OFI 1025: Finding Mentors To Inspire And Inform Your Business | FFA SAE Edition | Dalton Dennis | Wetumpka High School FFA
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INTRODUCING DALTON DENNIS:
There are many pathways to finding success in small businesses and entrepreneurship. If you are fortunate enough to live in the United States there are myriads of people who will help you to succeed. When it comes to being an entrepreneur there are really two extremes. There are those who it just comes naturally to, and there are those who have to develop the skills for success. I count myself among that second group. 
If you are interested in working for yourself, or if you need to work for yourself because of the situation that you find yourself in, it is incumbent upon you to find the tools and resources available to you to make it happen. Our interview today features a young man who has done exactly that. Dalton Dennis is joining us to talk about how he has been developing his own nursery business.
Dalton’s journey started out with the mentorship of his older brother who encouraged him to take agriculture classes when he got into high school. Soon, Dalton added to his list of mentors with his FFA advisors. After that Dalton was able to get a job working at a nursery and added his supervisors to this list. Not long after that, his advisors were recommending Dalton to people in the community who needed to hire somebody for yard projects, and he started getting exposed to entrepreneurship.
Today, Dalton has been able to obtain an SAE grant, sponsored by Caterpillar, and this has allowed him to purchase inventory for resale and to begin his nursery business. Dalton has ordered a number of trees from a grower all the way in Salem, Oregon, and had them shipped to Alabama. Now, he has located a buyer who will sell them at retail and believes that buyer is going to buy 100% of his inventory.
It is really amazing what can happen one surrounds themself with people who want to assist them and see them succeed.
SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Nursery Operation
HIGH SCHOOL: Wetumpka High School, Wetumpka, AL
MASCOT: Indians
FFA ADVISOR: Keith Lucy
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR DALTON DENNIS:
Click on the picture below to be taken to the Wetumpka High School website:
Dalton’s FFA Advisors’ Email Address: https://wetumpkahighelmoreal.schoolinsites.com/keithlucy
Wetumpka High School’s Telephone Number: 334-567-5158
FFA LINKS:
Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)
Donate to FFA – FFA students can start small businesses through an FFA grant of $1,000. In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants. With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.
REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:
- Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% and the rest of the world. FFA provides the needed education, training, and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and ensure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
- Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation. The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
- Farmers, ranchers, and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the food search is as simple as going to the grocery store:
“The future of American agriculture depends on the involvement and investment in America’s youth, In order to prepare for the population of tomorrow, we need to encourage America’s youth today, and show that careers in agriculture are profitable, rewarding, and vital.”. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue
More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald:
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