Fickle customers, fire, financing issues — Maine small businesspeople are well acquainted with these challenges.This issue of Mainebiz focuses on small businesses and it’s chockablock with stories of comebacks and gritty successes.We asked our Bass Harbor-based correspondent, Laurie Schreiber, to talk to businesses Downeast, a region where business growth often comes at a high price. […]
Fickle customers, fire, financing issues — Maine small businesspeople are well acquainted with these challenges.
This issue of Mainebiz focuses on small businesses and it's chockablock with stories of comebacks and gritty successes.
We asked our Bass Harbor-based correspondent, Laurie Schreiber, to talk to businesses Downeast, a region where business growth often comes at a high price. We didn't plan it this way, but fire turned out to be a theme in both of Laurie's stories.
In Eastport, “A boon for boat builder," Millennium Marine has a great story: A third-generation boat builder, raised in New Brunswick, last year moved his business to Maine to expand the customer base. As Laurie reported, owner Cory Guimond's operations suffered a fire within three months of the move to Eastport. We're happy to report that the company started cleanup the day after the fire and was quickly back to building boats. Millennium is now hiring 20 employees, building its workforce to around 50.
In Machias, “Change afoot on Main Street in Machias," Laurie spoke with the owners of Helen's Restaurant, Julie and David Barker, who rebuilt the iconic restaurant after it burned to the ground in July 2014. You hear this time and again in Maine, but Helen's was a town gathering place. Its loss hurt the civic pride and hurt surrounding businesses. For a town that's trying to evolve as a destination rather than just a drive-through town, Helen's rebuilding was a matter of significant local interest. Yet, as Sharon Mack, executive director of the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, says, “I never saw a community rally so quickly and fully … Helen's always stepped up for others, and that's what people did for them.”
Trial and error is also a big part of building a business.
In Biddeford, “Reclaimed materials for an iconic look”, Artas Designs co-founder Art Timofjev talks about the need to train employees as the furniture-making business grows. “You can't learn it from a textbook. You have to put your hands on it and try it about a trillion times,” he says.
In Eliot, “Crafted in Maine, paddled everywhere," the founders of Tidal Roots, a maker of wooden standup paddleboards, spent some three years developing products, creating templates and studying the marketplace before actually launching the company. “That first board look forever to build. Hundreds of hours,” says co-founder Kent Scovill. Yet hard work has its rewards: “It was the best day ever stepping on those boards for the first time.”
Elsewhere in the issue, Senior Writer James McCarthy delves into financing, talking to Field Rider at Pine Tree State Certified Develop Corp. about the Small Business Administration's 504 lending program.
We round out the small business focus with the list of Maine's largest Small Business Administration loans.
You don't have to be an entrepreneur to enjoy this issue. But if you are, this is a keeper.