Owners of small and medium-sized businesses are keenly aware that success depends on their most important asset: loyal, long-term employees who serve customers well and keep the business running smoothly. That’s why many are enhancing their compensation packages to include incentives beyond salary, such as group benefit and retirement plans, to help attract and retain the most productive and engaged employees.

            In this session, you will learn: 

                
The drivers behind and key benefits of offering a group benefit and retirement plan as part of a competitive compensation package,
The steps you should take to implement a plan and how an insurance advisor can help you achieve your goals, and
The product options available and how to structure a plan to best meet the needs of your employees and your budget.
            Meet Your Facilitator:

            Don Rowell is a Client Relationship Specialist with CUMIS Life Insurance Company.  Don has nearly 25 years of experience in the group retirement industry. In his role, Don works closely with small to medium-sized businesses to service their new and existing group retirement plans. Don has completed the Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) course, which includes the Retirement Plans Associate (RPA) and Compensation Management Specialist designations and received ISCEBS Fellowship Status in 2011.  Don holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Saskatchewan and has completed other industry related courses.

            Rita Rushton is an Account Manager in Group Benefits at the Cooperators Life Insurance Company.  Rita has been with The Co-operators since 2007 and has over 25 years experience in the Group Insurance Industry. She gained her experience at five different Regina-based insurers in a wide variety of roles, including administration, policy set up, call centre management, and most recently, account 
            management. Since joining The Co-operators, Rita has served the Group Benefits needs of credit unions across Canada and has loved every minute of it. Originally raised on a farm in small-town Saskatchewan, Rita been a credit union member for over 30 years.
  


            
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Business owners need to support team members in achieving their goals and successfully completing their work. Supervisors will discover how to be more effective in their role through reinforcing witpraise, redirecting with constructive criticism and developing with the GROW model. The skills learned in this session can be applied to all aspects of the performance management and staff development processes. The focus of this workshop is on the performance conversations – not the process, tools or forms.

        Upon completion of this webinar, participants will:

            
understand the facilitation of continuous improvement and career development through ongoing performance coaching conversations with team members,
understand the principles of effective coaching and communication in performance discussions with team members,
understand the principles of confidently providing ongoing feedback to team members and handling emotion in discussion, and
understand the process for performance coaching and formal and informal performance discussions.

        Meet Your Facilitator:
        
Cathy McLellan is a Senior Advisor with MNP's national learning and development team for over 12 years.  Cathy has her Masters in leadership development, over 23 years working with teams and individuals helping them enhance and realize their potential.  She is a certified coach, trainer, and facilitator. She works extensively with individuals and teams in leadership development and building high performing teams. Cathy lives in Nanaimo on beautiful Vancouver Island for the past 26 years.




        
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No one can predict the future, but you can plan for it. Knowing your cost of production, along with your financial situation allows you to identify and manage risk properly, measure your margins and develop targets. Having this information allows you to easily adjust your plan for changes along the way.

        In this session, you will understand:

            
Gross margin analysis;
How to evaluate fixed costs in your operation; and,
Information gained from a profit margin analysis and how to use it to plan for future operations.

        Meet Your Facilitator:

Kelly Bromm BSA, is a Farm Management Consultant with MNP’s Agriculture Services group in the Saskatoon office. Working with producers, agri-business, government and other agricultural agencies, Kelly delivers advice and solutions tailored to each client’s unique situation and goals.

Originally from a farming community in North Eastern Saskatchewan, Kelly grew up on a grain and livestock family farm where he was actively involved in all aspects. He went on to obtain his degree in Agriculture Economics at the University of Saskatchewan and began a 24 year career working in the Agriculture Financial Lending Industry while continuing to be involved in the family farm until 2011 when his parents retired. 

Kelly draws on more than 24 years of experience to develop and implement solutions to the wide range of issues that today’s farmers face. He assists with strategic planning, financial management, succession planning, production economics and human resources, and connects clients with the firm’s broad-based expertise when they are experiencing specific challenges.



        
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Reading and understanding financial information is one of the most important tasks of a business owner.  However, for most business owners, the accounting and financial aspect of the business is not their background and learning financial fluency is a necessity in today’s marketplace.  

        This session organized into a two part series provides:

            
insight into financial statements and practical ways to use this information to identify the areas of the business that are flourishing and the areas that require improvement,
discussions on key areas of financial statements that determine if fraud is a factor in the business,
insight into cash requirements and what budgeting is required, and
identification of immediate business strategies to increase revenues and decrease expenditures.

            Meet Your Facilitator:

Annette  is a partner in MNP’s Saskatoon office. Partnering and working with companies in all stages of their business cycle for almost 19 years, Annette helps to support and strengthen their leadership. Over her career Annette has worked with a number of businesses with a focus to helping clients understand not just their historical financial information but what the information is telling them from a forward-looking perspective.  


        
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Financial statements provide farmers with insight into the financial position and performance of farm business. Accurate records and financial statements are the foundation material required to analyze the financial condition and trends of your operation and can be benchmarked against other similar operations. This webinar is designed to help you better understand key concepts in financial statements and focusses on cashflow, debt, equity, profit and taxes.
 
        In this session, you will learn:
            
            
The purpose of a balance sheet;
How to use the income statement to determine how your farm is performing;
How money flows through a farm; and
How debt and equity are measured.

            Meet Your Facilitator:

Evan Shout has been a business advisor with MNP since January of 2006 with a specialty in large scale agriculture primary producer grain operations.  He obtained his chartered accountant designation in November of 2006 and practices as a general practitioner in the Saskatoon MNP office.  His accounting specialties include assurance, taxation and general farm advisory services with a client base across the province of Saskatchewan.  In addition to his career in accounting, Evan also was the owner/operator of a grain farm operation in Allan, Saskatchewan until January of 2014.


        
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As businesses start out, you need to understand the importance of creating a Board of Directors, as well as tips to effectively form this important governance role over your business.   

        Learnings of this session explore:

            
the role of a Board of Directors,
the board's duties and responsibilities,
liabilities and protection for directors,
assessing Board performance, and
best practices in the area of Board effectiveness.
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