The Northern Adirondack Trading Cooperative and Cornell Cooperative Extension are teaming up to help farms, small businesses and new entrepreneurs develop a business plan, market their products and use the Internet as a business tool.
The cooperative has been offering courses on Internet marketing since 2003, but this year, four classes of up to 20 participants will meet in different locations and have real-time interaction as part of the "Marketing Your Product for Profit" course.
"We're taking those businesses and helping them understand that they have a niche, connecting with that niche and marketing their product on and off the Internet and growing the business," said Ruby J. Sprowls, cooperative coordinator through the St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce.
"Really, I want to say to agriculture folks, 'We have the expertise, the track record, we've put the results together to help you market your value-added product.'"
Molly B. Ames, farm business management educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, said Cooperative Extension has offered previous entrepreneurship classes for agricultural businesses, but without an emphasis on the Internet.
"This is kind of the marriage of the things I've been doing that she hasn't done and the things she's been doing that I haven't done," she said.
The four class sites will be linked, so they can interact with a single instructor each session.
For those enrolled in the class, the opportunity to network is one of the most important facets.
Christopher J. Smith, founder of Spalted Arch, a custom furniture firm in Brasher Falls, said, "It was a group of people to bounce ideas off, a sounding board."
He still talks to others from the classes he attended in 2003, especially those in the same industry. He's referred customers to other companies and found new outlets for his products through the people he met in the class.
"Really, the most important part is the fact that a north country export drive is being created," he said.
The class sites are Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, Watertown; SUNY Canton, Massena campus; North Country Community College, Malone campus; and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County, Westport.
Classes start Oct. 27 and will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays through March 4. The course is $50 and participants may attend all sessions or select those of special interest. Interviews are required for enrollment.
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe's Economic Development office is co-sponsoring the course.
Other partners include The Rural Opportunities Enterprise Center Inc.; the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program; SCORE; ComLinks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development office and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
SUNY Canton's Small Business Development Center, the Clarkson Consulting Group, the business management and entrepreneurship program at Paul Smith's College, Paul Smiths, and Fuller Ventures, a private consulting firm, will teach about a range of marketing topics.
Other topics include marketing online, developing a Web site, value-added licensing, insurance liability, product seasonality and financing information.
"One of the things that's amazing to me is the variety of produce and value-added products which can be made by our commodity-based agriculture," said Mrs. Sprowls. "I'm hoping the partnerships will bring in all farms and producers interested in expanding their products because it is possible."
To reserve a space for the course in Watertown, call Ms. Ames at 788-8450; in Massena, call Steven B. Cook of the St. Regis Mohawk Economic Development office at 358-2272. More information also is available from Mrs. Sprowls at
1 (877) 228-7810.