In Adair County Small businesses with less than 20 employees constitute 48.1% of all Businesses in Adair County. (CEDIK) In September of 2017, the Adair County Cooperative Extension Service collaborated with the Kentucky Center of Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD) and the Mountain Association of Community Economic Development (MACED) to host a series of small business workshops aimed at providing education and resources to assist small businesses.

A series of three workshops were held discussing business planning, recordkeeping with QuickBooks, accepting credit/debit card transactions, website design, and services offered by the partnering agencies. Fifteen local small business owners attended one or more sessions. Each session was taught by agents and partnering organizations.

Evaluation results revealed that 75% of businesses were developing a written business plan, 80% of current QuickBooks users where able to improve their recordkeeping while 100% of non-users were likely to adapt the program.

One participant noted in their evaluation that they were unaware that organizations such as KCARD existed to provide support to small businesses.