BC Ministry of Agriculture

Hartley Berg has been a designated Business Advisor for the BC Ministry Growing Forward 2 program, for over 12 years. The BC Ministry of Agriculture’s BC Advisory Service Program for BC’s small scale processors offers grant funding for companies in British Columbia needing professional planning and strategic Reports to effectively support the growth potential of the business ideas. Hartley provides the following services, on behalf of the BC Ministry; Formal Business Plan – Marketing Plan – Succession Planning – Business Structure – Cost of Production – Risk Assessment – Human Resources – Value-added Ventures – Financial Management.

The BC Ministry of Agriculture’s Business Development Unit under the Business Knowledge and Strategic Adaptation program area has appointed Hartley Berg Business Planning Services to provide primary marketing assistance through sector benchmark information and collective market strategies. Hartley Berg Business Planning Services has developed 8 instructional modules for the Small Scale Food Processor and Farm Direct Marketing (commercial kitchen) sectors on business management topics. The 8 modules are:

Business planning: A process that integrates written goals with marketing, production and financial targets with human resource, risk, environmental and social considerations into a management strategy for the business.

Market access and analysis: A process that looks at characteristics of industry and markets and success factors for marketing that include Product, Placement, Price, Promotion, and Competition.

Production Economics/Cost of Production: A variable and fixed expense approach to measuring production systems and strategies for small scale food processing.

Financial planning and management: Introduction to Balance Sheets, Cash Flow Statements, Current Ratio, Working Capital, Debt Structure, Debt to Equity, Equity Ratio, Debt Servicing, Return on Investment, and Gross Margin and their relationships to measuring the business’ financial health as well as how they answer questions for financial (lending) institutions and investors.

Quality control requirements and regulations: A needs and potential impacts assessment of inspection requirements and protocols that impact production methods e.g. Food Processing and Regulations including food safety, packaging, facilities, risk managing the costs of recalls, safety controls, and resources.

Product Development: A process that incorporates concept, prototype, testing, consistent results, recipe adaptation, stale dating, record keeping, audit process, required resources, and ongoing risk assessments.

Labeling and packaging: The requirements for nutritional information, product UPCs, packaging design, language requirements, and attendant resources to meet Regulatory Agencies’ requirements and marketplace standards.

Logistics: Material acquisition, product distribution and delivery and the interrelationship with promotional activities and marketing plans.

Each module will be able to support a 60 to 75 minute workshop presentation and also be adaptable to Internet based self learning.