Helping You Through the Economic Downturn

    Join FFI hosted huddles and listen to our newest podcast with Kitchen Table Consultants—special content to help you through this pandemic.
    Huddle For Consultants/Technical Assistance Providers: Monday, March 23rd, 1pm CST to 2pm CDT
    WebEx Meeting Link: https://wisconsin.webex.com/wisconsin/j.php?MTID=mf1ceba5209d70d62b49e994371291c82
    Meeting number (access code): 794 162 343
    Meeting password: pPaaFKQV323
    Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1043806322668603/

    Huddle For Entrepreneurs: Monday, March 23rd, 2:30pm CDT to 3:30pm CDT
    WebEx Meeting Link: https://wisconsin.webex.com/wisconsin/j.php?MTID=m5f1a697c2bc0688e37d4eade5288c0d8
    Meeting number (access code): 793 283 398
    Meeting password: ucWMnpvP323
    Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/561213444518164/

    At Kitchen Table Consultants, Ted LeBow helps food artisans and farmers build profitable businesses, so he has plenty of wisdom to support companies affected COVID-19 pandemic.

    First and foremost, remain calm. Keep the communication lines open with vendors, suppliers, team members and banks, and map out cashflow projections to determine where to make cuts and adjustments. Whether a farm, restaurant supplier, direct-to-consumer food brand or grocer, everyone is affected by this crisis somehow—and with a solid financial strategy in place, businesses have a much better chance of making it through to the other side.

    The Food Finance Institute Is Here To Help You and Your Business

    As we all grapple with unprecedented shock to our community health and economy, there is a bigger need than ever for reliable information to inform our food and farm entrepreneurs as they confront a rapidly escalating situation. The precipitous nature of the coronavirus means that a rapid response is going to be required for many consumer-facing businesses to survive financially. We’re in uncharted territory and we’re all doing this in isolation.

    At FFI, we’re going into emergency response mode to leverage the community we’ve built to help our food and farm businesses weather this storm.  Here’s what that looks like:

    • We’ve started holding virtual huddles for the consultants we’ve trained and the entrepreneurs we’ve worked with. We will be holding these weekly and moving these to a larger platform so more people can participate. We’ll use these to share high quality information and best practices.
    • We taped an Edible-Alpha® podcast interview last week that addresses CASH. Ted LeBeau, the founder of the turnaround consulting firm Kitchen Table Consultants. Turnaround consultants focus on helping companies survive in times like these and Ted has worked with farms, hubs, and food brands and processors.
    • We’re going to be releasing a course on managing cash, hopefully this week.  This course addresses the underlying business model and financial management systems that businesses need to manage cash effectively. It is in times like these that the absence of this infrastructure can become catastrophic.
    • We want to hear from you! Ask questions in our huddles, send us an email, etc.  This will help us get you the information you need during these unprecedented times.