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3. 2007 National Extension Risk Management Education Conference

Creating Business Opportuinites

S. Gary Bullen

Summary

Most extension personal are trained in the production agriculture and lack business and marketing skills necessary to assist farmers in development of a new enterprise. However extension personal are being asked to assist with business development issues.

The Creating Business Opportunities (CBO) was organized from the core leadership organizations of the North Carolina Rural Center, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, North Carolina Farm Bureau and N.C. REAL to address this problem. The curriculum committee developed an eight day business class to prepare agricultural professionals to assist potential entrepreneurs. The CBO training class was made up of four-two day trainings covering business start up, market research, financial management, legal issues, and business planning. The CBO training participants are made up of most of the agencies working in business development and marketing. Each organization’s supervisors and directors nominated county level employees who would participate in the eight days of training. The CBO participants were organized into 11 teams based on geographic location and organizations to foster collaboration and networking of the various organizations. Each team was asked to develop a practicum as part of the CBO training. The teams developed marketing plans for a new business in their area.

A companion notebook and CD–ROM of business resources has been developed for the CBO participants. A web site http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/cbo/ has been created to encourage sharing information. The web site will serve as a business development resource. Ninety CBO participants completed the CBO training.

Details

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