Kauai Economic Development Board

AGRICULTURE

BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

Planning for Profitability

Kaua`i Economic Development Board and its Food & Agriculture Committee are pleased to announce the 2011-2012 Kaua`i Coffee Agriculture Business Plan Competition (ABPC), created to foster and promote business growth in the food and agriculture sector on the Garden Isle. Business planning is crucial to success for new and established businesses. The mission of the Kaua`i ABPC is to bring together and provide the best possible resources – including education and training, networking and mentorship, team-building facilitation, and access to venture financing – so agricultural ventures can create the best business model and business plan to present to landowners, venture capitalists, and other investors.

This initiative has been created to stimulate the local Kaua`i’s agricultural sector to build diversified, healthy, and profitable agri-businesses. Currently, millions of dollars leave our state to support agri-businesses elsewhere. Producing and consuming locally grown foods keeps these monies in our local economy, reduces our dependence on imports, decreases the “food miles” involved in transporting imported foods, conserves energy and reduces our carbon footprint, and helps create new business and new jobs. Non-monetary benefits include promoting healthier lifestyles and good nutrition, and building pride in supporting local agri-businesses.

The Kaua`i ABPC will debut in Fall 2011 to potential new and existing farmers, value-added food producers, and ag-based renewable energy entrepreneurs to learn how to build successful, profitable agricultural ventures. Informational sessions, each followed by a facilitated Networking/Team-Building Session, will be delivered in each of four major regions on island to market the program and its unique and unprecedented opportunities.

Phase I of the Competition will commence in January 2012 with “How to Write an Executive Summary” workshops to prepare potential participants to submit Executive Summaries in February 2012. Teams selected by our panel of distinguished judges to advance to Phase II of the Competition will take an eight-week “How to Write a Business Plan” course in March and April 2012, which will include training on topics such as marketing, financial management, legal issues, human resource management, food safety, conservation planning, financing, and more. In addition to all the facets of running an agri-business, each team will hone their presentation skills as they learn to present clearly and succinctly to a body of in-class judges, who will critique every nook and cranny of their business.

At the end of the course, each team will submit a full business plan to be reviewed by the panel of distinguished judges, who will select the top 7-10 teams to advance to Phase III. In this last Phase, each team will present in-person to the judges panel, which will select the top three winning teams to receive prize money and on-going technical assistance. The Awards Presentation will be followed by a Networking Reception, to which landowners, suppliers, investors and other potential partners will be invited in order to encourage deal flow and collaboration.

However, although prize money will be awarded to the top three winners, the value of participating is not found only in the seed funding, but in the process that brings together an unprecedented body of resources that would ordinarily be hard to access. The Kaua`i Coffee Agricultural Business Plan Competition will offer agri-preneurs a very unique venue to act upon their entrepreneurial agriculture ideas within a supportive and highly rewarding environment.