Entrepreneur Club meeting Wed. July 28 - Food Packaging 101

Join us for our Iowa County Entrepreneur Club July 28th. 6 PM

Social gathering 5:30


July eClub meeting:
Food Packaging 101.

Curious about growing or starting a food business?

Have you ever wondered how the experts design and pick the right packaging for successful food products?

This month will be valuable to anyone growing or considering a food based business. Phil Strause from Infinity Packaging is an expert in the vital area of food packaging. Phil will walk us through the process the pros follow when helping customers choose and specify the right packaging for their food product starting with the basics.

Phil will briefly cover packaging safety and handling information, potential regulations, requirements and permits as well a packaging help for shipping, distribution and sales.

Bring all your food packaging questions! Phil will help us take our projects from idea to effective food packaging. Food Packaging 101 is designed to answer your questions. Join us!

What: Food Packaging 101
When: Wed. July 28, 2010 6 PM (Social gathering 5:30)
Where: Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen
851 Dodge St. Mineral Point, WI 53565


Save the upcoming dates:

Aug. 25 - Labeling solutions for food products (@ WI Innovation Kitchen)
Sep. 22 – Ways to plan and finance your business startup or expansion
(@ Stonefield Apts. in Dodgeville)
Oct. 27 - Entrepreneur Intellectual Property 101
(@ Stonefield Apts. in Dodgeville)


Location and Meeting Details:

Wednesday, July 28, 2010. There will be a social time beginning at 5:30 and the meeting will begin at 6 PM. The location is at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, 851 Dodge St., Mineral Point WI. The event is free to the public.

Networking among attendees will be encouraged in the evening's program. "Our goal is to grow our network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, innovators and those that support them in the Iowa County area" said Rick Terrien, Executive Director of ICAEDC.

The Iowa County Area Entrepreneurs Club is an informational forum where entrepreneurs, inventors, existing businesses, new businesses and people thinking about starting their own businesses can come together to encourage each other and share challenges and opportunities. The group meets on a monthly basis, usually the fourth Wednesday of the month.

Join us! Bring a friend!


Iowa County, Wisconsin
Come Grow With Us



Iowa County area Entrepreneur Club

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen information

Kiva update

I knew of KIVA.org but not the details until my friends Larry and Carol gave me a gift certificate which translated into funds to lend to micro entrepreneurs worldwide through KIVA.

Kiva connects people through lending to alleviate poverty.

What a rewarding journey that gift has provided ever since. This post is my current KIVA report.

Overall, Kiva.org. As of December 25, 2009, Kiva has distributed $110,671,610 in loans from 631,345 lenders. A total of 157,207 loans have been funded. The average loan size is $401.66. Its current repayment rate is 98.13%

My first post about Kiva and my microloans in December of 2007.

Check out the results!

Existing /past loans:

Chantal Dolou. Lomé, Togo. 100% repaid!

Allahverdy Kuliyev. Absheron Region, Azerbaijan 100% repaid!

Srey Touch Nuon Group. Chheu Teal Phluos Village, Cambodia. 41% repaid. Right on target.

Josefina Aurora Castro Barrenechea. Cochabamba, Bolivia. 24% repaid. Right on target.

New loan:
Canal De Bendicion 6 Group. La Romana, Dominican Republic. $1,550 loan request. Now fully funded.

This is all funded from a $100 gift from friends.

KIVA.org home page. Check it out!

Oh what a Grand Opening!

Oh my gosh. We expected about 250 people to attend last Sunday's Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. More than 600 wonderful visitors joined us.

The media got it and helped the discussion in very useful ways. I'll put links below.

My favorite news sources for information about sustainable work in my region is the Sustainable Times, published and edited by George Zens. George did an excellent summation of the possibilities inherent in a facility like the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen in this month's issue. 10,000 copies are available through 350 locations in south central Wisconsin. The photos and the writing are excellent!

(one minor exception: George quotes me as saying there are 47 trillion ways to use this facility. I actually said about 47 trillion. I think there may be more… )

Some of the links below go right to the source. The TV links need to be searched using page numbers at the bottom of the video player section. Scroll back to find our date (July 11, 2010) and the title noted in the post below.

What a remarkable 'blessing' as Hodan Center Executive Director Tom Schraeder referred to our Grand Opening. I'm going to build a page on the Innovation Kitchen site that as a photo gallery of the Grand Opening and will post that link soon.

In no particular order here is a group of links to media about the Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

Enjoy! Everyone at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, The Hodan Center and the Iowa County EDC sure did!

Thank you everyone who visited last Sunday or is just joining our journey.

Welcome to Iowa County Wisconsin and our wonderful new story!

Media coverage of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

TV:

Our first Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen TV interview. 7/9/10. "If you've ever dreamed of growing or starting your own food business but didn't have the capital to start from scratch, opportunity may await you with the Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen." Thank you Carleen Wild, NBC TV 15 and NBC15.com

Your stories: Grand Opening for the Innovation Kitchen. 7/11/10. "In addition to allowing emerging or established food entrepreneurs access to the facility, the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen also has business and marketing assistance available to its clients." Thank you Chris Papst, NBC 15 and NBC15.com

Innovation Kitchen offers opportunity for entrepreneurs. 7/11/10. "Anyone can prepare their own recipes in the one million dollar kitchen, and can actually sell them. The facility also has its own food processing services. Owners say the kitchen will create jobs and give farmers and food entrepreneurs access to tools and equipment." Thank you TV 27 and WKOW.com


Print:

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen will be boon to region. "This is a big shiny spaceship that has landed in rural Wisconsin". Wisconsin State Journal. 7/9/10. Thank you Jane Burns and MADISON.COM

Sustainable Times. July 2010 (No. 66), page 1. Great story and photos. Now available at 350 outlets across south central Wisconsin. Not yet online. Will link ASAP Thank you Sustainable Times.


Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen Offers Opportunity for Food Entrepreneurs. "It's a food Ferrari." Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network. Thanks WEN network.

Iowa County's Hodan Center mixes business and service to help disabled adults Great article in the Wisconsin State Journal about the Hodan Center, featured on the weekend of our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen Grand Opening. Thank you Jane Burns and MADISON.COM

Radio:

New enterprise hopes to bring fresh, local food to the masses. Scroll the Wisconsin Public Radio archives for 7/12/10. "A first of its kind commercial kitchen is opening in Mineral Point this week. The goal of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is to help family farmers and small restaurants get their specialty foods on to supermarket shelves in southern Wisconsin." Thank you Gil Halsted and WPR.


Photo credits

Top photo courtesy of The Dodgeville Chronicle Thank you Jean Berns Jones!

Bottom photo courtesy of E. Terrien


The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is open for business!

First TV interview about the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

We had our first TV interview about the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen today on NBC 15 in Madison, with Host Carleen Wild.

To see this, go to the link below.

There is a video player on the right. Below the player are icons for individual stories. When you scroll over the icon you can read the description.

Ours says "VIDEO: Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen 7/9/10". Three minutes long.

Because this aired this morning it has been bumped to inner pages by newer pieces. You will need to scroll backward to find the Innovation Kitchen interview, using the links below the story icons.

Thank you very much Carleen Wild, NBC TV 15 and NBC15.com!



NBC15.com podcast. Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen Interview. Scroll back to 7/9/10 and this title.

Photo above is of our Hobart Vertical Chopper Mixer (VCM). This also mixes bread and baking doughs at commercial scale.

Innovation Kitchen summary prior to launch

The Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is next Sunday, July 11.

I've been working to hone down the introduction of the facility to something useful that people can use to take action steps.

This will surely morph as new information arrives, but this is where we are headed as the Innovation Kitchen launches this week:

Overview:

• A new 10,000 square foot commercial food processing kitchen at 851 Dodge St., Mineral Point in Iowa County, WI. Opening July 11, 2010.

• Owned by the Hodan Center, a center supporting adults with disabilities.

• Their food lines, sold under the Papa Pat's Farmhouse Recipes brand, are sold in more than 700 stores in 26 states.

• Their new kitchen to be shared with food businesses and food entrepreneurs and the wider community.

• State-inspected, community-shared commercial kitchen strategically located at the heart of 35 million people.

• Only community shared kitchen in the U.S. with professional food processing staff available.

• The Innovation Kitchen staff can provide all services needed to professionally prepare recipes for commercial sale. Services include, purchasing, preparation, processing, packaging, labeling, storage, distribution, as well as in-house business, marketing and sales support.

• With appropriate certifications Innovation Kitchen Partners can rent the Innovation Kitchen on an hourly basis to process their own recipes.

• Four separate preparation process can be carried out simultaneously: baking, canning, dehydration, and dry mix production.

• In-house business support is available through our Entrepreneur In Residence program.


Three key opportunities:

1. Existing food businesses can grow their enterprises and create new jobs using shared infrastructure, equipment, and services. We help others grow and create jobs.

2. New food businesses can startup affordably in a state-certified commercial kitchen. We have Partner programs to support most kinds of business startups.

3. Non-food businesses and organizations can support their own businesses as well as local foods. We can private label local food products using your brand and logo.


Four Partner Programs:
Two Primary. Two Community Support

Partners create mutual support and benefit.

- PRIMARY PARTNERS:

1. Preparation Partners. The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen prepares your recipe for you.

2. Processing Partners. You prepare your recipe in the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.


- COMMUNITY SUPPORT PARTNERS:

3. Event / Education Partners. You produce a food related special event utilizing the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

4. Purchasing Partners. We provide ingredients, packaging and related food processing materials for Partners working in the kitchen or Partners in the community needing commercial quantities of food grade supplies for their own operations.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Innovation Kitchen photo tour

Iowa County and our entire region is getting set for the Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen in Mineral Point on July 11.

Here is the first photo tour of the kitchen equipment. We posted this tour to the site map late today.

Tour equipment and capabilities at the Innovation Kitchen.

Rules of Thumb for the Innovation Kitchen

The following text is borrowed directly from a really wonderful book I've posted about before, 'Rules of Thumb' by Alan Webber, Cofounder of Fast Company Magazine.

I've talked about the only way to do effective startups is to love what you do because you'll be spending extraordinary, I-can't-believe this-is-taking-so-long time together.

Alan Webber's book 'Rules of Thumb' says it better.

For the emerging group of food entrepreneurs we have coalescing around the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, I'd like you to read this carefully and please take it to heart.

In fact, all entrepreneurs need to adopt this attitude to succeed.

I think the Innovation Kitchen has the potential to create a new, widely reproducible model for doing economic development.

What the Innovation Kitchen now needs are committed, inspired food entrepreneurs steeped in the wisdom of their craft, and in love with the pursuit of continuously getting better.

Fast Company magazine under Mr. Webber was one hell of an inspiration. I hope his words inspire you to start now, start smart but just start.

Following a description of false media images of fast track gurus-of-the-moment, Mr Webber offers the following, which I highly endorse.

Rule #44: When it comes to business, it helps if you actually know something about something.

"I have a slightly different model in mind.

It doesn't matter how old you are.

Start with something you feel passionate about. Don't think about getting rich. Think about something that you are driven to do. Something you would do even if it never made a dime.

Learn everything you can about your passion.

Read everything you can get your hands on. Find someone who knows more than you do and glue yourself to them. Start a collection that displays your passion. Surround yourself with artifacts, history, examples, everything you can find about the thing you want to master.

Keep going until you know more than anyone about the one thing you care more about than anyone."

Many of our best Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen entrepreneurs are on this path. It's an honor to walk with them.

Are you a family farm looking to create value added products? Are you a chef with a great idea for a year-round food line? Are you a food entrepreneur?

Join us on our walk. The Innovation Kitchen is open for business.




Alan Webber's Rules of Thumb

The Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is July 11th in Mineral Point, WI.

New Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen web site

The Innovation Kitchen is coming to life. Checklists are being double-checked. Final connections are being made. It's easy to close your eyes and imagine all the good that can come from a facility like this.

Our friends at the Hodan Center made a beautiful office at the Innovation Kitchen available to our Economic Development Corp. I moved in last week. Computers are wired in. The stuff of everyday workflow is transferred and available. Our EDC logo is in the window. Phones are ringing. We're open for business as the Innovation Kitchen gets set for its Grand Opening on July 11.

Our goal is to put business resources in play at the Innovation Kitchen site to help grow existing food businesses, and enable new food entrepreneurs to launch innovative new food enterprises.

This week's news - The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen has it's first stand-alone web site. We had been organizing it on the EDC web site until now. We just organized the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen at its own web address this weekend.

This is just the beginning of course. Much more to wire in as time goes on.

http://www.wi.innovationkitchen.org

I was able to update the facilities and equipment list this morning with Annette and Tom's help. If you are an existing food business looking to grow, or an aspiring food entrepreneur, check out the equipment list that's available beginning this summer in our state-certified kitchen.

Iowa County, Wisconsin. Come grow with us.


The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen new web site.

97% of farmers agreeing on anything...

We wrapped up a grant-funded worker training program in South and Southwest Wisconsin called the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) program from the U.S. Department of Labor.

In Wisconsin, the WIRED region includes Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Marquette, Richland, Rock, and Sauk Counties.

For our piece of it, we (Iowa County/SW CAP) were fortunate to receive a grant for training area farmers about growing vegetables at a commercial scale meant to serve institutional users. We were also able to emphasize the possibilities of local foods processing in our new Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

First, special thanks to new ICAEDC Board member Dr. Lorin Toepper from the Iowa County Town of Highland and Madison College for helping organize this grant. All of the planning and execution was done masterfully by Beth R. The good folks at SW CAP made it all possible by acting as the fiscal agent and organizer. Links below.

This is how the final WIRED newsletter described our project:

"Using WIRED funds, Southwest Community Action Program created an Agriculture & Agribusiness Peer Network to link member farmers with economic development experts, education providers, entrepreneurs and businesses. Participants gained valuable knowledge in areas of planning, budgeting, and safe growing, as well as handling and harvesting techniques for vegetable growers.

Accomplishments:

48 certificates awarded to participants

5 training sessions held with 97% of attendees rating the sessions “highly satisfactory."

My goal in all this is to help create valuable new platforms for doing entrepreneurship and innovation. We can't make jobs in rural economies without the infrastructure to support innovators and entrepreneurs. Iowa County is at the front edge of a movement to create new opportunities for job creation in agriculture and local foods.

Having worked in rural economic development for some time now, getting 97% of farmers to agree on anything is an accomplishment, let alone a 'highly satisfactory' rating for the presentations our group organized. I am thrilled with the outcome, and the possibilities for what comes next.

The WIRED grant supported our work building new peer-to-peer networks in agriculture. I'm watching parts of these new networks unfold in valuable, unanticipated ways.

Almost like it was planned. Thanks to WIRED. I enjoyed helping and learning from all the many great contributors to this project.

Now let's keep that work going!



Southwest Community Action Program (SW CAP)

ICAEDC, Iowa County Area Economic Development Corp.

Tom Peters. 'The Little BIG Things', and local entrepreneurship

I've set down the new Tom Peters book all over my home and office, fully impailed with post-it notes.

'The Little BIG Things' is Mr. Peters' most recent contribution. It's a great series of short essays about organizing our business lives wisely in the 21st century. I've been a huge fan of Mr. Peters for many years, starting with the publication of the seminal, 'In Search of Excellence'.

The people that can hire Tom would be larger organizations not typically startups and emerging enterprises, but he writes in a way that will benefit any small business, especially those wanting to be sustainable through chaotic economic times.

Here's a piece from Mr. Peter' bio (linked below):

"'Excellence in Execution'... was, is, wherever, and forever will be Sustainable Competitive Advantage #1."

At the end I'm going to focus this advice on local foods entrepreneurship and our new Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

Check out these pieces from a guy I believe has changed capitalism in the last few decades:

"I sometimes, and not in jest, call 'it' the only thing I've learned 'for sure' in the last 44 years.

She or he who tries the most stuff… wins!

44 years.
One idea.
Not bad."

And this, in part, immediately followed:

"ACTION WORDS:

'Experiment fearlessly' - Business Week on the #1 tactic of innovation stars.

'Ready. Fire. Aim.' - Ross Perot and others [Editor's note - Please note that 'Ready' is the first step in the sequence].

'Intelligent people can always come up with intelligent reasons to do nothing.' - NPR host Scott Simon

'Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something.' Football coach Bill Parcells.

'You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.' - Wayne Gretzky."


This is real life business advice for any entrepreneur, startup or small business.

I especially think there are specific lessons for food entrepreneurs considering starting or growing a food business through our new Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

We are setting it up as a platform capable of running many kinds of experiments in artisan and commercial-scale local foods processing.

If local foods are to be made available year round they need processing of all kinds. The Innovation Kitchen will be a platform for testing and growing food businesses to meet this demand.

All of Mr. Peters' books are valuable. This new one "The Little BIG Things" is a great addition.

So, fellow food entrepreneurs, please pay heed to Mr. Peter's one 'sure thing' idea when considering the possibilities of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen: "She or he who tries the most stuff… wins!"

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen opens July 11. Join us that day in Mineral Point.



Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen Grand Opening July 11. 11AM to 4 PM.

Tom Peters' site. It's been my greatest writing honor to be included on Mr. Peters' recommended blog roll for the past 4 years.

Tom Peters' bio.