Starting a Business?microgreens

Whether adding a niche marketing endeavor such as boutique honey production to an existing winery or pursuing a startup organic vegetable farm, entrepreneurs struggle in developing and implementing a viable business model in our rural area. Cultivating Commerce is designed to assist these entrepreneurs in expanding or establishing their businesses while ensuring environmental protection of our agricultural and natural resources

Many agricultural operations have slowed or been eliminated in the past few years in our 4-county area as small farmers and ranchers struggle to make ends meet, especially during a lengthy drought period and a pandemic.  Entrepreneurships in agricultural and natural resource areas add to job growth while helping maintain the quality of life for the people who live in the region.  Some of the entrepreneur opportunities include nature and agricultural tourism, beekeeping/honey making enterprises, local food production with local marketing, and alternative energy development.  Tourism is one of the major industries in Northern California.    Encouraging entrepreneur growth in agricultural tourism can result in additional new startups as well as addition of value-added activities for local farmers, resulting in increased jobs.  Examples are many with Farm Stays,  local food production for the emerging grow local/eat local movement, or new beekeeping operations which can provide both niche honey production as well as pollinator supply for crops.  Finally, alternative energy production such as from biomass also adds jobs, which are enhanced when the energy production can also result in a product to sell, such as biochar from sustainable biomass energy development. 

There are unmet needs for supporting startup businesses or expansion of business related to the agricultural and natural resource areas.  Cultivating Commerce is designed to teach farmers, ranchers, and others specific skill sets to allow them to focus on new business opportunities.   Our business model includes developing additional partnerships with other non-profits doing related, but different, business support.   We also have cooperative relationships with local governments, especially economic development agencies as well as the permitting and planning arms of government.  We intend to facilitate classes and workshops in key areas of business development especially directed to the agricultural and natural resource-related entrepreneur through work with our cooperating partners.  Participants in Cultivating Commerce will find support for their unique entrepreneurship creativity, learn techniques and processes to make their entrepreneur endeavor a success, and will improve their quality of life and that of others in our area through expansion of job opportunities.

Youre not alone

Two of the most important connections you can make as a young or beginning farmer is to get to know your local Resource Conservation District and your area University Cooperative Extension office.  Five of our partners are Resource Conservation Districts, who work with landowners to find funding for important resource protection projects, and can also advise farmers about their operations and lands:r non-profits doing related, but different, business support.   We also have cooperative relationships with local governments, especially economic development agencies as well as the permitting and planning arms of government.  We intend to facilitate classes and workshops in key areas of business development especially directed to the agricultural and natural resource-related entrepreneur through work with our cooperating partners.  Participants in Cultivating Commerce will find support for their unique entrepreneurship creativity, learn techniques and processes to make their entrepreneur endeavor a success, and will improve their quality of life and that of others in our area through expansion of job opportunities.

The University of California Cooperative extension service has many resources for agriculutural operators and has programs in the counties:

Funding for land purchases or leasing is often difficult to locate, but resources do exist to help aspiring farmers:

  • Potential Loan financing: http://www.calcoastal.org/
  • California Farmlink:
    • FarmLink's direct lending currently features loans from $2,500 to $650,000, with flexible withdrawal and no early repayment penalties, that can be used for production (one-year seasonal operating loans) or for equipment and infrastructure (multi-year loans). Check out current interest rates and other essential ionformation on their website: https://www.californiafarmlink.org/loans/
  • Kiva Zip fundraising: The NCRC&DC is also a Kiva.Zip sponsor (Trustee), and successfully helped a new entrepreneur achieve their micro-loan goal in less than a week of fundraising.  If you need a startup loan for a sound project, check out Kiva Zip.
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