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Starting Block In The Media
Read the full story about the stir we are causing in The Media.
Michigan Farmer Magazine
January 2009
"Go For It"
HAVE you turned Aunt Ellen’s sensational salsa recipe into something spectacular? Or is it your famous barbecue sauce that’s on demand at every family function? Ever thought about trying to move your products from the home kitchen to retail or commercial markets? Ron Steiner, who is the director of The Starting Block in Hart, says it’s not as hard as you think. The Starting Block is a commercial “incubator” kitchen designed to test the ideas and dreams of individuals to see if their products are marketable on a larger scale. It allows entrepreneurs to advance, alter or abandon ideas with minimal investment.
Key Points
- Commercial kitchen in Hart is available
for testing new ag products. - The Starting Block helps entrepreneurs
develop products and gain customers. - Proper support and education can help
Idea advancement
Steiner believes too many good ideas remain just that — ideas. Part of the problem, he says, is not understanding the differences between the myths and realities of entrepreneurship.
He questions the saying that four out of five businesses fail. “It’s more like one out of two, and it could be better odds with the proper support and education,” he says. The center is focused on advancing agricultural-based products and developing value-added products, largely made from Michigan’s array of raw commodities.
Another myth, Steiner says, is that money isn't’t available.
“I’m not going to say financing is easy, but if you have a good product and a plan, the money is there,” he says. One problem with financing, Steiner admits, is banks want to see a track record. “That’s a problem for a lot of people that are just getting their feet wet with commercial production. They are called ‘startup’ for a reason, but that’s why we’re here.
“The incubator kitchen helps to fill that gap giving them time and the equipment to develop a product without a lot of initial costs, while also allowing them to build customers, cash flow and the track record that banks are looking for.”
The accompanying article "Get Cookin" from the January 2009 Michigan Farmer Magazine can be downloaded in pdf format.
County Lines Magazine
February 2008,
"Incubator" Hatches New Business
The Starting Block helps turn passion into profession. By: Linda Kotzian
As the first commercial kitchen “incubator” in Michigan, The Starting Block provides licensed kitchen where its clients can produce, package, store and ship their products. It also offers the marketing and business know-how to successfully grow their businesses.
In the face of Michigan’s manufacturing job losses, Director Ron Steiner gets excited about the little incubator’potential for a positive impact on jobs. Most Starting Block clients have ties to agriculture and natural resources.“That,” Steiner asserts, “offers plenty of opportunity to build some really good Michigan businesses here that aren't’t going to leave the state.”
Current Starting Block clients include Vicki Fuller of Fremont, who owns Maple Island Pie Factory, LLC, and Lisa Dutcher of Hesperia, who owns Sassy Seasonings. Others produce or package products such as gluten free pastry mixes, imported virgin olive oil, candied nuts, cornbread stuffing, and cherry juice concentrate. Business owners, who often hold “day jobs” outside of their incubator ventures, have 24/7 access to the facility so they can produce their products at any time it suits them. Kitchen tenants rent facilities by the hour, and office tenants get high-speed internet and all utilities except long-distance phone for a $110 monthly fee.
Fuller considered running her pie business from home, but a visit to The Starting Block convinced her that licensing requirements make it easier just to use its commercial kitchen. Plus, she appreciates the business guidance that’s available.
“They told me just what to do—first step,second step,third step, fourth step—making it so much easier for me to get this endeavor started,” says Fuller.
“I love the partnership,” Dutcher adds. “Using The Starting Block has been a great experience for me.”
Getting Started & Growing
As a former director of the Oceana County Economic Development Corporation and a current regional entrepreneurship educator for MSU’s Ag Extension office, Steiner has along history of helping businesses bloom.
While working for MSU in 2003, he started the kitchen incubator in Hart and with state and federal funding, opened. The Starting Block in 2006. Keeping the doors open since has sometimes been a challenge, admits Steiner. He brought in Jim Henley and Jane Dosemagen to help him in 2005. The two have restaurant backgrounds and the same determination to make The Starting Block a major resource for the regional business and agricultural community. Dosemagen manages the orderly operations while Henley oversees sanitation, safety and process training. All three learned to operate on a shoestring budget with past business ventures and use that experience to help their clients.
“When you’re an entrepreneur,you do everything that needs to be done to make the business run,” says Dosemagen.
Not dwelling on job descriptions, the trio has installed flooring and equipment, painted walls, and scrounged for used equipment for the incubator. And, local businesses have willingly provided equipment free or at a very reasonable cost.
Steiner proudly shows a used forklift donated by Elston-Richards, Inc., of Grand Rapids, a candy-coating machine from Hart food processor Gray and Company, and desks from Dow Chemical. Other finds include equipment bought from a closed school and a $20,000 walk-in cooler acquired or $6,500 (assembly and installation, courtesy of volunteers). Such savings, Steiner says, allows current incubator grant funds to be used for rent and overhead expenses.
Donations have also helped fund educational programs. For example, Great Lakes Energy’s People Fund provided a $4,750 grant in 2007 for business classes for high school-age entrepreneurs to plant seeds for future business startups. The Starting Block also offers business and marketing classes to the general public, and Henley plans to develop training that will give kitchen and serving staff practical experience before a new restaurant opens.
Targeted, relatively short business courses and continued support from The Starting Block can launch people into their own businesses faster and more successfully than longer, more general classes offered through most colleges, claims Steiner.
“Once people realize what we’re trying to accomplish, it captures them,” Steiner reports, “and donations follow.” More federal grant dollars will become available when enough nonfederal matching funds are received.
For information, call 231-873-1432, email
tsbi4@verizon.net or visit www.miffs.org.
Press Release Nov 2006 MIFFS MEMO
Vol 12. No. 4
"Michigan's First Kitchen Incubator is Open for Business. The Starting Block, Inc. Opens for Business in Hart Michigan. "
The Starting Block, Inc., Michigan’s first kitchen incubator, is open for business in Hart, Mich. The building houses a commercial, USDA certified kitchen designed for innovating and developing agriculture and natural resources products. Other businesses involved in food systems are also located in the incubator to help entrepreneurs get started.
“We’re incubating new entrepreneurs, or just as importantly, new ideas or new products for
existing businesses,” said Ron Steiner, the Starting Block director.
For a small kitchen rental fee, anyone within a 90-mile radius of Hart can come in and test out
their latest idea, from jams and jellies to herbal seasonings, from jerky to baked goods. A lot of people are interested and already knocking on the door, said Steiner. Twelve entrepreneurs are currently renting space in the commercial kitchen. The building has been open for office services for several months, and five businesses are now set up to help with product
startup and promotion.
The project has been a long time in the making but is finally up and running in full. Michigan Food & Farming Systems – MIFFS received a USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant and contributions from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation in 2003 to research and develop a kitchen incubator to help farmers turn their ideas into successes. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s been a labor of love,” said Steiner.
"Starting Block 'incubator' gets boost of federal funds"
Thursday, September 20, 2007
By Dave Alexander
dalexander@muskegonchronicle.com
The U.S. Economic Development Administration has supported the Starting Block regional kitchen incubator with a $210,000 grant to be used to help buy its Hart facility.
The federal grant is part of a $460,000 project to buy the building in the Hart industrial park and fund equipment costs, according to a release from U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland. The EDA estimates the federal grant will help create $600,000 in private investment.
The city of Hart is applying for a grant through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to fund the remainder of the project. The city hopes to tap a new program supporting business incubators.
The commercial kitchen and business development center for an eight-county region from Manistee to Holland is designed to move food products from the idea stage to market.
It has been in operation for about a year.
"Purchasing the building will create a significant savings that will enable us to dedicate more funds to programming costs and less on bricks and mortar expenses," said Ron Steiner, director of the Starting Block. "It will enhance the services we provide to help startup companies succeed in West Michigan ."
The Starting Block has access to the food industry, agriculture and business departments at Michigan State University . It also is looking to partner with Baker College of Muskegon, Muskegon Community College and West Shore Community College to provide business training for its users, Steiner said.
Those looking to break into the food processing industry can receive expert assistance in marketing, finance, food science and packaging, among other areas. Products can be developed, tested and produced in the kitchen, which is licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"The kitchen incubator and entrepreneurial center serves as a great facility in which to launch a niche business in West Michigan ," Hoekstra said in a prepared statement. "The federal investment will help more small companies get off the ground and set them on a path toward success."
One example of an early user of the Starting Block kitchen and services is BaBa's HomeCooked Foods LLC -- a family business taking a southern recipe for cornbread stuffing and turning it into a product that is being sold through Meijer Inc.
Besides BaBa's, the Hart facility already is serving 17 clients that make, among other things, fruit pies, chutney, dry-seasoning mixes, candied nuts and high-end refrigerated pastries. It also has been working with New Era Canning and Country Dairy on new product research and development.
The commercial kitchen is running at about 40 percent of capacity, Steiner said. The concept is to get a product and company to a point of "graduating" to its own facility.
©2007 Muskegon Chronicle
© 2007 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.
MSU Project Green
Summer 2007, , Vol. 1 No. 3 pg. 6
"Entrepreneurship is 'today's special' at Michigan's first kitchen incubator"
The Starting Block combines elements of a
traditional business incubator, such as low-cost office space and shared conference room facilities, with a state-licensed commercial kitchen and product storage facilities.
The idea for a kitchen incubator to support agricultural product innovation was hatched nearly five years ago. A group of representatives from the MIFFS received a USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant and funding from the MEDC in 2003 to conduct regional kitchen incubator feasibility studies. Steiner said the study showed that a kitchen incubator was viable in Manistee, Newaygo and Oceana counties. Then, the real work began.
Download the Summer 2007 Issue in a printable Adobe pdf format.
Press Release September 2007
"Starting Block Receives $210,000 Federal Grant to Purchase Facility U.S. Department of Commerce Funds will also Cover Program Costs"
WASHINGTON , D.C. – The Starting Block kitchen incubator and entrepreneurial center has received a $210,341 investment from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to help fund a $460,341 project to purchase the building in which it currently operates and fund programming costs.
“The kitchen incubator and entrepreneurial center serves as a great facility in which to launch niche businesses in West Michigan ,” said U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra , R-Holland. “The federal investment will help more small companies get off the ground and set them on a path toward success.”
The Starting Block West Michigan Regional Kitchen Incubator, located at 1535 Industrial Park Drive , serves an eight-county region that extends from Manistee to Holland . It fosters entrepreneurship in both agriculture product processing and the region’s food service industry.
The Starting Block’s commercial kitchen facility is available to producers and packagers of specialty and gourmet food, caterers, and church, school and civic groups. It provides a commercial test kitchen for start-up and existing food processors; low-cost office rent that includes computer, Internet access, phone and office support; and expert resources through Michigan State University’s business, food science and food packing schools, and the University of Michigan.
“Purchasing the building will create a significant savings that will enable us to dedicate more funds to programming costs and less on bricks and mortar expenses,” The Starting Block President Ronald Steiner said. “It will enhance the services we provide to help start-up companies succeed in West Michigan.”
The DOC Economic Development Administration (EDA) estimates that the project will create 150 jobs and leverage $600,000 in private investment.
The EDA serves as a venture capital resource to meet the economic development needs of distressed communities throughout the United States . Its mission is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success.