A GUIDE TO doing business in the countryside has been launched by the Countryside Alliance at the Royal Show in Stoneleigh, Warwicks.

The 240-page book aims to cover all areas of rural enterprise by focusing on diversification of traditional farming businesses.

It takes account of the recent landmark changes to the CAP and includes chapters on converting farm buildings, managing sporting estates and diversifying in an agricultural tenancy.

It also tackles the business disciplines needed, from applying for funding to employment law and forming a limited company.

The editor of the book, Jonathan Reuvid, said the book: “Doing business in the Countryside” was aimed at three different groups of people.

“First, it is intended to help those farmers who need to diversify to survive; second, it is for retired people, whose pensions have perhaps dried up, and are sitting on farm buildings; third, it can help people with the opportunity to move out of the city into the countryside.”

A growing number of people fitted into the third category of workers who could easily work from home, he said.

The book is available in some bookshops and from the Countryside Alliance.