September 4, 2006
Showing the way | Ellen Golden ushers into print a new book about women entrepreneurs
By Kerry Elson
To Ellen Golden, the conclusion is clear: Maine women have a knack for business. In 2001 alone, their companies generated $3.2 billion in sales, according to a study Golden commissioned at Coastal Enterprises Inc., a Wiscasset-based business development organization where she is senior vice president of development.
Businesses owned by women are still growing strong, Golden says, but getting recognition for their economic clout isn't easy. That's partly because, as the study found, women-owned businesses in the state tend to be small, with most having just two employees.
Some of their success stories, however, are now stepping into the spotlight. In August, CEI published Telling Their Stories: Women Business Owners in Western Maine, a 62-page book of essays about 13 female entrepreneurs in Oxford, Somerset, Franklin and Piscataquis counties. Written by students at the University of Maine at Farmington, the stories examine how the business owners ˆ from a restaurateur in Jackman to an accountant in Dover-Foxcroft ˆ found success in economically difficult parts of the state.
While Golden admits that one publication may not stir lawmakers to offer more support for women entrepreneurs, she sees Telling Their Stories as one way to show officials that those businesses are good investments. The book also has potential to persuade more women to go into business, she says. In her experience, real-life stories sometimes are more persuasive than statistics, because they provide credible role models.
"If you read about Bill Gates as a single parent living in rural Maine, you're not likely to say, 'Oh, I could be Bill Gates,'" Golden says. "But if you read the story of one of the women in the book who's a single parent ˆ and there are a number of them ˆ you might think to yourself, 'Oh, she did that. Well, maybe I could do that.'"
Telling Their Stories has been in the works since 2003, when the Western Mountains Alliance, an economic development organization in Farmington, suggested that CEI publish profiles of businesswomen in western Maine to illustrate its 2001 study. For the WMA, the project would show that businesses could thrive in a region plagued by losses in manufacturing jobs. The organization arranged for UMF students to write the profiles, hoping to build a link between academia and the business world. The published product features condensed versions of each student's story.
Golden says she'll ship 1,000 copies, which cost $10,000 total to produce, to lawmakers, libraries, schools and organizations across the state. Since 1978, Golden has worked at CEI developing programs for women entrepreneurs, and she envisions using the newly published book as a launching point for workshop discussions about business ownership.
The WMA and the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community, an Augusta-based business development organization, may use the book for similar programs. And Golden hopes the book inspires other universities to launch similar projects in their own communities.
Now, she says, her task is to keep producing work that shows how women entrepreneurs have become an economic force in Maine. While Telling Their Stories is just the beginning, she hopes it will garner more support for businesses owned by women. "[This book] is another way of elevating the fact that we think there continues to be a need for targeted assistance," she says. "The issue is, what is the state really doing to invest in entrepreneurship, and how do we recognize the people who are in fact integral to the state's economy?"
Businesses owned by women are still growing strong, Golden says, but getting recognition for their economic clout isn't easy. That's partly because, as the study found, women-owned businesses in the state tend to be small, with most having just two employees.
Some of their success stories, however, are now stepping into the spotlight. In August, CEI published Telling Their Stories: Women Business Owners in Western Maine, a 62-page book of essays about 13 female entrepreneurs in Oxford, Somerset, Franklin and Piscataquis counties. Written by students at the University of Maine at Farmington, the stories examine how the business owners ˆ from a restaurateur in Jackman to an accountant in Dover-Foxcroft ˆ found success in economically difficult parts of the state.
While Golden admits that one publication may not stir lawmakers to offer more support for women entrepreneurs, she sees Telling Their Stories as one way to show officials that those businesses are good investments. The book also has potential to persuade more women to go into business, she says. In her experience, real-life stories sometimes are more persuasive than statistics, because they provide credible role models.
"If you read about Bill Gates as a single parent living in rural Maine, you're not likely to say, 'Oh, I could be Bill Gates,'" Golden says. "But if you read the story of one of the women in the book who's a single parent ˆ and there are a number of them ˆ you might think to yourself, 'Oh, she did that. Well, maybe I could do that.'"
Telling Their Stories has been in the works since 2003, when the Western Mountains Alliance, an economic development organization in Farmington, suggested that CEI publish profiles of businesswomen in western Maine to illustrate its 2001 study. For the WMA, the project would show that businesses could thrive in a region plagued by losses in manufacturing jobs. The organization arranged for UMF students to write the profiles, hoping to build a link between academia and the business world. The published product features condensed versions of each student's story.
Golden says she'll ship 1,000 copies, which cost $10,000 total to produce, to lawmakers, libraries, schools and organizations across the state. Since 1978, Golden has worked at CEI developing programs for women entrepreneurs, and she envisions using the newly published book as a launching point for workshop discussions about business ownership.
The WMA and the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community, an Augusta-based business development organization, may use the book for similar programs. And Golden hopes the book inspires other universities to launch similar projects in their own communities.
Now, she says, her task is to keep producing work that shows how women entrepreneurs have become an economic force in Maine. While Telling Their Stories is just the beginning, she hopes it will garner more support for businesses owned by women. "[This book] is another way of elevating the fact that we think there continues to be a need for targeted assistance," she says. "The issue is, what is the state really doing to invest in entrepreneurship, and how do we recognize the people who are in fact integral to the state's economy?"
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