Christine E.B. Howard is the Founder and CEO of E.B. Howard Consulting and is passionate about equal and equitable access to funding (dilutive and non-dilutive) for historically underrepresented founders of start-ups.
She actively mentors and advises small businesses through programs like the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps™), Columbia Technology Ventures, Verizon Forward for Good Accelerator, NYSERDA's EIR Program, Startup Grind, and many others. She has also served as a pitch judge for start-up competitions like 43North, Female Founders in Tech & (FinTech) competitions, E^3 and NYBPC, and many others.
She is a Buffalo/Niagara National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Past Board Member, and Past President. She has served as Sponsorship Committee Chair, Programming Committee Chair, and Nominating Committee Chair. She is also an active member of the Chapter's Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.
A couple of things to think about
1) you will have to do some reach into various types of non-dilutive funding. Grants, per say, should be part of the solution, but not the only solution. I would be looking into start-up competitions and corporate sponsorship
2) I would start researching into grant funding through various governments that are willing to fund in your area
3) I would also start looking at various agricultural companies (equipment or chemical), an that are well known in the industry (Ag-Chem Equipment, Alexander & Baldwin, Alico (company), Allen Family Foods, American Tractor Corporation, etc.) to name a few. These companies may having funding in various formats.
We tried starting one with our chapter of NAWBO. Everyone seems interested in it, but yet no one is willing to sign up or actually participate in it. As far as pricing goes - we are priced a few hundred dollars cheaper than other groups in the region.
They don't. That is a perception that is cultivated like an instagram image. You are only seeing the success. You are not seeing the countless hours of preparation, courting of fundings, and building a company worthy of funding. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of due diligence on the part of the funder to ensure that they are putting funding into something that is "fundable".
Just seeing your post now - We use Insightly. It is a little $$$, but it is great as a CRM for lead and opportunity flow and project management and task management. We did use ASANA for a long time. However, it was missing the CRM element that we needed to round out the project management element.