In four steps to a profitable business

Together with Q-point, Harm Wientjes from DLV Consultancy, organised a successful training ‘financial management’ for local farmers, agricultural advisors and professors in Rwanda. They developed a training programme where in four steps a profitable business can be realised. 

The roadmap

With the first step the farmers, mainly poultry farmers, look at their way of record keeping. Hereby awareness was created for the processes in their business. “With the awareness they can easily ascertain when something goes wrong and they can intervene directly. The results will improve because the business will perform better technically and a growth in size and income can be realised. It is also a precious way to compare with other local farmers. The farmers can learn a lot from each other”, explains Harm. 

The cost price analysis is the next step in the training course. The cost prices of the other participants were compared. The goal was to explain the cost price and the effect of a possible increase or decrease of different costs like feed and other animal-related costs. Together the participants thought of ways to decrease and keep the cost price as low as possible. Having control over your technical results, results in control over your cost price and thus being able to manage income!

The third step in this training was the long term budgeting. With a business plan the participants were stimulated to write down their goal, vision and plans. Harm: “With this the farmers got more insight in the feasibility of their possible investments. With a good plan they can make better decisions which will turn out to be profitable in the future.”

The last step is the realisation of the plans. “De previous steps made sure the farmers could make the right decisions. During the realisation of investments they should not lose sight of these plans. We keep a sharp focus on the progress versus budget.” 

Click on the picture for an enlargement of the poster.

Poster

The four steps are displayed on a big poster. “With this the farmers can memorize the four steps in an easy way during the daily running of their business”, explains Harm. “We use this concept together with Q-point on different subjects. Soon we will start with a comparable course in Kenya.”


 

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