The resources and tools below help consultants provide sophisticated financial technical assistance to food, beverage and value-added agriculture businesses.
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Level 2 Consultant Training
10 hours of Paid live virtual training by Edible-Alpha®
Level 2 Consultant Training builds on Level 1 by helping participants navigate the process of raising appropriate debt, strategic investments, and equity investments in food, beverage and value-added farm businesses.
Level 2 Consultant Training
10 hours of Paid live virtual training by Edible-Alpha®
Level 2 Consultant Training builds on Level 1 by helping participants navigate the process of raising appropriate debt, strategic investments, and equity investments in food, beverage and value-added farm businesses.
Level 1 Consultant Training
10 hours of Paid live virtual training by Edible-Alpha®
Level 1 Consultant Training provides an in-depth look at what food, beverage and value-added farm businesses need to do to optimize their business model and capital structure for profitability.
Level 1 Consultant Training
10 hours of Paid live virtual training by Edible-Alpha®
Level 1 Consultant Training provides an in-depth look at what food, beverage and value-added farm businesses need to do to optimize their business model and capital structure for profitability.
Is Food Service Right for Your Brand?
10 minute read of Free article by Edible-Alpha®
Have you overlooked a lucrative sales channel? Learn about the boundless opportunities for food and ag entrepreneurs to thrive in the diverse food service sector.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
ReGrained, A Business Model For The Long Term And The Planet
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
ReGrained launched their product at scale in January 2018 after multiple iterations of their product (in the crowded bar category) and now are working with other businesses to help them produce/co-brand new products using their production facility and the expertise embedded in their proprietary process.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Shifting Farm Business Models
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Median on-farm household income has been negative for the past 20 years, with many farms keeping their cash flow positive by increasing their debt load. Finding new business models that allow farmers to be profitable while meeting changing consumer demand will require high-quality technical assistance and coordinated effort from multiple actors.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How A Bank Can Strengthen Farming Communities Through Innovative Lending
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Ephrata National Bank in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is a $1 billion community bank with 25% of their portfolio funding agricultural entrepreneurs. Lending to support new business models or premium offerings (like value-added processing) can help farmers deal with high land prices and avoid commodity agriculture's low return on assets.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Growing A Successful Retail Food Co-op By Meeting Your Member’s Needs
1 hour & 5 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
The Great Basin Community Food Co-op first opened to the public in downtown Reno with 500 feet of retail space, eventually hitting $1 million in sales in one year. In 2012 they moved to another 3-story location of about 3,000 square feet (on the main floor) even closer to downtown. In 2017, the store had about $4.5 million in sales after rapid growth.
Podcast about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Why Private Label Might Be A Great Business Decision
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Grocery stores have introduced their own branded "private label" products on their shelves, offering an opportunity for food producers to increase cash flow, maximize production efficiency and diversify revenue streams without having to do all of the brand building and customer relationship management themselves.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How Tribe 9 Foods Balances Economies Of Scale With A Changing Marketplace
55 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Tribe 9 Foods secured growth capital to bring manufacturing in-house for the three brands that merged into their portfolio, something that has allowed them to have control over batch timing, batch size and product quality. In addition, in-house production allows them the flexibility to try new things and have a co-packing line of business for their core product types.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Should I Manufacture Food In-House Or Use A Co-Packer?
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
The inevitable question food entrepreneurs face when scaling is "should I manufacture food in-house or use a co-packer?" The food entrepreneur's business model, stage of business, financing capacity (i.e. how well they can raise money) and the availability of co-packing capacity for their specific needs all make a difference in deciding how to answer that question.
Article about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Angela Mavridis Of TRIBALÍ Foods On Resonating With Your Tribe
45 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
TRIBALÍ's clean, simple packaging communicates their organic, grass-fed and Paleo certifications, stands out on the freezer shelf and helps communicate their brand's promise to that tribe. Angela Mavridis, TRIBALÍ's founder and CEO reflects that the investor pitch process forces you to learn every single aspect of the business.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Build The Brand, Build The Food Business Ecosystem
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Good brand building is built on an understanding of your target customer and what problems you are solving for them. While it is not the only thing that is needed to build a successful business, those consumer relationships are the lifeblood of all food businesses.
Article about Sales and Marketing for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How Union Kitchen’s Ecosystem Helps Build Profitable Food Businesses
50 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Union Kitchen is a shared-use kitchen and food business accelerator in in Washington D.C. While having a shared-use kitchen eliminates the need for capital for kitchen equipment, there are many other things food businesses need to raise capital for, which is why they have distribution and retail outlets as part of their model.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Grants, Loans, Investments…Welcome To The Food Funding Ecosystem!
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
To come up with a realistic strategy for action and growth, food entrepreneurs should make efforts to understand this entrepreneurial ecosystem and whether grants, loans, investments or a combination of capital sources makes sense to fund their growth. Only then can food entrepreneurs plant the seeds for a profitable and sustainable food business.
Article about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Value-Added Producer Grants With Jim Gage
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
While the VAPG grant can be complicated (for example, a 75 page application plus Business Plan and third-party Feasibility Study), it requires applicants to critically consider expansion of the customer base and the marketplace for products as well as demonstrate how they will have sufficient business structures, profit and cash flow to operate in the long-term.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Rightsizing The Ship: A Farmer’s Tale of Scaling Down
1 hour & 40 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
This hub discovered that the bigger the business got, the more money it lost and that moving aggregation functions off of the owner's farm caused the operation to be less efficient at that level of sales. The owner chose to contract the business to focus on getting profitable and repaying existing suppliers.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
When Your Food Business Should Go Online
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Food businesses should know the role that online sales will play in their revenue stream and in their business model. Consumers are starting to become omnichannel in their food shopping expectations. Like most things in food entrepreneurship, it is best to let your customers lead the way, and if they expect to find you online, go online and conquer.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Scaling Innovative Food Products At The Right Time
40 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
The ideal market for Know Brainer's individual creamer products has been online with Amazon and their own online store while their multi-serve product is more of a conventional grocery item. They only started to scale their product after extensive customer research and testing.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling