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Missouri Department of Agriculture

Ag Business Development

Exploration and assessment

This phase sets the stage for your new value-added venture. You need to surround yourself with a hard-working set of producers and a knowledgeable set of resource-providers. Also, you must make sure that everyone involved has the same vision. If you cannot agree to a common purpose and vision upfront, developing the business plan and recruiting potential producer-investors will be very difficult. The following are some of the steps you should take during the Exploration and Assessment Phase.

Form a steering committee. Choose a group people who are well-respected, hard-working and willing to work as a team to build your new business. You should also make sure that the individuals represent the various geographic areas your project will likely involve during the start-up process.

Identify your shared purpose, vision, mission and values. Ask yourself, “what is our reason for joining together as group of producers?”, “what do we want to be in 5 and 10 years?” and “what are the things we value?”

Formulate and develop your business ideas. Determine how you plan to capture value from your commodities and narrow your list to a few options. You can begin the process by brainstorming in your steering group, or you can work with persons who are knowledgeable about market opportunities in specific commodity sectors. It may require a little research to find the business idea that best meets your purpose, but you can assign parts of this task to members of your steering committee.

Conduct an initial assessment of your market opportunities. Ask yourself “does this idea make sense given the competitive environment of the industry?” and “will this provide a good or service that someone will be willing to purchase?”

Identify resource providers, such as facilitators, information specialists, and consultants, to assist you in the start-up of your venture. You need to surround yourself with good resource providers. Whether it is an, a local economic developer, an Ag Innovation Center staff member or other value-added agriculture professional, there are resource providers available to assist you throughout the state. These resource providers can help you locate information, facilitate and plan meetings, and help you manage the project from idea to implementation.

Prepare a budget for estimated start-up expenses and develop a financing plan for paying for these expenses. Potential sources of funds for start-up expenses are producers and other local sources, businesses in your area, local associations, and state or federal grant funds. In order to gauge commitment to the project, producers should be asked to contribute at least part of the start-up expenses.

Incorporate your new organization under appropriate state statutes. You will need to hire experienced attorneys to help you with this stage.

If your group of producers is committed to the project and can work as an effective team and you have developed a list of potential business ideas, you are ready to proceed to the next phase, feasibility.

The Ag Innovation Center staff is here to assist you in starting or expanding your agriculture-based business. Contact us today!