”, which is also called by the more descriptive name, the “Profit and Loss Statement (P & L).”

The profit and loss statement is used to measure your revenues and expenses over a specified accounting period– usually one year. When reviewed line by line, the P & L helps you analyze where you are making money, and where you are not. For example, by identifying a loss category, you may determine whether it is a necessary expense in the course of doing business; or whether it is an aspect of your business that requires closer evaluation and redirection.

Together with the most recent balance sheet, which identifies your assets and liabilities at a given point in time, the P & L statement can be used to determine the tax liabilities and profitability of your operation. They also are primary tools in helping you and your loan officer evaluate your operation’s expansion potential, as well as to do some projections and analysis regarding your loan request.

Up to this point, we’ve been dealing with the known facts of your business operation, and you and your loan officer have been studying the concrete documentation of your assets and liabilities as presented in the balance sheet to date, and the Profit and Loss statement. Now it’s necessary to project these numbers into the future, and create a Cash Flow Projection for your business.

To read the rest of this article on cash flow projections, click here.

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Agritourism Scholarship-Think Beyond the Fall Harvest!

Even though it is just September, we want to remind you to look at the Calendar for this winter. Here are a few of the upcoming events you should be thinking about:

December 6-8	Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Expo
January 5-6	Southeast Regional Fruit & Vegetable Conference
January 6-8	KGGWA Annual Conference
January 9-16	NAFDMA Convention
January 16-18	Ohio Fruit & Vegetable Growers & Ohio Direct Agricultural Marketing
January 19-21	Mid-America Fruit Growers Assoc.
January 23-25	Indiana Horticultural Congress
January 25-28	Dude Ranch Assoc Convention
Jan. 31-Feb 2	Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Growers
March 5-7	Kansas Bed & Breakfast Assoc.

Have you given any more thought to applying for the Agritourism Scholarship? The Deadline for Applications is October 30, and you know how busy you will be in September and October.

$25,000 is available to help registered Kansas Agritourism operators attend conferences, seminars and educational tours, gain first-hand information regarding practices and techniques used by other agritourism vendors and develop nationwide relationships within the industry.

You should be planning your trip, and submitting your application!

P.S. if you know of other conferences that might be eligible, please drop us an email with the name, date, location, and website. When we all share ideas, everyone benefits!

Read about the Kansas AgriTourism Scholarships That Are Waiting For You!

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Funding for This Site Provided by

http://www.frontierfarmcredit.com