As the growing season winds down, it’s the perfect time to revisit your business plan. KCARD’s latest post shares five quick ways to strengthen your plan before year-end — from updating goals and finances to preparing for upcoming funding opportunities. Learn how KCARD’s free, confidential assistance and Business Plan Development Guide can help you plan for a successful year ahead.
The first Growing Your Farm and Food Business Workshop in Pulaski County brought farmers and food business owners together for hands-on sessions in planning, funding, and grant writing. There’s still time to take part—join KCARD this fall in Shelby or Graves County to gain new tools, connections, and confidence to grow your business.
Forming an LLC is an important step in protecting your farm or food business—but it’s only the beginning. To truly gain the benefits of limited liability, you need to operate like an LLC in practice. That means keeping finances separate, maintaining records, and following the right business practices. Learn the key differences between having an LLC and running one—and how to make sure your business is protected.
Applying for a grant for your farm or food business can feel overwhelming. From project planning and budgets to telling your story, there’s a lot to manage. Check out our blog for 5 tips to strengthen your application and see how we can guide you through the process.
AI isn’t just for big tech companies — it’s already part of the tools you use every day. From creating social media posts to understanding your customers, AI can make farm and food marketing faster, easier, and more effective. Here’s how it works and simple ways to get started.
As an agricultural business owner, it’s inevitable that you will be asked the question “what do you do?” by a wide variety of people, such as potential customers, investors, or even competitors. You might be asked at a school event, community gathering, or even while at the grocery store. Having a clear answer to this question can help you make new relationships that will help your business.
Keeping records is VITAL to your business. It helps you measure your growth (or decline), see what is costing you the most, and give you an idea of how much money you have at a given time. A business owner must think about how they can best keep records to ensure the system will be useful. In this blog post, KCARD outlines the three different types of recordkeeping systems.
“I need a feasibility study.” Maybe. When we hear these words at KCARD, we are going to want to know a lot more about your business and what you want to do with it.
You’ve made your first hire, gotten all the paperwork and file systems in place, and are ready to start training employees. How do you set yourself and your employee up for success? Below are some key points to focus on to make sure both parties have a successful experience.
When you first find a grant program that could fit your interests, your main source of information will typically be a document called the “Request for Applications”, also called the “RFA” or in federal programs, a “Notice of Funding Availability” or “NOFA”. This document is key in determining if a grant is a good fit for you or your organization and can easily surpass 40 pages in length. While you will need to read the entire document eventually, we suggest reviewing the following sections first:
FOMO. Yet another acronym that I had to learn from someone much younger than me. FOMO = Fear of Missing Out. It’s the term associated with people incessantly checking their phones, worried about missing out on the latest news about a celebrity, politics, an earthquake on the other side of the world, your friends’ vacation pics or missing out on experiencing something they are only learning about because of the phone in their hand.
In October and November, KCARD hosted a 6-week webinar series to help people work on their business and figure out what funding resources are out there that are good fits. Below are our top 5 takeaways from the series.
Spencer Guinn, one of KCARD’s business development specialists, took some time to answer a few questions about himself and one of KCARD’s new services, AutoCAD drawings.
In mid-July we hosted the “Direct-to-Consumer Beef Webinar Series” with several partners including the University of Kentucky Department of Animal and Sciences, Kentucky Beef Council, and several others. We offered this series to respond to the conversation and education around proper production, processing, business development, marketing, and sales for finished beef. We’ve pulled together a few of the noteworthy takeaways from the webinar series.
Direct marketing is a wonderful way to promote your farm and fulfill a need for consumers. Our guest blogger, Dr. Gregg Rentfrow, has been with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension program since 2006 as the Meat Specialist. Dr. Rentfrow works closely with meat and livestock producers, and the 4-H and FFA programs in the state to provide training and education about meat production. Dr. Rentfrow is a trusted and valued resource for KCARD wit his extensive knowledge of the meat and livestock industries and has participated in several KCARD Marketing Locally Grown Meat workshops in the past.
The Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development is a non-profit organization established to facilitate agricultural and rural businesses in Kentucky. We are supported primarily through grants provided by the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Program and the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board. Additional support is provided through our work with partners around the state and through fees charged for select client services.
