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Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." ~ Dwight Eisenhower 

 

WELCOME TO THE CULTIVATING COMMERCE PROGRAM

OF

CONSERVATION WORKS!

 

Our over-arching mission is to foster sustainable communities within Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake Counties of California.   We work with individuals, groups, and communities to support resource protection, resilience and sustainability.  Cultivating Commerce is the business and community development program of our non-profit organization.

We encourage entrepreneurship growth whether at the farmer level or in a business that recognizes the importance of maintaining a rural community lifestyle in the North Coast.  We recognize the difficulties that start-ups have as they struggle in developing and implementing a viable business model in our rural area.  Cultivating Commerce is designed to assist these entrepreneurs in a variety of ways.  Information on educational workshops, online training, funding, and more is posted to help users in developing business plans, marketing plans, whole farm plans, and other tools--all designed to assist entrepreneurs in beginning or expanding their rural enterprise.

Whether adding a niche marketing endeavor such as boutique honey production to an existing winery or pursuing a startup organic vegetable farm, beginning farmers can be successful with sound preparation and planning.