Community Huddle Blog – Food-Based ESO’s & Scaling – InBIA InBIA
Community Huddle: Food-Based ESOs and Scaling
Huddle occurred on August 29, 2024, By Lisa Brennan, InBIA Membership
The Community Huddle focused on challenges and strategies for supporting food-based
entrepreneurs. Key points included the importance of early-stage coaching, access to capital,
and expert networks. The University of Southern Illinois’ new food testing facility was
highlighted, emphasizing the need for local food testing to avoid product spoilage. Group
discussions covered obstacles like specific food industry regulations, affordability, and scaling
issues. Resources like the USDA’s Regional Food Business Centers and Business Builder grants
were highlighted as potential aids for businesses. The meeting concluded with plans for future
events and the creation of a resource library in iConnect to share valuable studies and strategies.
As Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs), we are continually seeking ways to improve
our services and offer better assistance to our food-based clients who wish to scale their
businesses. For our huddle we focused on the following framing questions:
- Introspection, identifying areas of improvement and strategizing how best to enhance
our capabilities. What internally would we need to do as ESO’s to better help ourselves
and to better assist our clients with scaling? What does that look like? - What kind of investments would we need to make? How do we obtain the necessary
resources for those investments? Major obstacles in scaling often involve managing
increased workload, maintaining quality, and ensuring financial stability. As ESO’s, what
are the biggest challenges in scaling and how do we overcome them? - If we are able to supply the necessary resources and support our clients with scaling their
businesses, what does that mean for our communities? What are the benefits if we are
able to successfully help our members scale?
What we found:
- Highlighted need for feasibility, market research, access to capital, and experts in
equipment. - Discussed the idea of local government incentives for investors, and the importance of
solving supply chain and food testing issues. - The importance of early-stage coaching for entrepreneurs to set goals and determine
growth metrics. - Issues of building relationships with retail grocery store buyers and angel investors.
- Covered the lack of understanding of margins and profits, difficulties in scaling from
home to commercial kitchens, and the high cost of health department regulations. - USDA’s Regional Food Business Centers and the Business Builder grants for operations
and equipment. The centers provide technical assistance for small and mid-sized food
and farm businesses. - The discussion highlighted the importance of funding and financing for food businesses
and the challenges in securing it. - The discussion covered the importance of finding specialty experts and the role of
mentors and students in supporting food entrepreneurs.
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