NDSU Extension Helps Small Businesses

A new website can help entrepreneurs start their small business and make it successful.

A Bismarck area couple with a community-supported agriculture operation are realizing their goal of owning a business while having time to spend with their family.

A consortium of North Dakota dairy producers is exploring new ways to market its milk, such as turning it into butter, ice cream, yogurt or even a type of cheese not usually found in grocery stores.

A North Dakota restaurant owner is finding sources of locally raised beef to serve in his establishment.

These are among the entrepreneurs the North Dakota State University Extension Service is helping turn dreams into reality.

“No matter how you classify your business - sole proprietorship, microbusiness, copreneurial endeavor, home-based business, family business, partnership, corporation or something else - our educational efforts are designed to provide the help you need so you can achieve your goals,” says Glenn Muske, NDSU Extension’s rural and agribusiness enterprise development specialist. He is leading the effort to help North Dakota’s small-business owners and entrepreneurs get started and grow.

“We support all kinds of businesses, with emphasis on rural businesses and value-added agricultural enterprises,” he says. Muske has developed a website - http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/smallbusiness - to help entrepreneurs make decisions on topics such as determining whether they have the skills to start a small business, where to find the funding to get started and how to learn what customers want.

The website provides practical, research-based information as well as other resources, such as the Small Business Administration, Service Corps of Retired Executives and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that people can go to for assistance.

The site also links to eXtension’s information for entrepreneurs at http://www.extension.org/entrepreneurship. eXtension is an educational partnership of 74 universities, including NDSU, that provides objective and research-based information and learning opportunities to help people improve their lives.

NDSU Agriculture Communication - March 22, 2011

Source:	Glenn Muske, (701) 328-9718, glenn.muske@ndsu.edu
Editor:	Ellen Crawford, (701) 231-5391, ellen.crawford@ndsu.edu

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