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Emerging Business Program

Build a Foundation for Sustained Business Growth

Young entrepreneurs often run into challenges as they grow their business. These challenges often come in the form of processes, personnel, financial management, and customer acquisition and burnout. These challenges lead to risks for many entrepreneurs, leading to the highest fail rate during years 2-5 in business. The Emerging Business Program is designed to help provide knowledge and strategies to help you grow and thrive.

Join OUR February 3rd, 2025 Cohort

The Program Experience

The Emerging Business Program combines classroom training with one-on-one consulting, and tools to help you identify challenges, map solutions, and put systematic processes in place to facilitate growth.
  • Learning to Act Early. Working with an instructor who has a track record of helping companies grow sustainably, you’ll develop the ability to analyze problems early in the business cycle—before they turn into insurmountable challenges. 
  • Building Strong Foundations and Systems. Common early-stage challenges include problems with system integration, operational efficiency, and personnel. With that in mind, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills you need to increase operational efficiency, and to integrate strategies and systems to improve operational growth.
  • Securing Essential Capital. You’ll learn to effectively manage your company’s cash flow and finances, and how to position yourself to secure the capital you need for the next steps in your company’s growth.
  • Making the Right Choices. During classes and mentoring sessions, you’ll learn how to understand and analyze the markets—and how to use that information to make the right decisions for your business.
Join the next Cohort

Program Overview

The Emerging Business Program combines classroom training with one-on-one consulting, helping you identify challenges, map solutions, and put systematic processes in place to facilitate growth.

  • At the start of the course, you’ll undergo an assessment of your company’s position, strengths, and challenges, so that your mentor can meet you at the right level. Together, you’ll set goals and create strategies for sustainable growth.
  • Weekly class sessions will cover a range of need-to-know topics for emerging companies, including effectively managing cash flow and finances, hiring and outsourcing strategies, targeting new markets, product mix, and more. They’ll also give you a chance to connect with other business owners at similar growth stages.
  • Each week, you’ll have a standing Zoom meeting with the instructor or a mentor, during which you’ll go over the weekly topic and learn how to apply the lessons to the specific circumstances of your business.
  • By the end of the course, you’ll have gained the ability to analyze problems early in the business cycle, and the knowledge and skills you need to increase operational efficiency. You’ll also know how to position yourself to secure essential capital for future growth, and will have a framework for making sound, market-informed business decisions.

Program schedule

Here’s an overview of the program curriculum.

  • We will address some of the common business pitfalls and issues that restrict growth. We’ll also help you set business priorities and goals, and give you a foundation for the strategic planning you’ll be doing.
  • We will explore business processes and the important role they play in the successful growth of your business. We will show examples of best practices and how to identify pitfalls of poor business processes.
  • We’ll determine the skills needed to grow your business. We will discuss ways to improve your hiring process and retention. We will also focus on the importance of onboarding and training for an engaged team.
  • We will provide tools to assist you in understanding the correlation between capital and opportunity. You will learn how to use ratios to determine the success of business operations and improve the operational efficiency of your business.
  • We’ll take a deep dive into growth through wholesale markets and give you the tools needed to understand the margins necessary to remain profitable and competitive in the market.
  • We dive into operational management and look at ways to improve your team engagement looking at the operation from a holistic approach, and teach tools to engage your team in goal development and efficiency improvements and work to determine the root cause of problems affecting the business.
  • We’ll discuss the importance of benchmarking your market and provide resources to help you effectively understand your market to grow your business.
  • We will discuss planning the future of your business and help you determine your minimum and maximum inventory levels to maintain business efficiency.
  • We will detail the steps you should consider to maximize the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and set pricing based on the strategy of the business.
  • We’ll dive into product mix and development, customer profiling to help develop the right market analysis and the cost of product development.
  • We’ll explore the delicate balance between quality and growth including strategies to help you determine the appropriate growth rate for you.
  • We’ll discuss the impact of burnout on you and your business, looking at the effects stress has on your health and how to maintain the health of you and your staff.
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“While there are many programs to help businesses start, there are few focused on the next steps. This program is designed to identify and provide strategies to overcome the pitfalls of emerging businesses. It will assess and meet the business at its existing level, and provide knowledge and assistance to meet the individualized challenges that business faces as it grows.”
- Brian BrownProgram Instructor

Who’s Eligible?

The Emerging Business Program is designed for value-added producers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) company owners in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. To see if it might be the right fit for you, ask yourself the following questions:

 

  • Do you see opportunities in the market, but need to learn how to position your business for success? 
  • Are you wondering how to grow your business, and still trying to build the capacity to move forward? 
  • Are you missing opportunities in the market because you’re buried in your company’s daily operations?  
  • Do you have a strategy to access the capital necessary for market growth?  

 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider applying to the Emerging Business Program! You must also meet the following criteria:

 

  • Own a company in good standing that has been in business for at least one year, and work there full time. 
  • Generate at least $25,000 in revenue from your company.
  • Be willing and able to commit at least four hours per week to the 12-week program.
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Program Instructor

Brian Brown

 

Brian Brown has been an economic development professional for 20 years, holding leadership roles in the areas of security, media, real estate, architecture, and engineering. Currently, he serves as the Chesapeake Agriculture Innovation Center’s lead business consultant, and as a mentor in our Producers Growth Program. Mr. Brown is also the business development manager for the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project (RCAP) Inc. Prior to that, he was the executive director of the Halifax Industrial Development Authority.

Participant Commitment

We estimate that the time commitment each week will be approximately four hours. 

  • During the 12-week program, you’ll be expected to attend weekly Zoom class sessions
  • Each week, you’ll also have a standing Zoom meeting with the instructor or a mentor. This will give you a chance to go over the weekly class topic, and to figure out how to apply what you’ve learned to the specific circumstances of your business.

MINI-GRANTs

Mini-Grants up to $5,000 are available for:
– Market Research and Validation of Target Market
– Customer Acquisition
– Product Development Initiatives
– Food Safety Classes
Eligibility
Value-added producers and companies with traction ($20,000 or more in yearly revenue) in Maryland and Delaware are eligible to apply for Mini-Grants. Participants may apply once for each of the categories. Applicants must demonstrate that they have a unique and differentiated product or service that incorporates an aspect of innovation or technology in its production, processing, distribution, or other element of the food supply system.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Award decisions will be made and funds will be available no later than three weeks following the receipt of a completed application.
Application Process
Applicants must submit Mini-Grant proposals by filling out the form at this link. Copy(ies) of quote(s), proposal(s), estimate(s), or any other supporting documents.

MINI GRANT APPLICATION

ACCESS TO SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS (SMES)

CAIC offers access to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who can offer authoritative advice based on their deep knowledge and experience in a specific area. See the ADVISORS page of this Web site to learn more about the SMEs who are available to CAIC participants.

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