Reimagining Main Street

This year's Indiana SBDC Rural Small Business of the Year, Beneker Family Farms, was founded in 1884 and is a family-owned and operated farm that offers premium angus beef raised in the Whitewater Valley. Beneker Family Farms has fed families in Southern Indiana for 130 years. In 2016, Beneker Family Farms was recognized as a historic Indiana Homestead by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. When Jayme and her husband purchased the farm from his family in 2018, they began looking at ways to improve marketing and grow their market size. The Indiana SBDC has provided substantive guidance and resources to help facilitate conversations from local restaurants to purchase the meat directly and launching subscription boxes.

Founded by artist Rockland Page in 2017, ROCKaBLOCK LLC is a lifestyle brand that designs apparel and accessories that highlight the richness and depth of Black culture through thought-provoking design. Page began designing t-shirts as a creative outlet, and his hobby quickly grew into a successful business in northwest Indiana. Page first engaged Indiana SBDC services in 2019 for expansionary and financing guidance. Shortly thereafter he moved operations from his home and opened his first brick and mortar shop in Merrillville, Indiana. Priorities shifted in 2021 to protecting and trademarking his brand through an SBDC program, INTAP. ROCKaBLOCK LLC is quickly gaining national attention as orders have been shipped to over 30 states!

Small Business Digital Marketing Accelerator participants - a partnership with gener8tor

JUA Technologies International, LLC began working with the Indiana SBDC in 2020 with the goal to improve their understanding of exporting. They participated in the Export Indiana Accelerator Program (EIAP), a rigorous 3-month summer program that guides companies into creating proactive export development strategies. That effort led JUA Technology to identify Kenya and Nigeria in addition to India as top export destinations for their unique product – the Dehytray. This solar-powered, mobile dehydrator appliance allows customers to dehydrate food products to allow for a far greater shelf-life, negating the need for refrigeration and alleviating a common problem in Africa, food insecurity.

Kayla Davis and Isis Fleming started their company, Patchables as part of the Innovate WithIN high school pitch competition. Their company uses recycled clothing scraps to be upcycled as dog toy stuffing. They pivoted from their original concept twice, but pulled everything together only a few days before the end of the competition with help from their Indiana SBDC advisor. Fleming and Davis are committed to reducing waste and pollution on the planet. The next priority is transitioning the Patchables website to a more efficient e-commerce sales platform and expanding into cat toys.

Founded in 2017, NanoBio Designs LLC is an Indianapolis biotechnology company that develops a simple, fast and cost-effective genetic detection platform using its novel microparticle pairing technology. The initial platform, ExpresSeed, meets several of the unmet needs of hybrid seed producers seeking to track markers and those in food supply chains that need to validate genetic composition before purchase, sale, or export. NanoBio Designs LLC moved from Iowa to Indiana in 2021 and has hit the ground running in the state's agbioscience space. In 2022 they took advantage of the Indiana SBDC's Technical Assistance Program (INTAP), for assistance with grant management and proposal preparation for an SBIR Phase 1 award.

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Attendees in QuickBooks and Financial Foundations courses

John Null, Co-Founder of Afterburner Brewing Company and a part-time Indiana SBDC ION Program Veterans Business Advisor. John and a couple friends dreamed of starting a brewing company post retirement from the military. They acknowledged their biggest obstacle was a dream without the know-how. They participated in the West Central Indiana SBDC's “Start-Up Boot Camp” and took advantage of a suite of tools provided at no-cost to develop their business and marketing plan. Afterburner Brewing Company opened their doors to the public on November 2, 2022.

Amanda Reninger founded Sea Salt & Cinnamon in 2014 and became the first vegan food company in the city of Muncie. Her husband, Kyle Reninger, joined her venture, creating the savory side of the company's menu. Focusing on special populations with strict dietary restrictions has created a thriving business and sense of inclusivity for all foodies. The Indiana SBDC has offered critical support through COVID challenges in the past 2 years. In 2022 she is looking to become certified as a WOB, as a number of universities and local organizations would like to engage for wholesale purposes.

Agribusiness Initiative advisors brought on to provide counseling in key ag niches including, honey, AgTech, livestock, dairy, and aquaculture