Opening a new food business or farm can be a tricky thing to accomplish with the costs and everchanging regulations. There are resources available to help get you started though. One of these resources is the Food Finance Institute.
“I was committed to the idea that I wanted to make it possible for farmers and small food entrepreneurs to get sophisticated financial technical assistance,” explains Tera Johnson, the founder of the Food Finance Institute. “They need the help these days to grow or even to get started.”
Tera Johnson created a company that was the first organic whey protein in the world. Through this she had to guide her own way through how to get the business started. She had to build a factory and in order to do that she went through a big capital raise. This allowed her to learn more about money and how to raise and allocate it to start a business. After selling the business she wanted to find a way to help people using her experiences. This led to her starting the Food Finance Institute.
Johnson started the institute at the University of Wisconsin. She chose to do this because she wanted to make sure the assistance was affordable for people who might not be able to put lots of money down to start or grow their business.
What They Do
In their work Johnson says that there is always a level of one-on-one work depending on the business. This allows them to help each business on their individual scale to raise money or better learn how to allocate the money. The help they offer also includes building equity, scenario planning and technical assistance. The Food Finance Institute also has a “Boot Camp” that is a course people can take to teach them how to start a business or further their business. In this “Boot Camp” they teach people how to raise money and make decisions based on their individual business model.
The Food Finance Institute has helped 389 farms since 2017. Tera Johnson says that it has been incredible to watch it grow since she first started the institute 10 years ago.
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