The Farmer's Office: Tools, Tips and Templates to Successfully Manage a Growing Farm Business

Good information, but focuses a lot of famer’s Market type/organic farmers. (Aka borderline hobby farmers in my opinion)I expected it to be more for a typical grain operation where you are using an agricultural operating note. This book refers a lot to having “in town” jobs and business loans, neither of which a full time farmer would actually have.

This is a MUST HAVE book for anyone beginning or already established in the Market Gardening or Farming industry. No one likes the "book work" that has to be done to run a successful business, but Julia Shanks explains and shows you the best way to streamline this part of your business so it isn't so daunting. I wish I had had this book when I was doing market farming. It would have been a great help for me. Keep in mind that if you purchase this book for your business the price is tax deductible for your Educational Materials. Do yourself a favor and invest in this book. You won't regret doing so.Marilyn Batzel IsonThe Farm-to-Table Lady

Purchased this as a supplemental book to a Sustainable Farming class I was taking through UMass Stockbridge. Came in very handy and filled in where the required text lacked. Used as a resource for my business plan for the class as well as for our farm. I purchased the actual book which came with a disk of files that have been very helpfull. I don't have to reinvent the wheel, just tweak it.

In my work with farmers and food producer businesses, helping them to understand the story their financials are telling them, I've found The Farmer's Office to be the best resource material available. Shanks strikes just the right tone and has provided exactly the right content *in* ton the page while including more resource material online and in her webinars.I've used The Farmer's Office with farmers in individual consulting work as well as in workshops and, each time, this book has garnered praise from my clients.Whether you're a farmer or value-added food producer, or if you're someone who advises farmers and producers, you need this book in your resource library.

With her book The Farmer’s Office, Julia Shanks is transforming the American food system. It’s all well and good to understand the problems with the mass corporate takeover of edibles. And it’s important to know that local and sustainable sources for nourishment are the way to creating a better ecosystem for our bodies and our planet. It’s terrific to have knowledge of the nuts and bolts of how to feed, fertilize, and grow such farms. But none of that matters if these entities can’t pay the bills; if they go bankrupt and die. Enter Julia Shanks. Sustainability must also mean financially sustainable. Shanks gets into the down and dirty of spread sheets and numbers and figures that are critical to small and local farmers’ success. And she does it in a readable, enjoyable way that is sure to win over even the most number-reluctant of earthy-crunchy do-gooders, who might prefer that capitalism disappear. The early part of the book gives solid, specific tips and techniques for using Quickbooks and other tools to get a farmer’s books in order. But it’s the second part of The Farmer’s Office where Shanks really gives the golden eggs. Once the figure’s foundation is in order, Shanks demonstrates how good orderly accounting can help shape better decision-making and real farm and food leadership. In her chapters “Digging into the Numbers and Beyond” and “Growing Your Business,” Shanks is able to take farm owners to the place they’ve been longing for: freedom to grow and enjoy the fruits of the freedom provided by a truly sustainable farm, including financial sustainability. This is the final piece of the food revolution we’ve all been waiting for — farmers and consumers alike. Thank you Julia!

Julia Shanks has written a fantastic book to help farmers be profitable and continue to grow food in a sustainable way.

One of the best books I've ever bought. Helped me a lot figure out what I needed to do to set up my farm.

I completely love all of the contents of this book! It is so detailed about every step you need to take to get your farm up and running and be successful! I wish I had this book a very long time ago! I would be so much closer to getting off ground than I am now! AWESOME!!!

Great book!! It's laid out well and in terms you can understand. It is geared more towards market farming, not grain farming, but the principles are the same. Recommend it.

The farmer's office is a must for any farm library. The book walks you through not only the bookkeeping concepts but also the thinking behind them and illustrates the concepts with good examples.

Not a great book. Templates are not usable. I returned this.

Easy reading. Much helpful to get me started and motivated to do my basic accounting duties!