Carmen Quade empowers primary producers to take control of their finances

Following an extensive career in economic and community development for local government, Carmen pursed a masters degree in professional accounting, which then lead her to lecturing at Charles Sturt University.

While sharing her passion for finance in the classroom, Carmen noticed a shortfall in the agricultural industry that needed to be changed.

"I was doing finance for graduate and postgraduate students and we were doing budgeting and capital management, but they weren't running their own farm businesses yet," she said.

"However there were so many people out in our local community that were just floundering, because they didn't have those budgeting skills, or they were trying to negotiate things to their bank but they didn't know what to ask for.

"There were so many skill gaps within the [agricultural] industry, and [I knew] that was where I was needed."

Setting the wheels in motion, Carmen reached out to Farmlink, Temora, and put her hand up to run a budgeting workshop.

Farmlink quickly jumped at the idea, asking her to run six.

While it proved incredibly popular among her local farming community, Carmen knew there were other primary producers, even if they didn't know it yet, who needed access to support and resources.

So, in 2019 she founded her online business AgriFocused, to help those near and far improve their budgeting and business management.

"When you think about it, there is so much at stake, especially now with land prices four times what they were many years ago," Carmen said.

"This means the assets under management are now four times what they were, so there is a lot at stake if things don't go well, but that also means there is a greater potential for gain as well.

"We've got to have those financial skills to really make things happen."

Carmen has worked with family-owned operations across the New Zealand and Australian agricultural industry offering remote and face-to-face training opportunities for individuals, groups and businesses.

Her courses delve into topics such as budgeting, excel spreadsheets, bookkeeping, pitching and leasing.

"When you get any group of farmers in a room, it's dynamic, and people are willing to share their own experiences, achievements and mistakes that you learn so much," Carmen said.

"I think people really value the connection of other farmers who are facing the same challenges they are."

Carmen said no one goes into farming because they like administration.

"If someone is passionate about fiance they go into accounting, consulting or other rewarding jobs," she said.

"They don't necessarily go out and buy their own farm and decide to run their own farming business, so from the start we've got a skewed skill set.

"There's some great livestock and cropping workshops, and if an issue comes up, we're all over it, but there's not as many opportunities for inside farming.

"Nearly always in ag, whoever's undertaking the office role is doing it autonomously, so it's about making training available for them, so they can find a more efficient way of doing things."

AgriFocused aims to recognise the value office administrators bring to a farming business.

"Some people think it's just paying the bills and reporting into whatever bookkeeping program you're using, but it's so much broader than that," Carmen said.

"It goes into how you understand you business, where your money is coming from, if you can manage it better to take on other opportunities.

"You might think you're doing the best for your farm by sitting on the tractor or being out on the yards, however those tasks can often be outsourced.

"Knowing your business and numbers is something that you can't leave to somebody else in its entirety."

Carmen recognised the role of women in "inside farming" and said it can be a bigger task that some expect.

"Some women who are working in farm offices may have had a career that had nothing at all to do with admin or finance," she said.

"Often they're landed the expectation of doing the books as part of their roles as a farmer, wife and mother."

Carmen even admitted her own naivety when she took on the farm books while pregnant.

"I had studied agricultural commerce at university and worked in various marketing and business management roles, so in that sense that part of it came to me relatively easily, but I found it so hard to get specific training," she said.

"I had little babies, I was working part time, everything was hundreds of kilometres away so that was a huge barrier for me.

"It became something I had to essentially self teach or reapply what I knew from other jobs and industries, because there just wasn't anything available."

However, Carmen has begun to break down that barrier, one client at a time through AgriFocused.

"That is why I pushed strongly to make my courses available online, because I didn't want this next generation of young women or men in the industry to miss out," she said.

"No matter how remote or limited you are in terms of childcare or casual farm labour, if you've got a little bit of time, over how many months you want to stretch it, you can still learn what somebody can in a workshop."

With choice comes power, and since her first budgeting workshop, Carmen has empowered primary producers to take control of their finances and future.

If you'd like to learn more about AgriFocused, visit their website or keep up to date via Instagram or Facebook.