Growing and Scaling

Purchase and register for all six Scaler Series workshops in one fell swoop! The Scaler Series enrollment is free for the 2020 - 2021 workshops! Brought to you by funding from the Small Business Administration.

Cash is not the same thing as net income, and most food companies burn up more of their cash on their balance sheet than on their income statement. This template helps model projected cash flow to help businesses properly manage cash.

Since selling food or beverages like beer are about selling your brand, protecting that brand and its growth in value through the trademark process is very important. Trademarks should be distinct and evocative as opposed to generic and descriptive, mimizing the likelihood of confusion with other trademarked intellectual property.

Food, beverage and value-added agriculture businesses need to raise money serially in order to grow. And, they need different kinds of money at different stages of their growth path. And, specific sources of money are often for specific uses, and all of this needs to be documented.

Traditional lenders tend to be very conservative, so they often make loans for less than the purchase value of assets, and look to partner with investors and the entrepreneur to finance growing businesses. They look at things like collateral and business strength when assessing the risk of making a loan.

Being a food entrepreneur is in some ways about balancing empirical reality and a belief in something you cannot see clearly, like where your business will be in 3-5 years. Food entrepreneursshould clearly state their assumptions about the future and test their assumptions constantly, asking the advice of people who they can trust to ground-truth their ideas.

Company valuations should be done based on a rational justification of the future growth rate and future earnings of the company, as well as the fundamentals of the business model. For example, whether the company is defensibly unique and how long its competitive advantage can be sustained are both key drivers of company value.

The CSA business model has evolved significantly. New products, season extensions, multi-farm collaborations, new shareholder groups, marketing collaborations, innovative aggregation and delivery strategies, new urban production connections, and health and wellness alliances are among the current trends reshaping the CSA business.

USDA programs serve not just agricultural producers but also rural businesses and rural people more broadly, including programs meant to incentivize and leverage private dollars for investment in rural areas. However, there is a big need to educate investors and entrepreneurs about realistic opportunities for investment and business development in rural America.

Focus is what gives food business owners clarity about their strategy and about the tactics needed to carry it out. Tools like the business model canvascan provide focus and clarity to their business model and the strategic implications of choosing a particular business model path or going after a particular target customer.