During this season of gratitude, thanks, and appreciation we’ll delve into how those show up in your business.

How do you express appreciation towards customers, vendors, employees? How do customers, staff, or community members express their thanks to you?

There are countless ways to cultivate a company culture rooted in expressing appreciation – whether it’s launching a loyalty or rewards program, highlighting customers on social media, employee recognition, hosting exclusive events, giving referrals, or sending personalized thank-you notes.

Join us to create a circle of THANKS for your business, yourself, and one another.

Biz Fit is a monthly informal, confidential, and supportive gathering of entrepreneurial women where we exchange ideas and share insights. Whether you are an aspiring or experienced business owner, bring your coffee, tea, or smoothie and connect with other entrepreneurs across Maine.

REGISTER TODAY!! Invite a friend!

Your logo is more than just a graphic. It's the face of your brand and one of the most important ways you communicate with your customers. Creating a strong, memorable logo doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to define your brand identity, sketch and refine logo concepts, and avoid the common design pitfalls that can send the wrong message.

Jasper Erickson, Client Services & Operations Manager of SCORE Maine, will guide you through the full process, from concept to file preparation, using tools and techniques that work for small business owners. You’ll learn how to choose fonts and colors that reflect your values, test your design across formats, and prepare your logo for everything from business cards to swag and websites.

What You’ll Learn:

How to clarify your brand identity before starting the design
The difference between raster and vector files, and when to use each
Key principles for creating a clean, versatile logo
How to select fonts and colors that fit your audience and brand personality
What to check before finalizing your design, including scalability and file formats

Creating financial projections might sound intimidating, but they’re one of the most important tools for starting and running a small business. As the third session in our Startup Series, this webinar will show you how to build realistic, simple projections that can help you make informed decisions and move your business forward.

Maine SBDC Business Advisor Peter Harriman will walk you through estimating sales, understanding costs, and cash flow planning. You’ll also learn how financial projections connect to your business planning and why they’re often required for funding applications.

This is Part 3 in the Startup Series. The first two webinars covered startup fundamentals and business planning tools, but you can attend this one even if you missed those.

Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. SBA. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact mainesbdc@maine.edu

Please join MEREDA for a conversation with Portland’s Planning Director Kevin Kraft, Fathom Companies’ VP of Development Marieke Thormann, and Acorn Engineering Principal Will Savage. Together, they’ll walk us through Portland’s planning process and share insights on how a development evolves from an initial idea to a finished project. Don’t miss this chance to learn from leaders shaping the city!

Moderating the program is John Finegan, Associate Broker at The Boulos Company.

This event is Sponsored by Norway Savings Bank.

You’re juggling a dozen things when your phone rings. The voice on the other end insists your power will be cut unless you pay immediately. It sounds urgent. It sounds official. It’s a scam, and it’s one of many that are targeting Maine businesses every day.

From convincing emails and fake invoices to spoofed websites and caller ID tricks, small business scams are getting harder to spot and easier to fall for. The financial damage? Often fast, serious, and hard to undo.

In this session, Brandon McDonald of Northern Maine Development Commission will unpack the latest scams and give you clear, practical tools to recognize and stop them before they impact your bottom line. If you’ve ever felt unsure whether an email or caller was legitimate, this webinar is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

How to recognize the most common scams targeting local businesses
Simple steps to confirm if a request is real or fake
Where to check if your business data has already been compromised
What actions to take if you suspect or discover fraud
Tips to protect your staff and decide if cybersecurity training is a smart next step

Join us every Thursday for the Local Goods Market @ Fork Food Lab, your weekly celebration of local flavor, community vibes, and culinary creativity! This market features a rotating lineup of Fork Food Lab members and other Maine makers offering delicious bites, sips, and one-of-a-kind products.

It’s the perfect after-work destination: grab a bite, connect with friends, and explore what Maine’s vibrant food scene has to offer. Whether you’re a die-hard foodie or just looking to support small businesses in a laid-back setting, the Local Goods Market is the place to be!

Fork Food Lab is Maine’s only non-profit food business incubator and shared manufacturing and processing facility. They have around 80 small businesses working out of their shared commercial kitchen. Their mission is to support a just, diverse, and sustainable food economy in Maine, where food entrepreneurs are supported in their quest to produce high quality and sustainable products utilizing locally sourced ingredients.

Follow @forkfoodlab on Instagram for weekly vendor updates

Are you ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship? This workshop is designed to help small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs navigate the early stages of launching a business with confidence. Whether you're refining an idea or just getting started, you'll gain insight into the foundational elements of starting your own business.

This session explores the realities of entrepreneurship and the building blocks of business success—like defining your value proposition, choosing the right structure, securing funding, understanding your customer, and crafting a business plan that evolves with your goals. You’ll also receive guidance on how to tap into trusted networks like SCORE for mentorship and support.

What You’ll Learn:

How to evaluate your readiness and resources for business ownership
The components of a strong business plan and why it's essential
How to identify your customers and test your value proposition
What business structure might be right for you
Sources of funding, including grants, loans, and bootstrapping strategies
The importance of professional advisors and regulatory compliance

Ready to turn your dream into a business?

Join us for this free workshop and start building a foundation for success!

Do you wish you had an HR department to turn to for guidance?

Join us for this session where we’ll help you build confidence and gain clarity on handling employee issues professionally.

Jodi Cordes will discuss dealing with performance or behavior problems including:

How to document issues properly
Progressive discipline overview
What to say during difficult conversations
Protecting your business legally
Following the presentation, you’ll have the opportunity to engage in an interactive forum where you can ask your burning HR-related questions and learn from fellow business owners who have faced similar challenges.

Bring your questions!

Please note: While Jodi Cordes is an experienced HR professional, she is unable to provide legal advice.

REGISTER TODAY!!

Please join us for 2026 Financial Market Outlook – What It Means to You, a presentation from Spinnaker Trust.

When: Tuesday, November 25th at 2:00 p.m.

Where: OceanView’s Lunt Auditorium (74 Lunt Road, Falmouth, ME)

Join Tim Kaijala and Zak Smolkin of Spinnaker Trust as they review the highs and lows of the financial market movements in 2025, share an outlook for 2026, and offer insights into what kind of impact the market might make on everyday money matters. They’ll review recent tax policy changes and potential implications for estate and financial planning. Tim and Zak will give a brief presentation and leave plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Portland-based Spinnaker Trust is a Maine bank chartered as a non-depository trust company that manages over $3 billion for a global clientele. Spinnaker provides a wide range of financial services, including investment management, trust and estate planning, tax services and ESOP trustee services. Learn more at spinnakertrust.com.

About the Speakers

Tim Kaijala, CAIA, CSRIC, FDP, Vice President, Deputy Chief Investment Officer

Prior to joining Spinnaker Trust, Tim was Director of Private Markets and a Portfolio Manager at H.M. Payson, where he managed the firm’s private markets platform, oversaw investment due diligence across a variety of asset classes, and led several cross-functional innovation initiatives. Tim loves learning anything and everything about the markets in service to our client’s goals. His previous roles include Director of Investment Research at O’Brien Wealth Partners, Portfolio Manager at Ropes Wealth Advisors, and investment research positions at BrightSphere Investment Group and Fidelity Investments.

Zachary Smolkin, Esq., Senior Vice President, Chief Trust Officer

Zak came to Spinnaker Trust after spending 13 years at the Boston law firm of Maselan & Jones, P.C. where he worked closely with clients on estate planning, business succession planning, and estate administration. Zak also has extensive experience working with families on Medicaid matters and special needs trusts. Zak has always enjoyed working closely with clients to help them achieve their goals and hopes to continue this with Spinnaker Trust.

This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Registration is required.

To register, please fill out all of the required portions in the form and click “Submit.” If done correctly, you will be taken to a new confirmation web page. You will not receive an automated email response. You may also call the Front Desk at (207) 781-4460 during business hours.

Joining a farmers’ market can be one of the best ways to start, grow, or sustain a small food-based business. In this session, you’ll learn how to find the right market, prepare a strong application, and set yourself up for success on market day.

SCORE Mentor Jamie Lewis will walk you through vendor requirements, application tips, and key strategies to make your booth stand out. You'll also hear about Maine markets actively looking for vendors in the upcoming season.

What You’ll Learn:

The different types of Maine farmers’ markets—and how they operate
How to evaluate markets and prepare your application
What equipment, licenses, and materials you’ll need
Tips to build customer relationships and grow sales
Where to find vendor openings in 2025

Feeling frustrated with Meta Ads or unsure how to get started? Facebook and Instagram can be powerful platforms for reaching new customers, yet many small business owners struggle to use them effectively. This workshop takes the overwhelm out of paid social and gives you straightforward, practical strategies you can apply right away.

In this interactive SCORE session, you will learn how to build campaigns that reach the right audience, craft compelling messages that stop the scroll, and track performance with confidence. We will break down what works, what does not, and how to avoid wasting ad spend so you can generate real value from your marketing efforts. You will also review real examples and walk through proven approaches to improving results over time.

Whether you are brand new to Meta Ads or ready to refine your skills, you will leave this workshop with tools that help you run smarter campaigns and drive more meaningful outcomes for your business.

What You Will Learn:

How to define and target your ideal customer with precision
Tips for writing ad copy and creative that grab attention and inspire action
How to read key performance metrics and know which ones matter most
Ways to troubleshoot ineffective campaigns and optimize for better performance
How to turn Meta Ads into a sustainable and scalable marketing channel

Join us every Thursday for the Local Goods Market @ Fork Food Lab, your weekly celebration of local flavor, community vibes, and culinary creativity! This market features a rotating lineup of Fork Food Lab members and other Maine makers offering delicious bites, sips, and one-of-a-kind products.

It’s the perfect after-work destination: grab a bite, connect with friends, and explore what Maine’s vibrant food scene has to offer. Whether you’re a die-hard foodie or just looking to support small businesses in a laid-back setting, the Local Goods Market is the place to be!

Fork Food Lab is Maine’s only non-profit food business incubator and shared manufacturing and processing facility. They have around 80 small businesses working out of their shared commercial kitchen. Their mission is to support a just, diverse, and sustainable food economy in Maine, where food entrepreneurs are supported in their quest to produce high quality and sustainable products utilizing locally sourced ingredients.

Follow @forkfoodlab on Instagram for weekly vendor updates

Join us every Thursday for the Local Goods Market @ Fork Food Lab, your weekly celebration of local flavor, community vibes, and culinary creativity! This market features a rotating lineup of Fork Food Lab members and other Maine makers offering delicious bites, sips, and one-of-a-kind products.

It’s the perfect after-work destination: grab a bite, connect with friends, and explore what Maine’s vibrant food scene has to offer. Whether you’re a die-hard foodie or just looking to support small businesses in a laid-back setting, the Local Goods Market is the place to be!

Fork Food Lab is Maine’s only non-profit food business incubator and shared manufacturing and processing facility. They have around 80 small businesses working out of their shared commercial kitchen. Their mission is to support a just, diverse, and sustainable food economy in Maine, where food entrepreneurs are supported in their quest to produce high quality and sustainable products utilizing locally sourced ingredients.

Follow @forkfoodlab on Instagram for weekly vendor updates

Engage Maine's Global Talent: Practical Tools for Recruiting & Retaining Diverse Talent supports employers in filling critical workforce gaps while improving employment outcomes for internationally trained professionals. With a small, collaborative space for learning, the forum delivers tools and frameworks through four workshops designed to build more inclusive and supportive workplace environments.

Forum Objectives:
-Build Inclusive Hiring Practices: Participate in hands-on workshops and engaging discussions that equip you with actionable strategies to attract, hire, and retain diverse talent.
-Advance Workforce and Business Growth: Strengthen your team and drive Maine's economic vitality through enhanced retention and inclusive workplace practices.
-Access No-Cost, High-Impact Learning: Benefit from accessible, employer-focused professional development designed for small to mid-size organizations looking to fully leverage their workforce potential.

Southern Maine Workforce Initiative is powered by United Way of Southern Maine.

This day long event which is all about bringing people who are part of Maine's Nonprofit Community together to share ideas, spark collaborations, and build a more connected, resilient sector.

The full day offers peer-led discussions, hands-on collaborative learning, and space to reflect and recharge—leaving you equipped to bring new ideas and energy back to your nonprofit work.