1. Original Project Overview
The Agritourism Business Planner project aimed to equip producers with the knowledge and tools to develop comprehensive business plans for agritourism enterprises. Our goal was to help participants better understand the components of business planning, use AgPlan to tailor their plans, and apply this knowledge to their own agritourism operations.
We assembled a multi-university and extension team to design the planner and then share it with producers and service providers. Through a combination of webinars, in-person events, and one-on-one consultations, the project aimed to support producers in taking concrete steps toward creating and implementing agritourism business plans that would enhance the economic sustainability of their operations and add to the vitality of their local economies.
2. Proposed Audience Emphasis Review
Our primary target audience included farmers and ranchers, with agricultural service providers also being considered as a target due to their exposure to agricultural producers. We particularly focused on reaching underserved groups, such as Native American producers and those from economically disadvantaged regions.
Over the course of the project, 1,710 people participated in our educational offerings through both in-person meetings and webinars. These participants came from around the world and represented diverse professional backgrounds, including 80 Native American producers. We successfully reached other underserved groups, as demonstrated by 41 attendees at the Texas Hispanic Farmer and Rancher Conference. We consider the actual reach of our project to be a considerably positive result. This is primarily due to the collaborations that we fostered with several universities and extension programs.
Reported Participant Information: Producers: 135, Educators: 11, Agricultural Service Provider: 9, Business Owner: 9, Government: 9, Nonprofit: 6, Researcher: 8, Tourism Professional: 7
3. Delivery Strategies
Our project was delivered through a combination of in-person events, webinars, and one-on-one consultations. The delivery was structured to maximize accessibility and engagement, with the following strategies:
Webinars: We hosted 8 online webinars, including a launch event that had 321 participants and follow-up sessions that averaged 89 attendees each.
In-person events: We presented at 21 live events across the country, which reached an additional 758 unique participants.
One-on-one consultations: In the later stages of the project, we shifted focus to providing one-on-one consultations for farmers needing individualized support in developing their business plans. 80 farmers received individual consultations.
In total, 1,710 participants were reached through these delivery methods, exceeding our original participation goals. Of note, 626 people created an Agritourism business planner in AgPlan during the course of this project, however only 58 responded to the final survey. 45 people completed the entire webinar series.
4. Project Outcomes: Proposed vs. Achieved
The project’s original proposal outlined several key outcomes, including improving participants' understanding of business planning, helping them develop business overviews and balance sheets, and supporting the completion and review of business plans.
Proposed better understanding of the components of a comprehensive business plan for their agritourism enterprise: We aimed for 100 participants to gain a better understanding of business planning. 196 respondents confirmed improved understanding.
Proposed use of AgPlan: We projected that 100 participants would understand how to use AgPlan. 198 respondents achieved this outcome.
Proposed business overview writing: We aimed for 75 participants to gain a better understanding of business planning. 92 respondents confirmed improved understanding.
Proposed balance sheet attempts: We aimed for 75 participants to attempt writing a simple balance sheet, only 37 survey respondents reported attempts. The financial planning webinar we conducted was not as well–attended as other topics. Considering this, we feel that the topic may have been unattractive to our general audience and we are working on ways to make this topic more appealing in future programming.
Proposed development of business plans: We estimated that 50 participants would complete their business plans. The surveys showed 25 participants completed business plans, all lower than expected but we believe the actual number is higher, considering that 626 people created an Agritourism business planner in AgPlan during this project. In addition to the 25 completed plans, 8 people reported almost completing the plan, and 65 reported that they intend to complete a business plan.
Proposed plan reviews: We aimed for 50 participants to review their plans with Extension educators, but only 18 participants of 58 respondents reported this outcome in our final survey. In addition, AgPlan administrators report 74 of the AgPlan Agritourism Business Plans were shared with professional reviewers during our outreach period, showing that our actual results were significantly higher than those portrayed in the final survey results.
Despite the disappointingly low response to our final survey, we believe there was extensive engagement, with 1,710 participants overall and 626 agritourism plans created in AgPlan during our outreach period.