Food Business Portal
Everything You Need to Succeed
The Franklin County Food Business Portal connects food businesses and entrepreneurs to the valuable resources and services needed to plan, launch, and grow a business in Columbus and Franklin County.
Not starting or running a food business? The Portal is full of general small business, entrepreneurial, and start-up resources that are perfect for all types of companies!
About Us
The Franklin County Food Business Portal is a free one-stop collection of resources and information to help Franklin County entrepreneurs successfully plan, launch, and grow their food business.
The Food Business Portal is an initiative of the Columbus & Franklin County Local Food Action Plan and was developed by the Joint City-County Local Food Team and a Project Team of community stakeholders working under the leadership of the Columbus & Franklin County Local Food Board. The Columbus & Franklin County Local Food Action Plan provides common goals and actions to unify the efforts of the City of Columbus and Franklin County in growing, processing, transporting, selling, consuming and disposing of food.
Staff from Franklin County Economic Development & Planning and the Franklin County Data Center developed the Food Business Portal’s content and web platform. The Project Team that informed the development of the Food Business Portal included representatives from Bricker & Eckler, Columbus Department of Development, Columbus Public Health (CPH), Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA), Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI), Finance Fund, Food Conscious, Franklin County Economic Development & Planning (EDP), Franklin County Local Food Council (FCLFC), Huntington Bank, OSU Extension, OSU Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT), The Renewables Space, Small Business Administration - Columbus District Office, and the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Columbus State Community College.
No-Cost Business Advising
Still have business questions you can't answer? Please complete this form to schedule a no-cost business advising phone appointment with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC). You will receive an email to schedule your phone appointment.
No-Cost Business Advising
No-Cost Farm Advising
Still have farm and agriculture questions you can't answer? Please complete this form to schedule a no-cost farm advising phone appointment with OSU Extension - Franklin County. You will receive a call or email within three business days.
No-Cost Farm Advising
Help us make the Food Business Portal even better!
Please take this quick nine question survey to help improve the portal and make sure it is easy to use and informative for everyone.
Portal Survey
Email us if you have any questions about the development of the Food Business Portal or recommendations for future improvements.
Email
Additional Information
Open Your Business in Franklin County!
Franklin County is a fantastic place to live, work, play, raise a family, and start a business. For more on why Franklin County could be the right place for your business, please check out the following resources:
- One Columbus - Moving here - "Columbus is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country and celebrated as one of the strongest metros in the country for job creation."
- One Columbus - Doing Business - "The Region boasts one of the highest populations of college students in the country, thanks to its 52 college and university campuses, ensuring a talented pipeline of workers in a top-ranked location."
- Columbus - Doing Business with the City of Columbus - "Columbus is within a one-day truck drive or one-hour flight of 41 percent of the U.S. population, 80 percent of U.S. corporate headquarters and 43 percent of U.S. manufacturing capacity."
- Franklin County Economic Development & Planning (EDP) - Our Region’s Competitiveness - "Our economy is exceptionally well balanced - no single industry sector accounts for more than 18 percent of total employment - which gives us a competitive, diversified, and stable economic base."
- Franklin County Economic Development & Planning (EDP) - Why Franklin County
Where does the information on the Food Business Portal come from?
The resources and information featured on the Food Business Portal have been collected over the past several years from a wide variety of different public sources. All information used from another source has been linked to the original source. The following public resources served as models for the structure and content of the Food Business Portal: