🔒It’s growing season for Bob Smith, majority owner of Phippsburg’s Sebasco Harbor Resort

Bob Smith is the majority owner of Phippsburg’s Sebasco Harbor Resort, which marks its 90th season this year.

Before a quick tour of the sprawling vacation village that includes a golf course and indoor recreation center with candlepin bowling, he chatted with Mainebiz about some of the challenges of running a seasonal business.

Mainebiz: Is this your busiest time of year?

Bob Smith: Yes, we make roughly two-thirds of our revenue in about six weeks, and that’s the seasonal nature of Maine. May and June are beautiful, September and October are beautiful, but most folks from other parts of the country and the world want to be in Maine in July and August. We’re open from mid-May to the third or fourth weekend in October.

MB: You’ve invested a lot in this property since buying it in 1997?

BS: Yes, around $14 million on new projects and renovations. We have 37 buildings here. It’s like “The Money Pit,” but it’s a labor of love.

MB: How’s business?

BS: Last year was our best year ever. The last couple of years we’ve had about 8% or 9% in annual revenue growth, which gets down to the bottom line and helps create more opportunities for capital investment.

MB: And how is this season looking?

BS: We’re going to be a little flat, if not a little off. We’re a little like farmers and when the weather doesn’t cooperate, like early this season, it makes a dent in those who make short-term plans to come visit. The industry has also evolved — folks who used to make their plans four, six, eight months out, now make them for six, maybe eight days out, and they keep an eye on the weather. We have a lot of returning guests every year, but that last little difference between having a good year and having a great year is how the weather cooperates when you’re on a seasonal coastal resort.

MB: How big is the staff here?

BS: We go from 20 full-time year-round employees and are typically at 140 to 160 during the summer when we’re busiest.

MB: Where are you finding people?

BS: We use recruiting strategies that took a long time to develop. There aren’t that many seasonal resorts in Florida, but almost everyone down there that is seasonal has a connection with us, and some of the folks that work there will come and work here and some of our folks will go there. We also have a pretty large population of seniors [retirees] who work here part-time in the summer.

MB: And students?

BS: It used to be all local college kids, but now when the American kids go back to school at the end of August, the J-1s kick in [affecting students with cultural and educational exchange visas]. They’re a big part of our workforce for the last four or five weeks that we’re busy, and this year we’ll have almost 30, mainly from Eastern Europe.

MB: You can also pay competitive wages?

BS: We were never a minimum-wage employer, but a rising minimum wage puts pressure on the gap between the minimum wage and what we pay. We also house almost all of our seasonal folks that don’t live in the area right here at the resort, which is a big advantage over a lot of our competitors.

MB: What’s next for the business?

BS: Now that we’re getting back to where we want to be with the core resort we have some projects planned for the next couple of years. I’d also like to focus on starting to grow outside the core.

MB: Do you mean on-site or other businesses?

BS: I mean the mountain parcel across the street, 300 beautiful acres with fabulous views that I’d love to see as a mixed-use community. I’ve offered to donate some land to find the right company that provides jobs to the community. That’s the big-picture stuff I’m starting to get back on track.