For the first time, Water Street Solutions took part in the Top Producer Seminar in Chicago as a sponsor.  We enjoyed visiting with the innovative growers who attended.  Many of the seminars focused on the financial aspects of the business, from evaluating crop insurance options to getting your financial house in order -- even a look at what makes bankers nervous.  In the next few days we'll post more information from the meeting.  You can also find more at www.TopProducer-Online.com.

It's important to financially manage your farm using an accrual method of accounting.  It helps you get a better vision for your financial success or failure out of a cropping season.  That's different than the way you manage financially on a calendar year for tax reporting purposes.  Chip Nellinger finishes his conversation with KRVN's Ken Rahjes about the key parts of a financial analysis.

Jan 25 2010 More About Financial Analysis - Nellinger.mp3 (3.37 mb)

Making your way through agriculture these days is a little like navigating through some town you've never been to before.  If you were suddenly plopped down in the middle of a foreign city, it would be nice to have a good map, or maybe a GPS device that spoke English.  Now that you've found yourself plopped down in the middle of farming, 2010 style, a really good "map" is a financial analysis.  It can help you understand where you are, where you'd like to go, how long that might take, and the best ways of getting there.  Since we're on a travel theme here, I'll let Chip Nellinger and KRVN's Ken Rahjes be your guides for the rest of this discussion.  Click on the link to hear their discussion about the workings of a financial analysis.

Jan 18 2010 Why Do a Financial Analysis - Nellinger.mp3 (1.93 mb)

You've set goals for your business in the past, but maybe that didn't seem to get you where you wanted to go.  Were your goals SMART?  Did you have a BHAG?  There are some pointers to make goal setting work for you, including the incorporation of those two acronyms.  Dean Heffta shares these with KRVN's Ken Rahjes.

Jan 11 2010 Goal Setting Continued - Heffta.mp3 (1.93 mb)

Want to build a successful 2010?  Now's the time to start with some serious goal setting.  Dean Heffta talks with KRVN's Ken Rahjes, outlining a way to go about this.  One of the first steps, he says, is evaluating how things went in 2009.

Jan 4 2010 Goal Setting - Heffta.mp3 (1.50 mb)