Success Story: Missouri

With timely advice and guidance from the Missouri SBTDC and other University of Missouri Extension Business Development Program (BDP) services and personnel, mother and daughter Kim Harrison and Olivia Vann invented an online service linking food buyers and sellers, called 2BuyAg. 2BuyAg is free for producers, with buyers paying a nominal percentage-based convenience fee.

2BuyAg firmly believes they are in the right spot at the right time to offer an online marketplace for food buyers to connect with local farmers. 2BuyAg, like many revolutionary ideas, was born of necessity. Harrison and her husband operate Harrison Valley Farms near Fulton, which has been producing and marketing pasture-raised and grass-fed beef and lamb since 2007. They sold to farmers’ markets, restaurants, food hubs, even individual buyers, endlessly driving across the state to make deliveries.

“The wear and tear on our family was just too much,” says the energetic Harrison. “We met ourselves coming and going. And it’s hard to do all the marketing and maintain the sheep and cattle, too.”

She began to think about how the farm could streamline marketing. She also realized her problems were by no means unique; all producers face the same issues.  (more…)

Success Story: Vermont

When March rolls around in Vermont’s Green Mountains, many large-scale sugar makers are already hard at work tapping trees and boiling sap into the sweet syrup the state’s famous sugar maples provide. But there’s also a cadre of small-scale home producers who focus on providing a gallon or two for their families and friends.

Those small-scale backyard operations did not go unnoticed by husband and wife team Justin McCabe and Kate Whelley McCabe, who themselves had struggled with finding an efficient way for backyard sugar makers to produce affordable syrup for their families.

“Our young family could not find an affordable, fun way to sugar on a small scale, given the products on the market – and lack thereof,” Whelley McCabe said. This led them to open the Vermont Evaporator Company, a Montpelier based business that makes small-scale maple sugar evaporators for backyard sugar makers. Priced at $825, the evaporators are far more affordable than many of the professional models seen throughout Vermont and beyond.  (more…)

Success Story: Idaho

Angie Stevens worked full-time and taught music part-time for years. In 2015, she was ready to focus on music full-time and designed an innovative, membership-based studio, Boise Music Lessons (BML).

Angie contacted the Idaho SBDC where she and her partner, Marcus, worked to differentiate her position in the market; developing a unique value proposition and identifying ideal clients. With this assistance and her experience in music education, Angie was able to set her business apart in an industry with high competition. (more…)

Success Story: Connecticut
New England Site And Infrastructure Management

Todd D. Howell has always had construction and entrepreneurship in is DNA. He began in construction at the age of 13, and at 17 he owned his first business.

He was a seasoned small business owner when he started New England Site and Infrastructure Management in January, 2008, and since then the City of New Haven has come to rely on Todd and his organization in a number of capacities.

Year-round, he is an organic recycling and re-purposing company, making leaves, wood and brush into a marketable mulch and soil product. And in the winter months, he does municipal snow plowing, ice control and snow melting, and holds a four-year A and B contract for the streets and roads for the city of New Haven, Connecticut. To top it off, in the spring and fall months, he performs excavation, site work and paving.

In 2015, Todd was ready to access capital to expand. He needed the help of a knowledgeable person to navigate these difficult waters. New Haven City Mayor Toni Harp referred Todd to the Connecticut Small Business Development Center (CTSBDC), where he met CTSBDC Business Advisor Joe Williams.

Joe and Todd got to work reviewing Todd’s business plan and budget, and prepared the paperwork to access capital. From this work, Todd earned a Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Express Loan and Grant, which has helped him to acquire new equipment, create five jobs and save another five. Mr. Howell is actively involved in hiring New Haven residents for positions in his business.  (more…)

Success Story: Missouri

We live in a 24-hour-a-day world.

Supermarkets, fast food restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations, pharmacies and even gyms are increasingly open every hour of every day. And that doesn’t even include all the places we expect to be staffed 24 hours a day, such as police and fire services, hospitals, factories, nursing homes and correctional centers.

That’s a lot of people in every American city and large town. And many of these people have small children with no one to watch them at night.

And that’s where Lakaisha McCaleb, co-owner and co-founder of Joy & Gladness Children’s Academy LLC in Jefferson City, Missouri, helps spreads joy and gladness with her 24-hour day care.  (more…)