Farm Table Marketing

Farm Table Marketing

A guided workshop to connect your cottage food business to your ideal customer.

Saturday, April 13, 2024 - 9:30 am - 3:00 pm

Work on your cottage food business in a personalized, intimate setting.

This small, intimate workshop is held at the Thompson Family Farm, located south of Farmington, Minnesota. Participation is limited to 6 people.

Learn from business owner and cottage food producer Laura Thompson, as well as Michelle Sharp, owner of Meet the Minnesota Makers.

Cost: $295 - this includes a website or social media audit by Michelle, the workshop, guided and personalized work time, and lunch.

What is included?

An audit of your website or social media from Michelle Sharp of Meet the Minnesota Makers before the event.

A workshop on reaching your ideal client with your digital marketing strategies.

A workshop on goal setting and streamlining your business to save you time.

Lunch catered by a local restaurant.

Focused work time for your own business, with help and guidance available from both Michelle Sharp and Laura Thompson.

Connections to other cottage food producers!

Is this workshop right for me?

If you are an established Minnesota Cottage Food Producer who is ready to take the next steps in your business, this workshop is for you!

Whether you are ready to launch your website, or start your email marketing, or you want to find the best ways to make your business work for you - this workshop is for you!

We are gearing this towards people who want to take the next step, whether that involves building a website, streamlining your processes, building your email newsletter, or any other project you have in mind!

Generally, this workshop is not geared towards the cottage food producer who is starting out.

At this time this workshop is focused specifically on the unique needs of cottage food producers.

Take the time to put the work in for your business.

The focused, individualized work time is designed for you to have time to focus on your business projects and business goals. Bring your laptop or tablet and work on those projects that always get pushed down to the bottom of your list.

Whether that involves working on your website, scheduling out posts for social media, starting your first email newsletter, or developing your target audience, we will help you to identify ways to improve your marketing and to reach your ideal customer.

Why a website or social media audit?

Your time is valuable and we want to make sure you get the most value out of this workshop as possible. An audit, either to your website or social media channels, will allow us to help you identify potential pain points in your business before the work day so you can set some goals and your to-do list for the day ahead of time.

We want you to come to the workshop ready to work, with an organized plan of how you want to use your focused work time.

Why Farm Table Marketing?

This idea originally stemmed from Laura offering to help a couple of friends who are business owners around her kitchen table.

Gathering together in person and connecting face-to-face creates a personal connection that cannot be replicated. As connections developed, the ideas flowed.

Laura’s idea evolved into bringing Minnesota Cottage Food Producers around her kitchen table to discuss marketing strategies and ideas, as well as providing a space to connect with other CFP’s, and work on individual projects and businesses.

  • Laura Thompson

    Laura Thompson is the owner and operator of Thompson Family Farm, nestled south of Farmington, Minnesota. She started her business selling produce and canned goods, as well as baked goods as a cottage food producer in 2020. Since then, she has worked to streamline her business to work for her and she is passionate about helping other small business owners do the same for themselves.

    Laura also owns a second business, Encore Ensembles, which offers band instruction to small schools and homeschool families in the Twin Cities area. She teaches band part time during the school year through her second business.

  • Michelle Sharp

    Michelle Sharp is the founder and content creator of Meet the Minnesota Makers. A storyteller who celebrates Minnesota’s small businesses through social media and her website, Michelle connects you with unique small businesses through her Maker features about local food, farms, artists, artisans, and authors.

    When she worked as a college professor, Michelle spent years studying community and communication. That experience, combined with her passion for supporting small businesses, inspired her to develop individual coaching and group workshop programs in digital marketing, website content design, and customer communications.