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Food Biz Boot Camp

Have you always harbored a dream of starting your own food business – a niche grain mill, specialty jam or relish, or locally made pasta? With funding through the USDA Rural Economic Development Grant, the Small Business Development Center of Linn Benton Community College is sponsoring a Food Entrepreneurs Workshop: Food Biz BootCamp during the spring of 2011. Come find out what it takes to move your idea to market.

The 48-hour workshop will be held over three Friday-Saturday sessions during March and April for a total of six sessions. It will feature speakers from local food product companies and include tours of local small, mid and large food production facilities.

The intent of the workshop is three-fold:

Create a community of practice – a cohort of food business owners throughout the Linn-Benton area who can support one another through the challenge of establishing a local food business
Give participants a sense of what it takes to create a successful food business - challenges, considerations, stories from successful entrepreneurs
Expose participants to available resources - local food networks, farmer’s markets, on-site processing, distributing, business planning, financing, marketing and more

Topics to be covered include:

market analysis
business planning
business ethics and principles
local food community
understanding shelf-life requirements
selecting a manufacturing site
understanding federal, state, and county regulations

liability issues
packaging
marketing
product placement
company and product sustainability
start-up funding, growth
professional networking

The fee for this three weekend course will be $295. Limited scholarships will be available for qualified participants. If you have additional questions, please contact foodbizinfo@linnbenton.edu.

Food Biz Boot Camp Program Dates:

Friday and Saturday, March 4-5, 2011, LBCC Lebanon Center
Friday and Saturday, April 1-2, 2011, LBCC Benton Center
Friday and Saturday, April 29 -30, 2011, LBCC Albany Campus

Schedule | Registration | Scholarships

Organizing committee and individual sponsors include: The Small Business Development Center at Linn Benton Community College, Corvallis Chapter of The Natural Step Network, Cascades West Council of Council of Governments, Albany Millersburg Economic Development Center, Business Enterprise Center, and First Alternative Co-operative.