For farmers, growing crops is just one step in running a successful farm—making the farm or market garden economically viable requires another suite of skills, including finding land, planning what crops to grow, marketing the crops, and managing income and expenses. This resource builds on our experience educating hundreds of apprentice growers in organic production, farm and business planning, direct marketing at a roadside farm stand, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) management through hands-on training in the running of our 100-member CSA program. Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors is organized into six units, three focusing on marketing and three covering other topics related to making a small farm economically viable. Included are lessons and resources for running a CSA project, selling at farmers' markets, forming collaborative marketing groups and grower cooperatives, and selling to restaurants. Also covered are strategies to improve small farm planning, including enterprise visioning and market assessment; creating a business plan, including marketing and crop plans; and managing cash flow. Land tenure options such as cash-rent leases from non-profits, shared ownership models, conservation easements, and community land trusts are reviewed as additional mechanisms for addressing the complex issue of the economic viability of small-scale agriculture. This resource also reviews the trends and factors that influence small-scale agriculture's economics, and provides an overview of produce marketing in the U.S. The training manual is designed for – •Instructors at college and universities, agriculture organizations, farm-training programs, apprenticeship programs •Agricultural extension personnel •Farmers with interns •Growers, teachers, and organizers at urban farms, community gardens, and food projects with direct-marketing outlets This instructor's resource features class and field demonstration outlines, trainee exercises, and resource materials, with a focus on CSA. The manual can be used in a classroom setting or adapted for other training formats, such as short courses, conferences, and field days.

" This course provides you with a framework to understand the structure and dynamics of high-tech businesses, together with an approach for their effective strategic management. It is focused on domains in which systems are important, because either or both products are parts of larger and more complex systems, or they are comprised of systems. The domains covered include computing, communications (in particular the mobile and IP domains), consumer electronics, industrial networking, automotive, aerospace and medical devices. The course will be of particular interest to those interested in managing a business in which technology will likely play a major role, and also to those interested in investing in or providing counsel to these businesses. The emphasis throughout is on the development and application of ways of thinking or mental models that bring clarity to the complex co-evolution of technological innovation, the demand opportunity, systems architecture, business ecosystems, and decision-making and execution within the business."

You are opening the retail store of your dreams! Before you can get construction going, you must design what the store is going to look like. Choose the type of retail store you want to open. No repeats, so tell me right away! You will be required to buy a foam board.

How do you do it? Plan lessons, attend meetings, manage the classroom, grade papers, meet with administrators and parents? The list could go on and on. Teachers with 0 – 3 years will want to watch this webinar hosted by Lori Hairston (WA) for great ideas to manage the classroom, plan lessons, and teach a dynamic subject like business, finance and marketing.

NOTE: To access the NEW MBA Learning Center, visit mba.instructure.org. To access the NEW State's Connection, visit mbastatesconnection.mbaresearch.org