To Ian Nenke, a member of the Nenke agricultural family, acquiring formal business and financial skills was always on the agenda but never available at a time or place to suit the family business operating in the Wheat Belt area of Western Australia. So when AgriFood Skills Australia offered their ‘Growing Business’ program focusing on business and financial skills, he jumped at the chance to attend the two-day program in Goomalling WA.

Ian knew he needed to get a clearer picture on his financial performance and position to sustainably grow the family business which seeds dams for Yabbies on 700 farms within WA. They also harvest, process, cook, pack and ship the product to a clientele that range from Perth restaurants and retailers to overseas restaurants.

Ian was interested in gaining the strategies and tools to manage the profitability of the yabby processing plant through to analysing his environment, developing a robust business and financial plan and budget. In particular, he found the notion of direct and indirect costs helpful and developed a keen understanding of gross margin. An improved understanding of margins better gave him a greater comprehension of the products that offer the best profitability, and hence, he is able to direct his production and marketing efforts to greater effect.

Ian found that the strategies and tools provided during the training were invaluable on a daily basis and he, like the other workshop participants, grabbed the chance to have the facilitator, Andrew Moore, visit the farm to further Ian’s skills during coaching sessions. He made the most of the coaching by including all the family members in the discussion to get maximum return. They were quick to make changes to processing practices to assist their overseas employees to work more effectively.

Due to the success of the first program, Ian signed up for another two day program with AgriFood Skills Australia, this time covering marketing and managing teams topics. Cambinata Yabbies was well down the path of implementing good marketing practices, so Ian’s learning was a reinforcement and expansion of this practice. It was the strategies for managing teams that was most useful as he was able to quickly identify and analyse his own leadership style and personality type as well as others in his life in order to motivate his team to perform to their best.

Cambinata Yabbies continues to go from strength to strength with a key family member confident in his tool kit of strategies to improve the business.