Here’s the link: http://www.pressherald.com/life/foodanddining/slow-money-offers-capital-idea-for-farmers-producers_2012-05-02.html

FMI or to register: Ken Morse
Coordinator, Maine Farm to School Network
ken@healthyoxfordhills.org
207-393-0134

The importance of your brand
Determining your brand
Executing your brand
Expanding on your brand

Liz McLellan has worked on such Clients as Welch’s, LoJack, Delhaize Group, Hood, TD Bank, People’s United Bank and Greenpeace as a Account SUpervisor at The VIA Agency, Ad Age’s 2011 Small Agency of the Year. In her spare time she freelances as a Brand Consultant for small, local businesses including a clothing designer, publisher and frame shop. She also has a small side business making and selling made-goods and secondhand clothing. Liz strongly believes that branding has expanded from the traditional sense of a logo and collateral, especially with the immediacy of social visibility and response.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Effective Email Marketing for Small Business
Speaker: Emily Brackett,Visible Logic

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing’s ROI for 2011 was $40.56 for every $1 invested, one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing effort. Email marketing, such as e-newsletters or e-zines, is a proven method for connecting with current clients and prospective customers, but many small business owners are not using the tools effectively. This workshop will give strategies and tips for building and maintaining an email marketing plan.

This workshop will show you how to:
Build a targeted list: grow your list while remaining compliant with anti-spam laws and how to segment your list for better results.
Create engaging content: why compelling content is key to the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Track your progress: why should track opens, clicks and how to use that data for improving your efforts.
Build your brand: use your email communications as a way to gain trust, show your expertise, convert clients and build your small business.

Emily Brackett is president of Visible Logic, Inc. a graphic design and branding firm in Portland, Maine. Visible Logic works with small, growing businesses to help them build compelling and comprehensive brand identities. This work includes brand strategy, logo design, web sites, printed marketing materials, social media campaigns and also e-books and printed books. After years of designing e-newsletters, Visible Logic launched Mail on the Mark to create beautifully designed, custom-branded, highly functional e-newsletters. Emily has a BA from Carleton College and a BFA in Graphic Design from The Massachusetts College of Art, and has owned and run Visible Logic since 2001. She writes and talks about design and business online, across New England and on her own blog.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012
You Tube
Speaker: Rich Brooks, Flyte New Media
YouTube Marketing for Online Success

Are you using online video as part of your web marketing mix? If not, you’re missing out on a lot of potential business!

Over 800 thousand people watch YouTube videos each month, which is almost as many people who are on Facebook! YouTube videos also appear high in search engine results, giving you an opportunity to quickly leapfrog your competition in the search engines.

Creating videos is inexpensive, too. You probably have all the equipment you already need!

In this fast paced session you’ll learn:
How to create videos that will engage your audience
How to setup a professional looking YouTube channel
How to make videos that come up higher in YouTube searches
How to add annotations and links within videos
How to create overlay ads to drive traffic back to your website

Lunch and Learn Specifics
Time: 12:00 – 12:20 registration
12:30 to 2:30 PM workshop
Location: Wishcamper Room 133- USM Portland -Unless otherwise specified
Cost: $15.00 (payable cash or check the day of the seminar)
FREE for USM students with an ID card
No charge for current MCED Onsite or Affiliate Client Companies
Feel free to bring a lunch; coffee & water will be provided
RSVP to: Ljohnson@mced.biz
More Info: Here
Pre-Register: Reservations are strongly encouraged to assure adequate space and seating.
Walk-ins are welcome, space permitting.

Portland Buy Local is pleased to announce that Michael Shuman, author of several books including “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity,” will be coming to Portland to discuss how buying local can positively impact the economy.  The talk will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 at SPACE Gallery, located at 538 Congress Street, Portland.  There is no cost to attend.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the most promising way to create new jobs is to nurture new, small, and locally owned new businesses.  Small, local businesses constitute roughly half a typical community’s economy, and even more in rural areas and small towns.  Yet almost none of Americans’ $30 trillion in long-term savings—in stocks, bonds, pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance funds—goes into these businesses.

In his new book, Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity (Chelsea Green, 2012), Shuman argues that the most important economic stimulus opportunity for the United States today—and one that would cost almost nothing to implement—would be to relax securities laws that stand in the way investing in local business.

On May 3, Shuman will discuss how new investment tools – including those just legalized in a new Crowdfunding Law – could begin to move as much as $15 trillion from Wall Street to Main Street and create millions of new jobs.  There will be time available for questions and answers.

Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and Director of Research and Marketing for Cutting Edge Capital.  He has authored, coauthored, or edited eight books.  His most recent book, just published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense:  How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006.  He helped co-found BALLE, which represents 22,000 local businesses in North America in 80 communities, and is now a Fellow there. He is also a Fellow at the Post-Carbon Institute. At Cutting Edge Capital, a consulting firm that helps communities and businesses solving finance challenges, he manages its economic-development initiatives.

“Starting this summer we will have the freshest produce, dairy and meat delivered right to the Acting Manitou table from some of Maine’s local farms!! The state of Maine has over 1.3 million acres of farmland, and so Acting Manitou has partnered with a team of farmers, local food advocates, and nutritional consultants to launch a Farm-to-Table initiative and to improve health and wellness  at camp. The entire salad bar will be stocked with produce from a local farm! Staff & campers will enjoy weekly local food day, and other selected great Maine items integrated into the daily menu.

While just the wonderful nutritional value alone of getting our produce straight from the farm makes this endeavour worthwhile, we feel proud to support local Maine economy, teach our campers excellent eating values, and quite simply, locally farmed produce just tastes better.

Sam and Alexandra May, parents of Rowan, who you may remember as “Bert Healy” in this summer’s Annie have been the driving force behind this initiative.  Additionally, our chief farmer friend is Trent Emery, owner and operator of Emery Farms in Wayne, Maine, less than 30 minutes from camp.  We’ll also be working with Marada Cook of Crown of Maine,the largest distributor of local Maine food.  Earlier this year, we traveled to Portland to meet the crew for lunch.  Trent brought spinach harvested that morning on his farm and Tim and Steve ate about four helpings worth!

AND our local food advocate partners from the non-profit organization Barrels will join us in educating our staff and campers on the value of sustainable agriculture and supporting the  local economy. They’ll help us with a composting project, which can be used to turn food scraps and grass cuttings into fertilizer for our fields and flowers, and help us create, alongside our campers, Acting Manitou’s first organic veggie garden!

Our friends at Camp Manitou, right next door, helped spearhead this initiative and will also take part in the local food movement.

We are excited to be one of the first camps to embrace the farm-to-table initiative, and proud to support the farmers and local businesses in Maine!”

Speakers including David Orr (Oberlin college, Down to the Wire), Vt. Gov. Peter Shumlin, Woody Tasch (Slow Money), Chris Martensen (The Crash Course), Charles Eisenstein (Sacred Economics), James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency) and many others!

For more information and registration details, see Slow Living Summit

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Equity Prep
Speaker Don Gooding, MCED

If your company is thinking about raising equity – selling shares – there is a lot to get ready before you start asking for checks. This Lunch and Learn will walk through the rather extensive list of things to prepare, from financial models, pitch decks and Executive Summaries to cap tables, reference lists, deal structures and exit options. Do you know if and why you need a PPM or should highlight EBITDA? Is your corporate legal work in order? Even if you don’t need the cash for a year it’s not too early to starting prepping for raising equity.
***This workshop will take place at MCED Offices

***Seating is VERY limited, please pre-register

There are two current projects in Maine that are using a popular platform called KickStarter that provide good examples on how crowdfunding works.  The Maine Grains campaign is using KickStarter to purchase and install the remaining bins and ductwork needed to open their grist mill.  Bahner Farm’s campaign is to provide funding to build a farm stand.

The collective and direct aspects of Crowdfunding without high costs for intermediaries, has gained a significant following. Historical examples from the 70′s include Grameen Bank and Foundation focused on microfinance in the poorest parts of the world while more recent examples since 2000 are Artistshare and KIVA with a variety of project offerings. Criteria for participation as vendor or customer vary and can be found on related web sites. There are many platforms currently functioning throughout the U.S. and abroad such as Seedrs and Funding Circle (UK), GrowVC (Hong Kong), and LendingClub.

Developing awareness of this “P2P” (person-to-person) financial tool for business and equity investments has resulted in exploration of varied options and the complexity of SEC regulations. National legislation passed in March 2012 through JOBS (Jumpstart our Business Startups) would allow unaccredited investors opportunities to invest up to $10K or 10% of their income (whichever is less) in varied sector businesses. The SEC has 290 days to review this bill so there is no clarity at this point about final legal approval and implementation. Public reaction to this option seems quite mixed. While many agree with regulations, they also believe that those created by the SEC in the 1930′s need to be updated in ways that suit our current social and economic environment.

Conferences and articles related to a new economy regularly feature the topic of crowdfunding and new platforms and businesses are focusing on what many consider to be a revolution in democratic investment opportunities. It will offer a financial vehicle for many more Americans to participate, provide new opportunities for diversification and profitable investing, bring increased awareness to creative projects and build a bridge to venture capital in emerging sectors like local sustainable food systems.

A partial list of resources follow which will lead you to more information if you’re interested:

Books:

Locavesting by Amy Cortese

Local Dollars, Local Sense by Michael Shuman

People & Platforms:

Spencer Taylor/Launcht; www. Launcht.com; spencer@launct.com; 802-238-0319

Kevin Lehman/ThreeRevolutions; www.threerevolutions.com; kevinjlehman@gmail.com

Other Kickstarter Food Projects in the U.S.

http://grist.org/sustainable-food/put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is-funding-food-on-kickstarter/

She described several varied SMM activities, and encouraged everyone to find a point of entry and engagement in our work, emphasizing that involvement depends less on the contents of our wallets than the commitment to align values and actions to support local food systems. She shared the fact that our network now has 400 participants and that over 30 individuals and organizations have helped to catalyze the flow of $2.7mm dollars to local food systems in Maine through grants, loans, equity investments and  loan guarantees. With legal guidelines in place, there are now six economic development groups in the state that are serving as fiscal sponsors for funds to be re-granted to for-profit businesses in the ag sector. These include the following, with beneficiaries in parentheses: SEDC (Maine Grains, Blue Ribbon Farm, Grassland Farm, The Pickup, Cayford Orchards and One Drop Farm), AVCOG (Maine Organic Milling), KVCOG (Crown of Maine Cooperative), Maine Farm, Bureau (Lake Shore Farms), WCAP (Coastal Farms Food Processing), & WHCAP (Blake’s Slaughterhouse). These grants have provided great community support for our intentions to help develop infrastructure businesses that are essential to sustainable food systems in Maine.

Brief attention was given to some approaches that are being explored as part of a “new economy” picture such as crowdfunding platforms with equity investments as an option, B Corporations, focused on triple-bottom line performance (social, financial and environmental), credit unions created to house ag loan funds, and more. Further discussion of these topics will be held at future SMM gatherings.

We then heard from four primary presenters, most of whom provided tasty healthful snacks related to their enterprises. Synopses of their talks follow:

Lisa Webster/North Star Sheep Farm: Lisa and her husband are members of multi-generation farm families in Maine and maintain a flock of 700 sheep on several historic farms in Windham. They also own and operate a grounds maintenance company that employs 22 full time gardeners. With an intention to regionally expand their business, they began a partnership with Whole Foods last year to sell lamb in ME & MA. Their animals feed on 625 acres of certified organic grasslands with supplemental grains as needed. Their limitations relate to organic certification given the the lack of consistent high-quality locally grown hay and whole grains but they hope to have a 100% organic and locally sourced operation in the next 2 years. Additional challenges include lack of local processing facilities (they now travel to VT), grain and fuel costs and weather conditions impacting storage. She described the many benefits of sheep products including healthy, high protein meat; dairy products; wool for textiles and other goods; and value-added by-products such as lanolin and leather. Current revenue is $17K/wk of fresh lamb, with 100,00 lbs. sold in 10 months. They are self-financed, profitable and eager to build a supply chain for success. Plans for the near future are to increase sheep numbers in Maine, develop more producer education programs, create a modern packaged lamb program, introduce new technologies in fiber program, and increase success in lamb program beyond existing markets and drive economic development in Maine. Throughout her presentation, Lisa emphasized the importance of educational outreach and collective aspects of moving a thriving sustainable food system forward in Maine. For more information, call Lisa at 892-2161 or e-mail northstarfarms@me.com; also see the powerpoint below

NSSF Presentation

Lee Kane/Whole Foods: Lee’s title is Eco Czar/Forager of the North Atlantic region. He shared the 30+ year history of Whole Foods as the first nationally certified organic grocery and emphasized the importance of the company’s core values. His presentation was focused on the Local Producer Loan Program which began in 2006 with $10mm to meet needs for small, low interest loans to food producers. To date, about 118 loans to 103 companies have been made for a total of $6.1 mm. Loans range from $25K (for start-ups) to $100k though the average is $50K with current interest rates of 5.5%. Administrative fees are low ($65) and there is no penalty for early repayment. Recipients in Maine have included MOM’S Organic Munchies, MOO Milk and Maine Medicinals. The Portland Maine store has the highest number of local producers represented. For more information, call Lee at 617-492-5500 x3071 or e-mail lee.kane@wholefoods.com; also see the powerpoint below

Whole Foods Presentation

Monique Coombs/Lobsters on the Fly: As a writer and wife of a lobsterman on Orr’s Island, Monique began this non-profit in 2009 by writing a cookbook to benefit the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. Since then she has done free-lance articles for varied publications, networked with many people in Maine food systems, taught cooking classes, hosted or participated in local food discussions, and developed the Maine Seafood Marketing Network. Serving as the Network Director, with no budget and a few volunteers, Monique is determined to increase awareness and enjoyment of Maine seafood and enhance relationships between fishermen, fishing communities and consumers. Her intentions are to develop and increase seafood markets and accessibility; help create a Maine brand of seafood; incorporate needs of new markets and explore innovative opportunities; and help coastal fishermen and businesses access other regions of Maine. One of her current projects is working with local restaurants and breweries to connect people with well-matched seafood and beer. For more information, call Monique at 807-5539  or e-mail lobstersonthefly@gmail.com; also see the powerpoint below

Lobsters on the Fly Presentation

Alice Percy/Treble Ridge Farm: Alice and Rufus live in Whitefield where they’ve been farming since 2005. While a primary farm focus is on hogs (70+), their diversified MOFGA-certified organic operation includes goats, feeder pigs, hay (60A), vegetables (2.5A), beans, grains (12 A) fruits and specialty crops. Their plans include improving profitability of current endeavors, such as expanding their grain enterprise to 50-100A and expanding the hog operation to 150 slaughter hogs/yr. Their short-term financial needs are $55K to finance equipment for forestry and farm operations. Longer term, they are seeking a business/financial partner to develop plans for a slaughter plant project. For more information, call Alice at 441-2098 or e-mail trebleridgefarm@gmail.com; also see the powerpoint below

Treble Ridge Farm Presentation

Updates included the following:

Noah Wentworth/SMM Steering Committee: Noah presented the SMM governance documents, including the previously approved Mission and Core Activities and the recently approved Governance Structure component, for group review and discussion. Group feedback was positive. All documents are available on our web site.

Brenda Wells/FSA: Brenda focused on FSA’s new owner financing program to help with the transfer of farm ownership to farmers who have been farming from 3-10 years. For further information, call Brenda at 626-8196 or e-mail brenda.wells@me.usda.gov

Sarah Miller/KLFI: Sarah spoke of progress on many fronts since her SMM presentation in July 2011. KLFI’s online buying club, set up with the help of Jeremy Bloom, now has 135 members and is funded by Maine General Health. The group has conducted cooking classes with the help of Healthy Communities of the Capitol Area, Caring Community Gardens, Good Shepherd Food Bank and Co-operative Extension. Students have included teens at the Gardiner Boys and Girls Club and adults at Faith Christian Church. KLFI still hopes to open a permanent storefront in downtown Gardiner that would house a food store, cafe and educational kitchen. For more information, call Sarah at 712-9734 or e-mail klfi@gardinerfarmersmarket.org

Michael Bartner/VP, Slow Money national: Michael shared that SM has catalyzed the flow of $16.5 million dollars to 101 food system enterprises, 2/3 in local loans and 1/3 in equity, since its inaugural national gathering in 2009. He noted that Maine is the leader among the regions involved. Michael mentioned that the national office has moved to Boulder CO and that national leaders have been working on governance issues for the organization and its 14 chapters throughout the country as well as developing communication strategies for sharing SM work. He also referenced the Soil Trust that has $100K in it to use to leverage more investments in food system projects throughout the country. For more information, call Michael at 617-566-2600 or e-mail michael@slowmoney.org

Sam May/SMM participant: Sam shared his inspiration, as a parent, to bring healthier meals to campers in the Belgrade Lakes area and has met with a team of camp owners, cooks, producers and distributors to provide more local food options at two camps serving 600 children this coming summer. Sam also hopes to get funding to create a directory for the Maine Camping Association. For more information, call Sam at 653-2260 or e-mail sam@penumbraww.com

Eleanor Kinney/NSP: Eleanor gave an update about the investment club which currently has close to 20 members and $52K  invested in 11 loans to local farmers and producers. There will be an informational meeting next month for another club likely to form in the midcoast region. For more information, call Eleanor at 380-3155 or e-mail eleanorkinney@mac.com.

Bonnie Rukin: There is a tremendous amount of activity, exemplified by conferences, media, regional SM groups, related to local economies and food systems. Some events to note:

4/11 – PVGrows Spring Conference

4/20-22 – Food Conference at COA: https://www.coa.edu/preview/foodconnections.htm

4/25 – Speed dating with Lenders for Small Businesses….Augusta (see SMM blog)

6/8-10 – “Strategies for a New Economy” at Bard College

Next SMM meeting will be May 16th. Hope to see you there!