Rural Action Projects | Business Development

by Tom Brenner, Business Facilitator for Rural Action

Home Office Telephone & Fax 740-696-0211
April 2004

Business plans are necessary for startup and growing businesses that will be borrowing money from a bank or other lending institution. The content of your business plan and the size of your documents reflects on the amount of time you have spent doing research on your business proposal. Business plans can be as little as a few pages or as thick as a big novel. In a way, it is like a novel that is telling the story of your business as you envision it becoming. It is important that the business plan be typed and edited for content and grammar. Using a computer with a word process makes this task a lot easier than it used to be. As you write your business plan be sure to save it frequently. Saving the plan to My Documents file and to 3 1/2 floppy. or CD-RW and printing out a dated copy of your plan to read will give you the insurance that all was not lost if your computer fails. Put the date of the last revision of your business plan on the first page. Add content and revisions to your business plan whenever you feel inspired. Most guides to writing a business plan tell you to write the executive summary last. However, most loan review committees may only read the executive summary and the parts of the financial information that describes your ability to repay the loan. They may flip through the rest of the document to see how thorough you were in researching your business. A business plan is useful even if you are not going to apply for a loan. The plan documents your business history. Review it, add or delete, put a new date on the revision and use it as a map to your business future.

Call Tom Brenner (740) 696-0211 to discuss your business ideas and contact the following resources for business development:

OSU Extension Community Development, Jeff Shaner, Extension Agent (740)962-4854, email: shaner.2@osu.edu. Business development assistance in Morgan County.

Small Business Development Center (SBDC www.ohiou.edu/sbdc

For Morgan/Washington counties, Pamela Langford, Director SBDC, (740) 374-8716, email: plankford@wscc.edu .

Athens County, Susan Abdella, Director SBDC at Ohio University (740) 593-1797, email: susan@arei.org

SBDC will help you think through the process of starting a small business and assist you in developing a business plan, finding sources of financial assistance and put you in touch with people that can help you as you start your business. They offer a free three-hour seminar called Basis of a Successful Start (BOSS) that covers the essentials of a business startup. Participants will leave the seminar with an excellent resource packet that will help them start the writing of their business plan, up to date financial resources to contact and an invitation to meet with a counselor to discuss their business development strategy. The BOSS seminar is usually offered in the evenings and is scheduled monthly or bi monthly in the counties of southeast Ohio.

Enterprise Development Corporation www.edcseo.org

(740) 797-9646 or (800) 822-6096 is a private, not-for-profit organization providing consumer credit counseling, revolving loans, access to capital from banks, venture capital organizations and other lenders. EDC provides free and low-cost training opportunities and fee-based application to credit sources. Enterprise Works is also based at the offices of Enterprise Development Corporation and offers business start-up services to people with disabilities.

Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet) located on Columbus Road in Athens is a business incubator focusing on technology and food businesses. Explore their website www.acenetworks.org for abundant information on value added food product development, access to capital and links to related interest areas. Phone (740) 592-3854.

Resources for herb, food and agriculture businesses.

Some Rural Action people you want to talk to are:

Tom Redfern, Sustainable Agriculture Coordinator at the Trimble office, (740) 767-4938, email: tomr@ruralaction.org

Shana Byrd, Medicinal Herbs Specialist at Rural Action Forestry in Glouster, (740) 767-2090, email: shana@ruralaction.org

Chip Carroll, Education Coordinator at the Rural Action Research and Education Center in Rutland, (740) 742-4401, email: chipc@ruralaction.org . Ask Chip about the Roots of Appalachia Growers Association, www.rootsofappalachia.org and the National Center for the Preservation of Medicinal Herbs.

Information about markets for herbs may be found through the following websites:

www.npicenter.com Natural Products Business Center

www.ahpa.org American Herbal Products Association

www.herbs.org Herb Research Foundation

www.nnfa.org National Nutritional Foods Association

www.spins.com Natural Products Trends

www.nmisolutions.com The Natural Marketing Institute

www.herbalhealer.com “Global supplier of safe, natural medicine, correspondence education and research. Healing the world with nature.”

Other sustainable and alternative food and agricultural resources:

www.oeffa.org Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association

www.growbiointensive.org Sustainable Mini-farming

www.sare.org Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, a US Department of Agriculture competitive grants program.

Useful publications

Farm Show . Bimonthly for everyone in agriculture interested in latest new products and ideas. www.farmshow.com

American Small Farm . Monthly for persons who own or operate small farms or ranches. www.smallfarm.com

Mother Earth News . Bimonthly. The original guide to living wisely. www.motherearthnews.com

Backwoods Home Magazine . “Practical ideas for self-reliant living.” Bimonthly. www.backwoodshome.com

Countryside & Small Stock Journal . “The magazine of modern homesteading.” Bimonthly. www.countrysidemag.com

Entrepreneur . “Solutions for growing businesses.” Monthly packed with practical business information, ideas, resources and links. www.entrepreneur.com

Smart Computing in Plain English . A monthly publication that provides an excellent education to everything you need to know about using computers. A paid subscription entitles the subscriber to access online all past issues plus read all of the manuals and other magazines published by this company. www.smartcomputing.com