Senior management | A conversation with Deborah McLean and Lynn Peel, principals of Maine Senior Guide
Photo/Jan Holder
Deborah McLean, left, and Lynn Peel
Maine Senior Guide
Founded: January 2010; site launched in September
Employees: 0
Startup costs: $25,000
Projected revenue, year one: $21,774
Projected revenue, year two: $84,000
Contact: 232-7847
PO Box 9739-1126, Portland 04104
www.MaineSeniorGuide.com
What is Maine Senior Guide?
Maine Senior Guide is a comprehensive website that pulls together all the products, services and resources for Maine seniors and their families in one easy-access site. Maine Senior Guide is free to viewers, and includes a free listing level for any senior-related business, product or service. Any business, service or club that wants to be listed can send us information. It’s one-stop shopping for senior resources, whether it’s agencies, businesses or government sites. There are 7,000 resources listed and that’s only scratching the surface. We want a really comprehensive site, so we’re always looking for more listings.
Businesses that could benefit from more exposure to Maine’s growing senior demographic can enrich their listing at different levels. The premium advertising level, for example, includes a lot of social media support in our blog, Facebook and Twitter postings.
People can search by geographic area, topic or keyword. Businesses have the opportunity to provide articles for our library, blogs for our expert blogger section and answers to our “Ask Lynn” column, as well as their descriptive profile. Viewers don’t have to sign in, register, subscribe, give us their blood type or do anything else to view the site.
Why did you start the company?
Deborah and I started the company because we couldn’t find the senior resources we needed in one easy place. At my senior care company, Beach Glass Transitions, I was getting more and more calls from out-of-state adult children looking for Maine resources, and we decided a website with a searchable database would be an important addition to the state’s information base.
How do you market Maine Senior Guide?
We’re starting some TV advertising, continuing a press blitz, informing all our professional groups, developing print ads, doing lots of social media as part of Maine Senior Guide, and calling people. Since Deborah and I are also in charge of sales, we’re burning up the lines talking to people in senior-related businesses about how Maine Senor Guide can get them in front of the boomer/adult children demographic.
How do you finance the company?
From savings, a small business loan and a business credit card. We also both have other sole proprietorships that pay the bills. Deborah is a writer at Maine Wordcraft, focusing on business communications and corporate blogging. Lynn runs Beach Glass Transitions, a senior adviser consultancy that serves seniors and their families by helping them transition into safe and secure residences, everywhere from independent living communities to assisted living or dementia care.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Finding salespeople who can help us expand our reach. Because we built the site from the ground up with the folks at Flyte New Media, and have such a close connection to the marketing and benefit reason behind each element, Lynn and I are an enthusiastic team when we visit prospective resources. It’s hard to find someone else who has the understanding of both senior care and social media who also wants to work hard at sales.
What has been successful about your business strategy?
Offering social media assistance. Many business people in the senior health and wellness fields want to do more with social media and web presence, but don’t have the resources or time to make it happen. We can do a lot for them.
What are your goals for your company?
We’ve always said we want to do well by doing good. We want to grow by building a resource that allows viewers to find information 24/7 all over the state about senior-related products and services, and we want to give businesses a connection to that demographic by hosting senior resources on one easy-access website. We know that if we provide a valuable source of information for viewers, we’ll continue to grow. Eventually, we want to expand to other states.
Interview by Carol Coultas
New Ventures profiles young companies, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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