Stimulating Maryland Agricultural Entrepreneurship through Curbside Roundtables and Individual Planning

View the project final report

• 2010 annual report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: decision support system, display, extension, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, technical assistance
• Sustainable Communities: community development, employment opportunities, leadership development, new business opportunities, partnerships, sustainability measures

Farmers, who may be budding entrepreneurs, sometimes feel like their families and friends won’t support them in a new venture or that they didn’t know where to begin the planning process. While Maryland may be the richest state in the Union according to the U.S. Census, it now suffers from double-digit unemployment and a state budget that has gone from surpluses to deficits. These challenges, coupled with the dairy crisis Maryland dairymen share with the rest of the country; nurturing agricultural entrepreneurship is vital to both rural and community development in the Free State. But entrepreneurs are made, not born. They are by nature individualist who want to learn from other successful entrepreneurs and from their peers. They also need to have a sounding board for their ideas and dreams and a trustworthy “reality check” in their business planning process. Developing the agricultural “entrepreneur coach”, someone who can listen and advise budding agricultural entrepreneurs, is also an important component of any rural entrepreneurship program. This proposal has three components: (1) the identification and training of entrepreneurial coaches from across the state, (2) conducting 3 open roundtable discussions across the state to provide a platform for agricultural entrepreneurs have an entrepreneurial coach listen, critique, and advise them on their business idea and provide follow-up resource, and (3) having entrepreneurs follow-up with business development professionals and use the resources on MREDC to develop a business plan and launch their businesses. We will be looking for both short-term and long term outcomes. We will focus on our capacity building measures such as the number of members recruited to become Entrepreneurial Coaches (target 10), then the number of entrepreneurs attending the roundtables (target 45), the number of attendees that follow-up with their coaches (target 20), the number of attendees that visit www.mredc.umd.edu for information (target 30), and then the number who complete a written business plan (10). Additional follow-up will determine the number of new business launched. Outreach and promotional efforts will include websites, newsletters, articles, and presentations to agricultural organizations and major agricultural conferences in region.

Entrepreneurial development efforts take time. It is a long-term economic development strategy. We will be looking for both short-term and long term outcomes. First, we will focus on our capacity building measures such as the number of members recruited to become Entrepreneurial Coaches (target 10), then the number of entrepreneurs attending the roundtables (target 45), the number of attendees that follow-up with their coaches (target 20), the number of attendees that visit www.mredc.umd.edu for information (target 30), and then the number who complete a written business plan (10).