Agribusiness entrepreneurs awarded grant money by the state

COLUMBIA, SC (WACH) -- — Caroline Harper runs a business out of her Forest Acres home using one of the states oldest cash crops as dye for her creations.

“I’ve had about five strong years growing indigo, processing indigo, and using the indigo for making all sorts of home accessories and fashion accessories," says Harper.

The South Carolina Department of Agriculture along with Clemson Cooperative Extension has a program that helps entrepreneurs like Caroline. It’s called the Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship (ACRE).

Kyle Player is the Executive Director of the ACRE Program, she says you just have to be a South Carolina resident and have an idea to apply.

“These are for folks that don’t have to have a business already, they can just have an idea," says Player. "Or several of them have a business and they’re looking to do something else to bring in more revenue.”

They choose 15 applicants to go through the program, which consists of a curriculum that guides the beginning entrepreneurs.

“We help them build a business plan, so that includes financial planning, financial projections, marketing strategies, how to go into a bank and get a loan, how to look to see if there’s any grant money available," says Player. "It’s kind of an all-encompassing program.”

At the end of the program participants put together a sales pitch and the top five are awarded $5,000 to help bring their idea to life.

The ACRE program just finished it’s second year, and Caroline Harper was chosen for one of the $5,000 grants. She says the money will help take her business to the next level.

“We want to open a modern dye house, a space where I can have all my production, all of the indigo processing, and also workshops, where people can come in and buy gifts, or just learn about indigo,” says Harper.

Other grant winners include:

• Ben Crawford and Rebecca Goldberg of Aiken County who grow gourmet mushrooms.
• Justin Hanock and Jen Sample from the Lowcountry who own a small produce farm.
• Melissa Price who plans to use her funding to launch an educational agritourism project in which students will be able to adopt a cow on her farm in Saluda and follow it virtually from their classroom.
• Toshiba Traynham-Jackson, who plans to build a mobile farmers market to serve desserts in the Upstate.

The application process for this year's program will go up around August and the curriculum will begin in the fall.