(Spencer)– Local entrepreneurs will want to check out a couple of workshops the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation will be putting on after the first of the year. Spokesman Brian Dalziel says the first one, titled “From Recipe to Reality”, pertains to those looking to market their own food products…(click here for comment.) “To help individuals do that we have partnered with the University of Nebraska and we are bringing a workshop called From Recipe to Reality. It’s a one-day seminar from 8:15 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening on Saturday, February 16th, right around the bend after the new year. You come, you learn all about food labeling requirements, the nutritional statement requirements and all these various regulations. More importantly you learn about marketing approaches. How do you build a brand, how do you get that product out there, packaging, there’s all sorts of different things to think about when you want to product out on the store shelves and this seminar will help give people a real kick out there and get ’em movin’ and get ’em quicker.”
Dalziel says the other is intended for those looking to start up any type of business…(click here for comment.) “The Coffman Fast Track New Venture program put on by Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation is a 10-week 30-hour entrepreneurial training program. It starts on February 26th, just shortly after the food seminar is. It runs from 6:30 to 9:30 in the evening, so three hours an evening, for 10 weeks. It’s a total of 30 hours of training. It ends on April 30th of 2013. Each of the three-hour sessions cover different things: identifying and meeting market needs, creating a business plan, planning, market research, cashflow planning, all these different things are covered in different sessions. We bring in guest speakers such as Jill Harms from Blink Marketing, we bring an attorney in to talk about intellectual property protection, we bring in all these different folks to serve as guest speakers. Each week has a different guest speaker. We talk through first of all how much money you need to get your business started, who’s your customer, how do you know they have a need for the product or service that you’re going to sell.”
More information can be found online at lakescorridor.com or by calling them at 264-3474. Pre-registration for the workshops in required.
