Resilerator™ Northwest

Business Skills Intensive for Mid-scale Farms

Registration for 2024 is now closed, please fill out the Interest Form to stay in the loop for future offerings!

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The ResileratorTM is like a business accelerator, but with an emphasis on developing long-term sustainability and resilience rather than sprinting toward short-term profits. This 10-week cohort-based course is for farmers and ranchers who are ready to evaluate and improve the health and resilience of their agricultural business. 

The course runs from the beginning of October through mid-December. Each week participants watch one or two hours of videos at a time of their choosing and then participate in weekly live question-and-answer and discussion sessions with course instructors and farmer-peer instructors.

We will limit the class size to twenty farms and will prioritize farms and ranches that are members of, or selling into, agricultural cooperatives. 

Topics include how to structure land and business ownership, labor, accounting, taxes, cash flow, credit, insurance, and regulatory compliance. We consider short-term profitability and long-term wealth creation resilience as part of each class.

The Resilerator is intended for individuals who have at least two years of experience with one of the following roles:

  • Owner of a farm or ranch that has been in business for at least two years
  • Significant involvement in managing their family’s farming or ranching business
  • Substantial managerial experience as an employee in a farm or ranch (subject to case-by-case review and acceptance)

*Graduation requires: 

  1. Attend 8 out 10 classes
  2. Completing the Business Resilience Self-Assessment by the end of the first week of class
  3. Identifying one goal per section by the end of the course.

Title: ResileratorTM Northwest

Dates: 10-week class meets Tuesdays from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm Pacific from October 1st – December 17th with a break the week of November 4st (Election Day) and November 28th (Thanksgiving week).

Location: Farmer Campus, Zoom

Topics Covered: Business structures, labor, accounting and taxation, credit and cash flow,  insurance, regulatory compliance, short-term profitability and long-term wealth creation.

  • Max. attendees: 20 farms. Each farm can have all the principal managers attend.
  • Fee: $200 (refundable upon successful completion, see below)
  • Course incentives: Participants who attend 8 of the ten sessions and complete the required self-assessment, goals, and course evaluations are eligible for:

The ResileratorTM is a trademark and program of California FarmLink offered in Washington State through a license agreement with the Northwest Agricultural Business Center.  

About the Curriculum:

The Resilerator was developed by Poppy Davis through California FarmLink and other partners with funding from USDA and other sources. The lead instructors are Poppy Davis and Winona Dorris.

About the Instructors:

Poppy Davis is a business and policy adviser to agricultural, fishing, and food and beverage enterprises, as well as nonprofits, and local governments. She has been teaching small farm business, tax and  accounting issues in various capacities her entire career, and is an adjunct at the University of Arkansas School of Law LLM in Food and Agricultural Law program. Previously she worked at the USDA, most  recently as the National Program Leader for Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. She  began her career as a California CPA. She holds a JD with a certificate in food and agriculture law from Drake University Law School, a Masters in Journalism from Georgetown, and a BS in Agricultural Economics from UC Davis. 

Winona Dorris is a farm business advisor with 20+ years of experience advising business owners on accounting, tax, and insurance, with a focus on empowering communities who are more at risk for injustice. She is the great niece of Ed Scott, a Mississippi sharecropper and claimant of the Pigford lawsuit and settlement. Through her family’s history, she understands the effect injustices have had on generations of people stripped of their livelihood. She has long career experience in finance and accounting as a CFO, and COO. Winona holds a BA in Economics and Accounting, a Masters in Business Administration, and a Masters in Taxation, and is licensed as an insurance agent and a tax preparer.

Registration:

The Fall 2024 cohort is now closed, please fill out this Interest Form to be on the list for future communications.

Northwest Resilerator is produced in conjunction with:

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