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Seeds for Success: Planning and Financing Your Local Food Business

Katie Sternweis

Summary

During the 2011 Wisconsin Local Food Summit, producers met and identified several risk management needs that were not being met. These needs included additional information for business development; resources for financing and grant opportunities of local food businesses; and information on food safety rules and regulations. To meet these needs, committees were formed to coordinate and host one-day agricultural grant workshops as well as business planning workshops in several locations throughout the state of Wisconsin during the fall of 2011.

This presentation will review the material presented in these one-day workshops and the survey responses from participants. Initial workshop survey responses indicate participants had very little knowledge of topics prior to attending, but received the right amount of knowledge and information in order to pursue their agriculture/food business. One participant indicated, “I will be able to define my business and business goals and move forward with meeting those goals,” based on their attendance at the one-day business planning workshop. Follow up surveys will be conducted with workshop participants to identify whether they have written or adapted a business plan and sought out financing or grant opportunities for their agriculture/food business.

Details

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