Comprehensive planning and major steps

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Chances of success for any business are greatly increased when attention is first directed to a comprehensive plan. When a land use plan is made for any new farm the land use planners should design a comprehensive planning. If financial assistance is necessary from bankers, trade creditors, or investors, their first request will be to see the total plan. With it they can visualize the creditworthiness of the farm.

There is no one sequence of steps in planning that is agreed upon by all authorities in the field. The most important thing in planning even a small farm is that all phases of its operations must be considered. The land surveyor planning a new farm should have very definite ideas about profits, financing, accounting, records, merchandising plans, location, market and customers, general method of operation, policies, advertising and promotion, amount and type of expenses, break-even-point, legal form of management, and inventory valuation methods, among other factors.

The desired income approach to the entire planning process suggests that the land use planner's first question should be, "How much profit do I expect to receive from this farm in return from investing my time, and money in it?" This approach is based on the conviction that this question has been neglected much too often by new farm planners. No commitments, contracts, or obligations relative to a new farm should be undertaken without a clear idea of what profits are possible over at least the first year of operations.

The more we know about the circumstances around us, the better we can prepare the farm to protect itself against different unexpectedness.

Using the desired income approach one should take into consideration important steps in planning. To complete a projected income statement the land use planner should determine what profit he wants from this farm, recognizing the time he will give and the investment he will have.

With the profit figure clearly in mind, it is possible, using statistics that are abundantly available, to calculate the production volume that is necessary to produce that particular profit.

It is also necessary to survey and test the market. The land use planner should involve close study of the production needs of the farm and make proper decisions on how they are to be met. Here he decides whether to rent or buy the farm, whether to buy delivery trucks and on what terms. He should also decide whether to hire a delivery service or eliminate such service at all.

The land use planner is to study the location and the particular site chosen for specific characteristics. Too many small farms are located in space without any analysis of the suitability of that space as a location for the specific type of farm planned. Planners should not only study the characteristics of the legal forms of organization, they should also seek out the true management advantages. Merchandising plan should be also taken into account. Merchandising is a broad term. It is popularly known today as "the total marketing concept". It covers many things – plans for presenting products to customers, lines of products, sales promotion plans, and other associated activities. An adequate system of land uses should be established. Proper land uses are, essential to decision making by the land use planners.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27