Contact steve@northeastforests.com for an interview
Here is what FBS is all about....
NOW RECRUITING FOR THE 2025-26 SESSIONS (we start in October). There are a limited number of slots available for mid-career small business owners in our six-month essentials program.
NEW PROGRAM: If you are a key employee of a forest products firm, other rural enterprise or a public agency, our new LINCHPIN program is meant for you. We are distilling the business owner program to develop instruction in key mindsets and accountability for top employees. Need a career boost? This might be just the program for you.
To apply for either of these free opportunities, send an email to FBS@northeastforests.comand include a few details about your business, work situation and background.
The Vermont Forest Business School serves mid-career working landscape professionals with instruction and peer support to advance their businesses, agencies and work life. We offer a formal six-month session, with weekly hour-long evening remote sessions, a periodic creator’s workshops for people who have completed the six-month program and want to keep in touch, and occasional one-time workshops and other resources. We are currently recruiting for a Vermont-only session and a regional session (Northeast , Lake States & Intermountain) of the Essential program that will begin in October 2024. Key employee participants in the new Linchpin program are needed as well.
The six-month FBS Essential program features periodic live meetings and weekly remote conferences to discuss theory, strategy and tactics for continuously improving work results. The school is tailored to the needs of working people, with audiobooks, Socratic discussions and a supportive peer environment. We use proven business and professional development concepts and relate them to work in the forest products industry and related fields.
Successful completion of the program allows participants to leverage the ideas and methods used in class and obtain better financial results. This improvements might be higher revenue in their business (even in the absence of substantial new investment), elevated performance by key employees or better use of public resources in agencies. The FBS program itself leverages public funding into a 10-50x financial improvement in businesses.
The forest business school has attracted a diverse range of individuals, including consulting foresters, WTH, CTL, and TL loggers, procurement foresters, and watershed foresters. The ranks also include U&M, state, county, and certified foresters, as well as ecologists, herbalists, and midwives. Among the enrollees are pilots, mechanics, welders, and invasive species warriors, along with a variety of farmers—pig, beef, stock, sheep herders, dairy, poultry, tree, and Christmas tree farmers. Sawmillers, wood products specialists, helicopter loggers, hand fellers, engineers, sugar makers, low-impact loggers, hazardous fuel reducers, and mobile app developers are also part of the community. The school has welcomed artists, fire starters, organic healers, spiritual guides, hot saucers, hunting and fishing guides, food truck merchants, loan officers, selectmen, town supervisors, military officers, wildlife foresters, sugarbush suppliers, lumber salespersons, extension specialists, and enablers. Even ballet dancers, forest products leaders, educators, housing professionals, aspiring loggers, researchers, ice skaters, speakers, disc jockeys, writers, musicians, readers, operations directors, craftsmen, music lovers, introverts, extroverts, ambiverts, crew leaders, persuaders, thinkers, doers, planners, entrepreneurs, business managers, gardeners, authors, deputies, industry leaders, firewood processors, kiln operators, licensed foresters, travelers, pesticide applicators, wildfire fighters, technicians, mothers, fathers, and stock farmers have all found their place in this unique educational environment.
The school is directed and taught by Dr. Steven Bick, CF. Bick is a small business owner, land steward, writer and researcher and has a long history of providing continuous education materials for the working landscape. Contact him at FBS@northeastforests.com to learn more about the program or discuss the possibilities of customized resources (training, apps, evaluations, strategic plans) for your enterprise.
