Young Agrarians is celebrating the eleventh year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the third year of the program in the Prairies! The BMN offers farm business mentorship to a diverse array of new and young farmers. The mentorship is offered over the course of a year. Through one-on-one mentorship, peer networks and online workshops new farmers develop the skills necessary to operate ecologically sustainable and financially viable farm businesses.
Mentee applications for the 2024/2025 program close October 31st.
Mentees Apply here!Â
Mentor applications (paid position) are accepted year-round.Â
Mentors Apply here!Â
Check out the Business Mentorship Network page for more information!
Check out one Menteeâs story below and how the BMN made a contribution to the success of their farm.  Want more? Head over to our BMN Blog for more mentorship stories.Â
Meet a Mentee: Lolo Hendin of Buttercup Sandwich Florals
My name is Lolo Hendin and my farm and floristry business is called Buttercup Sandwich Florals. I farm, work and live on the unceded territory of the Hul’q’umi’num’ and SENÄOĆŠEN speaking people, currently known as Salt Spring Island. My mentor is Kailli Piggot of Dancing Dandelion Farm.
What were your goals for this season and what did you do to try to achieve them?
It was a big year for me as it was my first year and so there were many aspects to work on and nowhere to go but up! On the physical and farming side I aimed to break ground, till beds, start to build healthy soil, plant the beginnings of a perennial flower farm and grow my annual flower farm for the year. This part was time consuming and hard work but everything grew beautifully and happily. I can definitely improve on crop planning and succession planning. To grow flowers for weddings and for market sales are two different crop plans and I need to streamline my sales channels in the future to know what I want to plant, in what amounts and when.
My main goals were around creating a viable business growing flowers and doing floral design for weddings. There were many lessons to learn here around accounting, budgeting, investing and marketing. My mentor was immensely helpful and I grew to really love the planning and spreadsheet side of things. It was very rewarding to be able to look at my year and plan for how and when I would make money, where to adjust if need be and how to get more clients and sales when I would have extra flowers to sell. There was so much more impetus for me to work hard and follow the plan, knowing that the rewards would be there at the end and all the flowers would be sold and appreciated.
What resources did you find most valuable to support your business during the season?Â
A few resources I really grew to love were the Wave accounting app and my income cash projection spreadsheet. We learned about both of these in the business mentorship video courses we took at the beginning of the year and they both really stuck with me as useful tools that I returned to all season. 
Why do your customers buy from you ?
Something I realized this year is that – aside from my organic flowers and designs – my clients really appreciate my communication and attention to detail. I created a fairly thorough system to determine what my wedding clients want for their wedding flowers and to get it within their budget, and I sent lots of clear and detailed emails leading up to the wedding date so that everyone was on the same page. Everyone shared that they really appreciated all this to make their lives easy and their wedding day seamless.
What was the most important thing you gained from the YA Business Mentorship Network Program experience?Â
Having a mentor to ask questions to, to show my plans to for their advice and to get new ideas from was SO helpful and essential to my success this year. Kailli is a very knowledgeable business person and was so wonderful at pushing me to do more things from the business end that felt new and challenging. And simply having our weekly check-ins means that I stayed on track for actually doing the planning and tasks I said I would do and not avoiding them.
 What were one or two big, hard lessons this season you would want to share with other farmers?Â
Growing flowers is so dreamy and being in the field is actually the easiest part. The business side is way more challenging but so essential because you have to know where your flowers are going every week. It’s so overwhelming to have too many flowers in bloom and nowhere for them to go and it’s very sad to see them go to waste.
What were one or two additional victories, small or large, that you had this season?Â
It’s so satisfying to see my flowers used in my own wedding floral designs since that is the goal I have dreamt of for so long. I yearn for that full circle of growing the flowers, creating art with them and then returning them to my compost for my soil next year and I got to truly experience that cycle this year.
What future plans and goals do you have for your farm and how will you achieve these?Â
I want to expand my growing season so I can have more of those special spring crops for April, May and June weddings. I also want to begin/expand my woody perennial plant area so I can grow all those essential perennial foliage and plants like hydrangeas that are so useful in design work.
Next year I would love to have a dedicated sales channel for all the flowers that I don’t need in wedding work that week but are blooming anyways! I would love to have an arrangement with a shop that I can bring bunches and bouquets to whenever I have an abundance to sell.
Where can we find you online? (website, FB, IG etc)
You can find me on Instagram at @buttercup.sandwich and at my website www.buttercupsandwich.com