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When Warren and Jane Nelson started making honey, they didn't intend for it to become a career.
Jane and Warren Nelson began selling honey after completing the Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program about eight years ago. Photo: Adam Ziegler, NewsNetNebraska
"It just kind of came out of the blue when we were encouraged to fill a niche in the market," he said.
The Nelsons turned to the Food Entrepreneur Assistance Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Food Processing Center for help getting their expanded business off the ground.
The assistance program started in 1983 and offers entrepreneurs help with things like marketing, production and meeting government safety regulations. Jill Gifford, manager of the assistance program, said the Food Processing Center began offering these services after a number of food manufacturers came to the center looking for help.
"(Business owners) were coming to us, and we realized no one was doing this and we needed to develop a program to provide assistance to them," she said.
The program, which comes in two parts, is the only one of its kind in the country, Gifford said. First, entrepreneurs attend a one-day "From Recipe to Reality" seminar to inform them of some basic issues they'll face when trying to start a food business, such as pricing, product development and how to structure their business.
After completing the seminar, the prospective business owners can move on to the second part, called "From Product to Profit." Here, the program offers fee-based services to help companies expand their market share and develop new products.
About 25 percent of the people who attend the seminars decide to move onto phase two, Gifford said, and the program typically has around 35 companies working their way through the "From Product to Profit" stage at any one time.
The Nelsons went through both phases when they were in the program around eight years ago. Jane Nelson said the program was especially helpful with making sure their products met government regulations.
The Nelsons sell their honey in stores across Nebraska and Iowa. Photo: Adam Ziegler, NewsNetNebraska
"It's not like you can just hand-write on a label, ‘This is cinnamon honey,'" she said. "It was amazing to us what all there were rules for."
Meeting regulations is one of the biggest problems food-based startups face, Gifford said, and it's something the assistance program tries to emphasize when businesses are just starting.
"There are a lot of challenges," she said. "And that's why we're here."
Despite the difficulties of starting a new business, Gifford said, around 60 percent of the companies that complete the program are still in business.
With their products currently in 28 stores across Nebraska and Iowa, the Nelsons said they're happy with how their business has grown and the role the entrepreneur assistance program played in their success.
"We recommend it to a lot of people," Warren Nelson said. "It's a great way to find out what to do next."
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Yes, it would be nice to have a way of contacting this program included in the article.