Western Meat School Business Accelerator

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Brought to you by the folks that organized the Western Meat School and the Meat Processor Academy short courses, we would like to invite you to apply for our  small, intensive business accelerator launching in March of 2024 that builds upon the curriculum of the original course. 

The Western Meat School Business Accelerator is a 7 month long peer learning experience for meat producers and brands that are scaling their production and sales to reach multi-million dollar sales goals while producing high-quality local and regional meats. If you are dabbling in wholesaling or going full blast into a variety of market channels, this program will help launch you there with all the tools. 

This Accelerator will help you solve the ugliest problems in your meat business, uplevel your financial recordkeeping  systems, improve your profit potential, build marketing prowess, sell the whole animal, conduct volume forecasting, launch a value-added product line, and more. You will lay bare your business to other similarly sized meat businesses and collectively understand how to identify your key business metrics and compare them to your peers. This is a "all-hands-on-deck"  immersive experience that is guaranteed to take your business to the  next level.

The Accelerator is a high-touch immersive experience you won't find anywhere else. With both peer learning and one-on-one coaching, the Western Meat School Business Accelerator will help you strategize the next moves to scale your business, become more profitable, and build a brand with staying power.

(From our other Mastermind Program)

"I am in the final 2 months of the year long Meat Processors Academy Mastermind program through NMPAN and Oregon State University. It has been a TOTAL GAME CHANGER for us here at Mitchell's. We have been through the gamut of topics from finance to management to SOPs to marketing to business planning and beyond. The 20 of us in the program  from across the US have also been paired with a financial consultant for 10 hours of consulting (that was included in the price of the academy).  I have made great connections to other processors and even found a new  accountant that is familiar with our business that has helped  tremendously as well!!

I SERIOUSLY recommend this program if you want to build your business!!!" 

Kristi Mitchell, Mitchells Processing

The WMS Business Accelerator will take place from March-September 2024.  

The program features bi-weekly group learning and discussion gatherings on core topics designed to take your business to the next scale (seen in the flyer below).

Program applications will be accepted from Dec. 1st, 2023 until Feb 16th, 2024.

Applications will be reviewed the week of Feb. 19-23, 2024. 

Invitations to participate will be made the week of Feb. 26th, 2024. 

Full payment must be received by March 1st to participate.

First group call will be Tuesday March 5th.

Since this is a small peer learning group, we  will cap the audience at 20 similarly sized meat producers/brands. This is a competitive application process. You must apply no later than February 16th, 2024 and selections will be made the week of February 19th, 2024. As part of the application, you will have to agree to fully participate in  the seven-month long program, including the bi-weekly group calls, working with a business coach, developing an Action Plan, and sharing your financial information with the group. If you cannot commit to these things, this program is not a good fit for you.

Application Link Here

To enhance the learning experience and to achieve our grant deliverables of providing support for scaling meat producers/brands, we are limiting the audience of this Business Accelerator to the following types of operators:

• Farmers, ranchers, or meat brands/aggregators/cooperatives from any state, territory, or tribal nation.
• Applicants should be the owners, operators, or key management staff. There can be 1-2  of you in the operation that participate regularly. If you don't know the financials of your business, you are not the right person in the business to apply.
• Businesses can be sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, cooperatives, or other corporations.
• Produce at least 10% of the livestock/poultry used in your business. 
• In operation for a minimum of two years and have a minimum of three employees. 
• Gross meat sales of ~$100,000-$3 Million and year-round sales.
• Moving from DTC to wholesale meat sales and/or branded products (or a combination of direct, wholesale and retail).
• Recommended that you have completed the Western Meat School short course in the last three years. If you haven't completed it yet, you can still sign up and complete the  self-paced version before the Accelerator kicks off in March 2024.

Apply Here

• Bi-weekly Zoom calls that will include: 1-2 expert speakers, one case  study, group discussion and problem-solving, homework. See a more detailed schedule of curriculum in the flyer below. That's over 25 hours of group learning.
• Each participant will be paired with 1-3 expert business and marketing coaches for up to 10 hours over the year to work on challenging business problems, improve marketing assets, and walk through how to bring 1 product to market (a $1,500 value alone).
• Each participant will leave the program with a: cleaned up chart-of-accounts, key performance indicators (KPIs), improved marketing/branding assets, and an Action Plan to get at least 1 product to market.
• Access to similarly sized peers and all their boots-on-the-ground wisdom.
• Access to top consultants, coaches, and service providers in the industry.

• Classes will be held online via Zoom, beginning Tuesday March 5th through the end of August 2024.
• Classes will take place every other Tuesday morning from 9-11am PST/12-2pm EST. Classes will be recorded in the event you miss any.
• Classes will be 1.5-2 hours long, including:
  • 5 min. introduction
  • 45 min. expert presentation
  • 5 min. break
  • 20 min. producer/brand case study
  • 30 min. discussion and Q & A
  • 10 min. next steps/homework

The investment for this exclusive business accelerator program for scaling meat producers is $1,500 (or three payments of $500 if needed). Upon successful completion of the program in September of 2024 (including attending all classes and presenting an Action  Plan in the final month), you will be refunded $500 of your investment. If the investment is a barrier to participation, there is a small pool of $500 off scholarships reserved for BIPOC, tribal members, and other socially-disadvantaged operators. Scholarship participants still must meet the producer size requirements listed above under Application Process. Please contact  Rebecca Thistlethwaite at thistler@oregonstate.edu for details on the scholarship program.