© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lowcountry Farm Incubator Wins Grant

When we think of entrepreneurship and business incubators, farming is probably not the first thing that comes to mind.  However, our next guest's organization recently made a big leap toward changing that perception when they won a national growth accelerator competition, winning a grant from the US Small Business Administration for its Dirt Works Incubator Farm.

Mike Switzer interviews Nikki Seibert, director of Sustainable Agriculture at Lowcountry Local First in Charleston.

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.