<b>By ANN HINCH<br>
Assistant Editor</b> </p><p>

PLYMOUTH, Ind. — With the help of “Marketing Made Easy” workshops, the Purdue University New Ventures Team and extension hope to make promoting one’s agribusiness more accessible for Indiana entrepreneurs.<br>
The series of six workshops will cover marketing for new and existing small farm business owners, including targeting potential customers and developing a campaign.<br>
Kelly Easterday, program coordinator and extension educator from Kosciusko County, said the program was offered last year but it has been “retooled and revamped” for this winter.<br>
For one thing, she has invited three successful agribusiness operators to talk about their marketing practices.<br>
“By the end of the six weeks, (attendees will) have a rough outline of a marketing plan done,” she said.<br>
The six-week series, which begins Feb. 12 in Marshall County, is funded by a USDA grant through the North Central Risk Management Education Center. Easterday said the application was written for four counties, but has been expanded to seven covered by a regional visitors’ bureau, with which New Ventures is working to create an agritourism direct marketing brochure for the area.<br>
The region includes Kosciusko, Marshall, Porter, La Porte, St. Joseph, Elkhart and LaGrange counties. Eventually, New Ventures would like to offer these workshops across Indiana and develop a website with the information accessible to small farm business operators.<br>
The first workshop, which Easterday will lead with fellow extension educator Kris Parker, will focus on general marketing – what it is, what is the projected population growth in the area and how and why people buy. Each of the next four workshops will focus on the “nuts and bolts” of marketing, and the final session will tie all resources together with some discussion about using business owners’ personalities in a successful operation.<br>
Even someone who knows how to market can benefit from this series. “It’s always challenging, because the consumer keeps changing,” Easterday said, as does technology – specifically, the way businesses reach their customers. “You can’t get comfortable in how to market.”<br>
Leading two of the workshops will be Dr. Jennifer Dennis, Purdue professor of ag economics.<br>
She said her sessions will focus on helping business owners identify the key benefits of their products. It may sound simple, but she explained there is a tendency for some people to offer more than their market will support.<br>
Birky Family Farms, which runs a pork catering business, is such an example. She said the menu is varied, yet has a definite focus and not as many items as some foodservice operations.<br>
“They didn’t try to overdo things, and they didn’t try to do too many things,” she said, adding a tendency toward wide variety can be a “fatal flaw” of small businesses.<br>
“This is the part they want to do the most.”<br>
She stressed proper planning for a business, to make sure its basic functions are covered well. An entrepreneur who knows how to grow flowers may not enjoy being a greenhouse business manager or bookkeeper, but if they’re not going to hire someone to do it, they need to learn.<br>
“There’s a limit to what those two people or three people (starting a business) can do,” Dennis said.<br>
The biggest mistakes she sees with new business owners are in being overwhelmed by all that they have to do, and in not identifying their market and its needs well enough to match their services to customers.<br>
The workshops and educators are as follows:<br>
•Feb. 12: “It Begins with You,” Parker and Easterday<br>
•Feb. 19: “Where are You Now?” Birky Family Farms and Dennis<br>
•Feb. 26: “Where are You Going and How Will You Get There?” Cooley Family Farm and Dennis<br>
•March 4: “A Promotional Campaign that Results in Sales,” Cook’s Bison Ranch and Maria Marshall, extension specialist in rural business development<br>
•March 11: “The Critical Next Steps,” Marshall<br>
•March 18: “Putting it all Together,” extension educator Edie Sutton
Easterday said she needs 10 people to sign up to hold these workshops, which will be 7-9:30 p.m. at the Plymouth Public Library in Marshall County.<br>
The deadline is Feb.1; the cost for all six is $35 total, which also pays for a $50 coupon toward the purchase of a sign for one’s own direct-marketing business.<br>
To learn more or register, call 574-372-2340, e-mail keasterday@purdue.edu or go online to www.ces.purdue.edu/kosciusko