Business planning

It is important to develop a comprehensive business plan using a farm consultant, bank manager and accountant to help facilitate the process if necessary. This should also include full budgeting and financial planning to determine how the group will be funded and to assess the viability of the partnership.

When considering developing a collaborative venture it is important to have a good understanding of existing farm production costs in order to assess the possible cost savings and efficiency gains that a collaborative venture might make.

Not spending enough time to get important decisions right including issues of ownership of farm assets, capital investment required and appropriate business structure needed could prove to be costly further down the line.

Finally if things do go wrong it is important to have a pre-determined exit strategy which is fair to all parties, this will avoid any difficulties between group members.