CFO
Checking your Financials more Often
What is the CFO Program?
The CFO program originated by request from a couple of producers who felt they were just not getting a good handle on their operation until the end of the year when it was too late to make any changes. Their farms had grown so much, so fast, they were realizing that they couldn't manage it the same way they always had.
The program is designed to put you in charge of your financial risk . Most producers hire a crop consultant to help manage their production risks, a marketing consultant to help manage their price risk and now it's time to hire a financial consultant to help manage your biggest risk. After all, you can't go broke if you always make money.
How Will CFO Help Me?
We're not looking to run the financial side of your business, but rather help you to take control of it yourself. Through the CFO program, you will have an up-to-date cash flow through out the year, an evolving cost of production estimate before you start marketing your crop for the year and a Farm Financial Consultant on your farm 4 times a year for those odds-and-ends sort of questions like:
- What crop insurance option is right for me?
- Should I buy or lease a combine?
- What farm bill option should I take?
- Can I afford to buy that land?
Our job is to put numbers to your questions so you can make a good decision knowing the financial impact on your farm.
Who Should Participate?
The CFO is not
a right fit for everyone. The information you get out is only as good as the information you put in. To benefit the most, you must have up-to-date financial records and a willingness to stay on top of your finances.
The CFO program is really designed for two types of producers: those who have the skills to prepare the financial documents, but lack the discipline to sit down and do it, or those who really don't understand what it takes to gather the information or prepare the documents. Nothing is wrong with either type, it just means some extra help is needed ot manage your farm.
What Do I Need to Do?
Each visit will be 4-6 hours in length. The first visits are always the longest and those extra "odds-and-ends" determine the length of the others. It is our goal that neither you or the Fianancial Consultant will have much work outside of the visits. The cash flows and cost of production will be figured on site and printed for you before we leave. The types of things we will be asking you to have prepared would be:
Your planned acres/production
For any contracts made to date
Cost of inputs planned/actually made
Capital purchases planned
How often will we meet?
There will be 4 on farm meetings each year. These meeting are scheduled around planting and harvest seasons to accomodate your schedule as much as possible. In general, the meetings would be:
Pre-Harvest
Year-End
Pre-Planting
There's no wrong time to start your CFO program.
The sooner you have the information you need, the sooner you can start to control your farming operation.