MONROE — Green County Development Corporation is hosting an intensive, four-day Boot Camp for owners of food, beverage or value-added farm businesses this winter in a series of four sessions.
Tera Johnson, founder and director of the Food and Finance Institute at the University of Wisconsin, will lead participants through morning training sessions. Along with other consultants, Johnson will work one-on-one with participants to help fix problems and move forward to implement solutions.
The boot camp is specifically designed to focus on the strategic and detailed financial side of business. It helps participants focus on areas that frequently get set aside and walks them through each step with individual coaching.
By participating in the boot camp, food business owners can expect a clear, realistic business model path that they can articulate to anyone. They can also put in place financial systems and reports that stand up to bank and investor scrutiny, create a credible business plan with realistic assumptions for future growth and a digital financial package that can be shared with stakeholders to support fundraising.
The program includes four full-day sessions. All sessions will be held at the Enterprise Center at the Monroe campus of Blackhawk Technical College.
Sessions are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15 and Tuesday, Feb. 19, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16 and Wednesday, Feb. 20.
Johnson draws on personal experience in helping small business owners. She founded TerasWhey a decade ago when she had an idea to reclaim some of the organic whey she saw being mixed in with nonorganic whey for animal feed and instead process it into powdered protein supplements for human consumption. In 2008, she built a “green” plant in Reedsburg to process the organic whey. In 2010, TerasWhey was named the Innovator of the Year by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. By 2013, Johnson sold it for $26 million.
Johnson is also host of the Edible-Alpha podcast which discusses a variety of topics relevant to food and beverage entrepreneurs.
Class size is limited. Interested entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply to the program as soon as possible. Contact Green County Development Corporation for more information at 608-328-9452 or gcdc@tds.net.
