Business Planning

Would you give a brief introduction of yourself and your operation?

My name is Jim Travis, I farm tree fruits in Southern Adams County with my son Mike. We grow wine grapes, Chardonnay and Vidal, and we also grow organic apples peaches and pears. Why did you write a business plan? I had never had a business before and so it really was a framework for my son and I'd put down on paper and discuss what we wanted to do first and how we thought we might do that but also then to work out the expenses and and how it actually fund the operation and also you know what kind of profits we might make or expect and then just how those things would work out. How did you use your business plan?

As I said we use it first to develop our idea on what the business would be, how we would operate it, how we would fund it, was it financially feasible, but then we also use that then to take it to several funding agencies, banks and some others, and try to get the funding that we would need, we bought land, equipment, trees, and posts and wire and all those things so it it supported our ideas and thoughts to others as we conveyed them. Do you regularly update your plan? Yes, we make plans on a five-year basis but they're sort of continually being evaluated, surprisingly the pet plans were making on a five-year bases are actually pretty good and pretty accurate and and since we took a lot of time to work out details of how much it would cost and what we would make they are pretty close so they've given us an idea of actually we're we're going and what it'll take to get to that next level, so yes we use five-year business plans and adapt them as we need to but that's worked out well. So you do still consult your plan? Oh yes in fact when my son and I are making plans or deciding to do something else, so we're gonna maybe think about a different direction we actually look at the plan, think through the plan about how that works because we know we spent so much time on the plan, it's a real framework helps to direct the business even if we decide to make some minor changes.

Is there anything else you would like to add concerning business planning?

Well I think it's a really good way to communicate, especially if you're working with somebody else but even even to yourself just to work out what you want to do exactly, how to do it because when you get into the business its details, and its specific, and you can't just have a lot of gray lines there's black and white on what your gonna do it how much it's going to cost so I think a plan helps you a lot in thinking through and being successful in the end really, on the business you're gonna start. Thank you! You're welcome