The resources below help entrepreneurs get their food, beverage or value-added farm business profitable and raise the money they need to grow.
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For Entrepreneurs
Are You Ready to Start a CSA?
8 pages of Free report content by University of Tennessee Extension
Marketing is vital to the potential success of a direct marketing enterprise, including that of CSAs. Marketing is also inherent to many drivers of profitability including managing costs, production quality and efficiency, pricing for profit, achieving some minimum level of sales volume, building repeat customers, and managing risk.
Books or Guide about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture
Paul Dietmann on Setting Your Farm Up for Financial Success
1 hour & 15 minutes of Free audio by Farmer To Farmer Podcast
The single most important thing to do when starting a farm is to create a month-by-month cash flow projection. In the short term, cash flow is much more critical than profitability, because if cash flow is negative, the farm cannot survive once cash runs out. Profitability comes into play when the farmer is ready to retire or pass it on to the next generation.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Define It: Categories In Action
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
What category means in the context of a grocery store is difficult to define. Categories could be defined as groups of products that meet a similar consumer need or that can substitute for each other. This allows something like snacks, as a category, to cover many different types of products and have a plethora of sub-categories (salty snacks, sweet snacks, etc.).
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling
A Farmer’s Guide To A Pick-Your-Own Operation
28 pages of Free report content by University of Tennessee Extension
Producers interested in a Pick Your Own (PYO) farming business model should analyze whether or not market potential exists before developing the enterprise. Farmers should conduct a market analysis to determine if a potentially profitable market exists for their PYO.
Books or Guide about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Shared-Use Kitchens And Their Tenants: A Shared Path to Financial Sustainability
1 hour & 40 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
FEED Kitchens is a shared-use kitchen that also serves as a business incubator for food businesses. Currently, about 80% of their revenue is from fee-for-service kitchen use. They would needabout 45%-50% use (24 hours a day, 365 days a year), up from their current 35% and with a few more anchor tenants to completely cover costs with fee-for-service revenue only.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling
Pricing Through Distribution Worksheet
Free tool by Edible-Alpha®
Food and Beverage producers should always work backwards from the selling price to determine the wholesale price. Sometimes both retailer and distributor margins can be lower in certain competitive product categories and in large scale conventional distributors and retailer. However, it is difficult to sustain at a Gross Margin Contribution of less than 35%.
Tool or Template about Sales and Marketing for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Wisconsin Local Food Marketing Guide
106 pages of Free report content by Wisconsin DATCP
How do you get started in local food production and marketing? What do you need to consider? Like any business venture, establishing the entire concept and developing the initial steps may seem overwhelming. You must learn a whole new set of skills and be proficient at them for your business to succeed.
Books or Guide about Operations for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Innovation in Food Is Different Than Tech
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Big food companies realize that they need to innovate. Rather than innovating only in-house, many have been acquiring or strategically investing in new brands at a rapid pace. Innovation in food needs to be matched with an emotional and cultural connection to the consumer through relentless communication about food company's brand promise.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Considering Manufacturing In-House? Waste Can Be A Resource That Improves Your Food Business’ Bottom...
1 hour & 15 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Zero Waste Facility Certification can improvea food business' bottom line while helping them meet existing standards for building design, construction and operations. LEED and Zero Waste Facility Certification also give them a framework to exceed standards where it makes business sense.
Podcast about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Entertainment Farming and Agri-Tourism
16 pages of Free report content by NCAT/ATTRA
Small diversified farms are ideally suited to agri-entertainment. The chief qualification for the rural landowner who expects to make a living from the land through agri-tourism is the desire and the ability to cater to tourists and meet their expectations of a farm visit.
Books or Guide about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Amazon’s Acquisition of Whole Foods Disrupts Distribution And Presents Opportunities
20 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
There are many reasons why selling food online is difficult. When cognitive neuroscientist track our brain activity as it relates to food, they find that the pleasure centers of our brains light up when we eat and even when we shop. This acquisition opens the possibility that consumers can benefit without degrading their shopping experience.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
How Much Is My Company Worth? Company Valuations With LBW Wealth Management
1 hour & 10 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
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.
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
List of Documentation For Approaching Lenders and Investors
Free checklist by Edible-Alpha®
Much of the difficult part of raising money is putting together the requested documentation for lenders and investors. This includes everything from tax documents to sell sheets to simulated proforma financial statements with realistic assumptions about the company's growth.
Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Organic Agriculture in Wisconsin: 2017 Status Report
44 pages of Free report content by University of Wisconsin-Madison
According to data from the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), Wisconsin had 1,334 organic farms in 2015, nearly doubling over the last 10 years. Wisconsin remains the second state in the nation in total number of organic farms, second only to California. Wisconsin ranks third behind California and Montana in the number of organic acres.
Books or Guide about Operations for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
What does “local food” mean to Wisconsin consumers?
4 page Free report brief by University of Wisconsin-Madison
What "local" means is not universally agreed upon. Most Wisconsin consumers (86%) agree that food grown in Wisconsin is local. Many (75%) consumers also feel that food grown within 50 miles and/or a one-hour drive from them is local.
Books or Guide about Operations for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Advisors and Feedback Are Essential to Food Business Success
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Most successful entrepreneurs have a network of support behind them, like an advisory team, board of directors and funders. These individuals provide mentorship and guidance that is invaluable for that company's success, augmenting what the entrepreneur and management team bring to the fold.
Article about Operations for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
SBA 504 Loans with Diane Byler of WBD
35 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
An SBA 504 loan is a special product that can only be offered by a Certified Development Company (CDC) like WBD in partnership with a local lender. The 504 loan is designed to help small businesses grow and create jobs by financing fixed assets like real estate and equipment through low, fixed rates and lower down payments (10%).
Podcast about Raising Capital for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
True “Disruption” of Food Is Difficult
10 minute Free read by Edible-Alpha®
Consumer tastes, preferences and expectations around food consumption and distribution are changing. People are demanding more healthy food while also sometimes making the foray into purchasing food items online, mostly non-perishable, potentially hollowing out the center of grocery stores.
Article about Business Models for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups
Food Hubs with Tara Roberts-Turner of the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative
55 minutes of Free audio by Edible-Alpha®
Due to its business model, Wisconsin Food Hub Co-op needed to reach at least $3.3 million in sales to break even. To maintain their margins, they built capacity through adequate staffing and have cheap warehouse space close to their farmers which serves only cooling and aggregation/distribution functions, rather than other forms of value-added processing.
Podcast about Business Models for businesses that are Growing and Scaling
Outline Of A Funding Request for a Food or Beverage Business
Free template by Edible-Alpha®
The focus of the narrative request for funding is to substantiatehow much of what kind of money the company needs and for what purpose. This should be done after other documentation and should be relatively brief to make it easy for lenders/investors to read. It should supplement other materials present in the financial package, like the pitch deck.
Tool or Template about Raising Capital for businesses that are Pre-Venture | Startups | Growing and Scaling