Business management
Plant a seed and watch it grow…
Agricultural businesses are vital to North Carolina’s continuing success and prosperity. Agriculture is North Carolina’s top industry, accounting for roughly $68 billion in state revenue – more than 20 percent of the state’s income. Farmers, producers and other agricultural-related professionals account for 17 percent of the N.C. workforce.
N.C. State University’s Program for Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture has compiled a multitude of business management resources on this site to help you maintain your agricultural business and to ensure a flourishing future for North Carolina agriculture as a whole. Please contact us if you would like more information.
New Resources
Direct Answers for Direct Marketing
Download PDF (25 MB)
*Large File: May Take A Few Moments To Download
Understanding direct marketing methods is vitally important to growers exploring alternative enterprises. Direct marketing requires not only researching your market but also developing skills in entrepreneurship.
The information provided within includes tools to assist your clientele in making decisions that will allow them to turn their ideas into fruitful enterprises.
The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Grant funded this resource to answer questions about direct marketing. For more information, please contact Gary Bullen or Ed Estes
Business Development Tools for Producers & Growers - Online tools for evaluating new agricultural business ideas
Interested in building or expanding an agricultural business? Your Cooperative Extension agent can review with you a new series of business development files that are designed to assist producers like you in your agricultural business endeavors.
Your agent will walk you through a step-by-step evaluation of your business plans and help you determine the long-term feasibility of the project. N.C. State University’s agricultural business development expert, Gary Bullen, developed this information to evaluate each aspect of building an agricultural business, from market and competitor analysis to legal and insurance considerations. Contact your Cooperative Extension agent.
Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture Newsletters
Listed by topic and issue date.
One-Stop Shop for Commodities, A to Z, including Enterprise Budgets
ENTERPRISE BUDGETS
Enterprise budgets help you determine the potential cost and returns associated with a crop or livestock enterprise. Below you will find budgets for a large number of specialty enterprises. Some of the budgets are specific to North Carolina, but most are from other parts of the U.S. and Canada. If a budget does not fit your particular situation most can be updated or modified. We provide assistance to North Carolina Cooperative Extension faculty to modify or update budgets to make them applicable to North Carolina circumstances. North Carolina Cooperative Extension faculty should contact Blake Brown, blake_brown@ncsu.edu, for more information.
NCSU Enterprise Budgets Budgets tailored specifically to North Carolina circumstances.
Agricultural Commodities from A-Z
Budgets for a large variety of specialty enterprises from around the the US and Canada listed in alphabetical order. Click on the first letter of the enterprise in which you are interested.
The Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture Toolkit
The Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture Tool Kit is a series of information sheets designed to provide a quick overview of business planning basics. Some of the topics addressed in the tool kit include: Having an Entrepreneurial Mindset, Marketing Basics, Farm Record-Keeping and Guide to Writing a Business Plan.
