Starting a MFES Business
All MFES businesses will be connected to one of the following industries: Green Energy and Building, Farms and Food Security, or the Creative Economy. In collaboration with Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility (MEBSR) and the Maine Centers for Women, Work, and Community, MFES will host a series of business planning workshops specifically designed to help entrepreneurs create cooperative business plans for the MFES model. We will provide a business plan template for each MFES business to use that includes student apprentices, mentoring opportunities, internships, and jobs. In exchange for engaging students in a meaningful way, each business will receive health insurance and business services, and depending on the level of student involvement, a stipend. Each enterprise will have the following elements in common:
All MFES businesses will be connected to one of the following industries: Green Energy and Building, Farms and Food Security, or the Creative Economy. In collaboration with Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility (MEBSR) and the Maine Centers for Women, Work, and Community, MFES will host a series of business planning workshops specifically designed to help entrepreneurs create cooperative business plans for the MFES model. We will provide a business plan template for each MFES business to use that includes student apprentices, mentoring opportunities, internships, and jobs. In exchange for engaging students in a meaningful way, each business will receive health insurance and business services, and depending on the level of student involvement, a stipend. Each enterprise will have the following elements in common:
- A history and future as Maine-based small business - the kind of operation that can be started by an individual or a couple and provide a product or service where small size is, or can become, an advantage.
- The potential to offer several kinds of apprenticeships and learning experiences directly connected to academic content, so that specific math curricula can be tied to energy, engineering, or building projects; science content can be tied to agricultural, energy, food related businesses, etc.
- The ability to share costs with and provide work for other co-op businesses. Each small business will need central support and administrative structures: marketing, inventory management, administering payroll and benefits - work that can be consolidated in a way that adds value. Each business will produce, and derive income (real or bartered) from the good or service it can offer to other businesses within the project.
Many innovative businesses can fit within this broad framework: green building retrofitter, artisan goat cheese maker, web designer, local foods distributor. The following sections offer a few suggestions and examples of the kinds of businesses that may be incorporated into the MFES model, but they serve only as a jumping off point--the possibilities are endless.
