Business profiles provide a brief overview of specific value-added businesses. The profile is usually only three to five pages long.  It includes the following:

• Overview of the operation
• Motivation to start a business
• How the business has developed
• Access to markets
• Critical steps in the development of the business
• Barriers to success
• Unexpected problems that were encountered
• Whether the business venture has succeeded or failed
• Ways in which the market/industry is changing
• Lessons learned from the experience

Business profiles can be used to look at a value-added business from the manager/owner’s perspective. They can provide valuable and practical insight into the business development process that you can use in developing your business.

Here are a series of case studies written by business manager/owners with the assistance of the AgMRC staff.