VILLAGE HAPPENINGS
Farm & Food
Chris here. 🙂Â
We’re sharing useful happenings and resources that will bring tremendous value to you and your small business.
Check them out below!
The Village’s
Featured Business
First things first. Huge props to Libby and Justin Guarino, fairly new owners of the Mill Village Country Store in Stoddard, NH. Not only did they recently receive a significant grant through a local non-profit (kudos to them!), but they have the pulse of how to make a delicious pizza!
They told me that the only way to truly test whether pizza is authentic (and delicious) is to start with a slice of cheese pizza. Who am I to argue? It’s got a thin crust, perfectly cooked with a delicious tomato sauce and just the right amount of cheese so that when you bite into it….just yum! Mill Village Country Store in Stoddard, NH. Go try it!
This Week’s Featured Events
• Granite State Fair– September 13-25
→ Come to Rochester to enjoy the Granite State Fair, complete with rides, events and entertainment, animals, a circus, and a cornhole tournament.
• Deerfield Fair– September 29- October 2
→ Open for 145 years, New England’s oldest “Family Fair” will be returning in the fall. Guests can go on rides, pet animals, and see shows and other exhibits.
• List of NH Fairs for the Fall of 2022
• Wednesday and Thursday, Sept 21-22
→ Annual conference, “Radically Rural: Small Towns, Extraordinary Impact!”:Â
• Saturday and Sunday, December 3-4
→ Annual conference, Annual Made in New England Expo
Village Must-Go’s
NH Community Navigator Program
- Small business resources available throughout the state of New Hampshire
Village’s Learning Dashboard
Focus on Retail
This week’s Verizon Small Business Digital Ready “Ask an Expert” event focused on Retail. Over 65 businesses joined the discussion and good questions were asked!
Here are two of my favorite questions:
- Q: Â What is the best POS system to use for retail gift shops?
- A:Â Â Lightspeed
- Q:Â What has worked really well in 2022 for a sales strategy, that is, how did you get new customers in your store?
- A:Â Â Events!
From Pop-up events to co-branding initiatives, the speakers gave several examples of events they offered and described how that impacted their business.
Here’s a great “How to make great events” playbook resource.
Verizon’s Small Business Digital Ready Opportunity!
Ready to grow? We’ve got the perfect program for that.
- FREE content, coaching & networking for your business!
Our most exciting project right now is Verizon’s Small Business Digital Ready Program, which offers all of these to small businesses. The program includes personalized content, coaching, networking and so much more. AND these online tools are in one place, so it’s very easy to use. All funded by a Verizon grant which is why… It’s FREE!
Here’s how it works:
- First, you’ll answer a series of questions about your business and your specific needs and interests.
- Based on your answers, a Learning Dashboard with content will appear to match those needs.
- Second, you’ll have access to short online “learning modules,” created by actual small business owners that are targeted to the topics most important to your business right now.
The Verizon Small Business Digital Ready program is part of Verizon’s commitment to provide support for 1 milion small businesses over the next decade. Your business definitely deserves to be one of them!
It’s all free! Register here.
Favorite Cookie of the Week
Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe these delicous Rocky Road cookies by New Hampshire’s very own “Taste Affair”!
Find Funding
•  Small Business Administration’s “Microloans” program
• Funding sources for food related community organizations here…
→ Press Release
→ Application details here
• Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship is the non-profit team that helped Stoddard Mill Village Store get their grant! The Hannah Grimes Center connects small business owners like you to local grant resources in the Monadnock Region of NH with one on one coaching, as well as unique programming for food and farm businesses.
• National Young Farmers Coalition – Is an FSA microloan right for your farm? Find out here.
Featured Farmers’ Market
This week’s pick: Bedford Farmers’ Market
- Thru October 11, 2022, Tuesdays 3-6 p.m. Rain or shine
- Location: Murphy’s Taproom, 323 Rte. 101, Bedford
- Description: This weekly market features flowers, maple, conventional produce, fish, jams, wine, fruits, baked goods, eggs, jellies, specialty foods, etc.
→ Find NH Farmers’ Markets at this link: https://www.nhmagazine.com/nhmarkets/
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