🔒From the Editor: It’s no lie — running a business is hard work

Small businesses make up 99% of the companies in Maine and 54% of the overall workforce. Yet why do so many small business owners feel like they have to crawl through barbed wire to make it all work? In the most recent year tracked by the U.S. Small Business Administration, 6,444 establishments opened in Maine, while 5,717 closed. That’s a net gain of 727. What happened in the case of the businesses that closed? That part of the story is not offered in the SBA’s “2025 Small Business Profile” for Maine. But our cover story, which looks at the costs of running a small business, offers some insights. Deputy Editor Renee Cordes talked to a range of business owners. And, in short, they had a lot on their minds. “The hardest part of running [this business] is staying ahead of costs,” a small food manufacturer told Renee. Higher costs are only part of the story. The market for workers is still tight. Regulations are a constant headache. But a juice producer says she’s working by a guiding principle: “Adapt or die.” Elsewhere in the issue, we look at a town that might be a barometer for the health of Maine’s downtowns. Ellsworth has a population of roughly 9,000, which is up 7% from the 2020 census. It has a combination of big-box stores on the main thoroughfare, U.S. Route 1, which is a gateway of sorts to Acadia National Park and Downeast locations. But it also has a distinctive downtown made up primarily of independent retailers. Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber talks to some of the downtown’s new retailers, who are drawn by active foot traffic and historic buildings — a downtown with good bones, as they say. “One of the biggest opportunities we have in Ellsworth is within our existing buildings,” says a local economic development official. At a downtown bakery, the owner takes note of a typical day’s customer base: “We have moms with little kids. We had a day camp come in yesterday, 12 kids. A couple of veterans come in a couple of times a week, sit here, get their coffee and their breakfast.”