National Farm Viability Conference

To decide if a business idea is good, we generally calculate its return on investment. Yet in doing so, we make the implicit assumption that our cash at hand will always be sufficient to get us through periods of low revenue. That is quite risky, especially in the food sector where investment return cycles are long and seasonality is important. Everyday, food businesses close shop, not because their long-term growth was slow or their business idea wasn’t strong, but because they faced unexpected cash crunches. The goal of this workshop is to help food businesses build resilience by learning to surf the choppy waters of cash flow. We will review techniques to design cash flow models, project different types of revenues and expenses, and calculate key indicators such as minimum cash in hand, need-based coverage ratio, and cash runway. We will also discuss how to factor in expansion ideas like hiring staff or buying equipment, creating scenarios that can be compared based on cash flow.

Learning Objectives:
-Learn how to monitor their cash flow efficiently
-Understand how to measure the true risk associated with business viability
-Understand how to build contingency against unexpected cash crunches.