Regenerative Business Development
**Webinar Series**
August 9th - October 25th 2017

The Basics

David Fisher, of Maui Venture Consulting, will be leading a 12 week webinar that is an invaluable resource for HFUU members. David has 27 years of experience in Hawaii helping small businesses. The class is an upgrade of a successful series taught at the Maui SBDC (Small Business Development Center) integrating triple bottom line concepts, social impact investing, new technology and "lean/agile" methods with a focus on the evolving realities of artisan and health based food and energy systems.

Who Is Eligible: Hawaii Farmers Union members statewide, FAM graduates.
What: A 12-week course designed to help you evolve your own projects while attracting partners and funding. Members may participate in individual sessions, or any mix, as long as they are registered.
When: Every Wednesday, 8/9-10/25

  • Part A - 11:30am to 1:00pm
  • Part B  - 7:00pm to 8:30pm
  • Videos will be available for participants during the series.

Where: Online and/or face-to-face at Central Maui location.
Cost: 3-6 hours a week of your time – Engage - Free for Members of HFUU/NFU

Sign-up Instructions: Online registration is closed, however, members can still join the series by emailing course facilitator, David Fisher at df@mauiventure.net.

Invited Guests (Partial List)

  • Roger Johnson & Dave Velde from the National Farmers Union (NFU) and NFU Enterprises
  • Scott Enright from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA)
  • Buddy Nichols (USDA) Steve Chiang – UH AIP/GoFarm
  • Wayne Wong & others (statewide SBDC network)
  • Statewide buyers (grocers, chefs, DOE, farm mkts)
  • Amy Cortese – Local Food System Investment
  • Cutting Edge Capital (Oakland, CA)
  • Natural Investment (Kramer & Frasier)
  • Slow Money Hawaii & Mainland
  • Polyface Farms (VA) and other successful models

Benefits to Participants

  • Learn the components of viable business models and their presentation - both classic and new social impact.
  • Be a part of a supportive collaborative research and design effort - to flesh out ideas
  • Participate at your convenience from the comfort of wherever you are
  • Develop your personal network with statewide, national and global resources
  • Be able to pitch your ideas to potential supporters mid-way and at end of series
  • Find people and projects that are worthy of your support.
  • Develop a toolkit with todays most relevant business concepts, processes, language and support systems.
  • The ability to make written and oral business presentations for investors, bankers, or grant funders.
  • An ongoing Face-to-Face and online support network

Series Format

The webinar will be a mix of:
  1. Short topic presentations with Q&A from webinar leader David Fisher
  2. Case study/presentations with Q&A with guest speakers
  3. Participant presentations of their ideas and research in progress - with feedback Q&A from other participants and guests.
The face-to-face version on Maui is primarily targeted to the Farm Apprentice Mentoring graduates but all are invited and there will be "hangout" time before and afterwords.  We will figure out whether we do potluck or have people bring "brown bag".
The morning and evening sessions will be different.   The evening session will have a 1.5 hour "pre-session" starting at 5:30 to accommodate those not able to make the lunch session.  This pre-session will include select videos from the lunch session (featuring long distance guests) and/or some repetition.

Course Schedule

schedule

Homework

Participants will be encouraged but not required to work on developing a project, either their own or helping with someone elseʻs project.   Assignments will be articulating a business model based on what is learned in class, creating financial models, doing market research, refining operation design, negotiating agreements, and pitching to partners and investors.

Course Credit

This is not a college accredited course (yet).  Those who participate fully through attendance and by completing assignments will receive a certificate of completion.

Confidentiality

Participants will have the option of presenting privately, although they are encouraged to share in order to get broader feedback.    Videos with group discussion will only be available to participants.

Course Topics

HFUU members may choose to participate only in select topics - but must still register for the complete series.
Organic gardening/farming as a guiding metaphor for healthy business development (a think piece in progress)
  • Organic Growing Concept  - Regeneratve Business Dev Concept
  • Polycrops – portfolio theory
  • Crop rotations – marketing mix
  • Soil health – your personal network
  • Soil Test – Balance Sheet
  • Being in relationship with your farm/garden – being close to your stakeholders
  • Beneficial Indigenous Micro-organisms – buying local, promoting from within
  • Water - Cash
  • Sun – Information
  • Seeds – ideas
  • Pollinators – Conferences, tradeshows, seminars
  • Air/Wind – Communication – open to others
  • Minerals – key metrics
  • Ahupuaha – dynamic organizational framework that recognizes life cycles and relationships

 

Class Showcase as of October 5, 2017

Visit the Class Profiles page for a list of brief biographies of each class member.

Made Possible via Support From:

3-sponsors