University of Wisconsin offers help to growing food & farm businesses

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University of Wisconsin offers help to growing food & farm businesses

Wisconsin food and farm businesses looking to expand or create value-added products have help available through the Universities of Wisconsin Office of Business Entrepreneurship.

Paula Gilbeck tells Brownfield the Food Finance Institute, the Small Business Development Center, and the Center for Technology Commercialization have been around for years, but few businesses know about them.  She says they have the coaches, experts, and grant writers to help take an idea to market. “You get coaching for a six-month period that really takes you through every single aspect of what you need to succeed. That’s an interesting program because it’s really comprehensive, and people walk out with a business model, an actionable business model for doing whatever it is that’s holding them back.”

Gilbeck says they’ve helped farms obtain grants to take a commodity and create a value-added consumer product. “That’s a big step, right, if you’re used to having a dairy farm or you’re used to producing a commodity crop to be able to then eliminate those additional steps in the production process and increase your profit that way.”

Gilbeck says one of many success stories is Carbliss, which utilized the Small Business Development Center and the Food Finance Institute to create alcoholic beverages that turned into an international brand. In the last five years, the university program has helped 870 new businesses get started, and raised more than 557 million dollars to help them.

Farmers and others interested in business and financial assistance to bring new products to market can reach Gilbeck by email, here.