The familiar saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child”.  It also takes a village to help an unemployed or underemployed individual.  Women, Work and Community has always understood the importance of maintaining strong partnerships with other agencies and organizations on both a state and regional level.  We know that working together we can better ensure that displaced workers can secure employment, map out a career and education plan, and succeed in today’s dynamic economy.

Recently staff at our Bath office launched a new project working with the local College Transitions program at Merrymeeting Adult Education.  The College Transitions program aims to help prepare adults academically for college coursework, while providing support and mentoring to enable these adults to successfully transition to college.  Beginning in October of 2011, Women, Work and Community offered a series of College Success mini-workshops to these students in an effort to build a solid foundation for future achievement as a college student. The topics of the workshops were diverse, and included: sources of financial aid, career research, stress management, time management, decision making, and goal setting.

From October 2011 through March 2012, Women, Work and Community offered a total of 24 College Success workshops to four different groups of students reaching 35 potential college bound individuals. Feedback was positive with many students expressing the wish that the workshops had been longer.  Many  have continued working with Women, Work and Community staff on their career and educational plan.

                          

WWC’s graduate Ambassadors are helping to organize sales of “My Mom’s Coffee” at a variety of venues throughout the state, including the First Friday Art Walk in Portland. Coordinating with Coffee By Design’s campaign, several Farmington businesses  are also  contributing a portion of their sales to WWC the week before Mother’s Day.

CBD’s Community Coffee Program supports non-profits and encourages CBD customers to join in their commitment.  Mary Allen noted:   “In these difficult economic times, we know that the monies our community partners receive are put to good use and go far.  The work that Women, Work, and Community does pays dividends for Maine today and will help us build a stronger Maine for the future.”

For more information and updates about our Coffee By Design “Mother’s Month” campaign, check out WWC’s and website and Facebook page. To order online direct from CBD, available in Regular or Decaf.

                          

Maine farmers grow great food. Value-added agriculture and specialty food products speak to consumers with high quality and market appeal. So how do you get your product to those who will purchase it? Whether you’re selling from a farm stand at the end of your driveway, serving retailers and restaurants in your region or shipping your product worldwide, distribution can be your greatest challenge and the greatest key to your success.
“Distribution was my first and biggest challenge,” says Cathe Morrill, owner of the State of Maine Cheese Co. “So many folks, especially as they come newly into it, they don’t really know what their target market needs from them in order to want their product.”
Restaurants and large retailers have different needs than small independent food stores and farmers markets. Morrill highlights how the “decision-tree” must govern the production and distribution process: Who is your target market? What are the needs of that market for product availability, food safety, insurance, packaging and other concerns? What does the nature of your product require; is your product shelf-stable, or does it need refrigeration? How will you package your product to avoid spoilage and breakage, minimize shipping costs, meet the needs of wholesale customers and maximize your marketing appeal and availability to consumers?
Small Business Development Center Director John Entwistle has a long history of working with Maine food producers. He notes that time, transportation, and distance pose challenges for producers to reach retail markets.
“Regional farm produce distributors help to address that issue, allowing farms to reduce their costs because it is shared by a number of suppliers,” Entwistle says.
The nature of the agricultural cycle, however, creates difficulties in the business model. “A challenge that remains for the distributor involves the mismatch between the market’s demand for a constant supply and the reality of a seasonal local supply,” Entwistle reports.
With the highest gas prices in Maine, the longest winters and the greatest distance from New England population centers, Aroostook County out of necessity has become a hot spot for innovation to encourage local production and consumption and solve distribution problems. Three initiatives exemplify the area’s can-do attitude: Crown O’ Maine Organic Cooperative, Northern Girl and Valley Roots.
Crown O’Maine was founded in 1995 to distribute locally grown produce across Maine. Pickups span the state of Maine and deliveries stretch from northern Aroostook to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. More recently, Marada and Leah Cook, daughters of Crown O’Maine founders Jim and Kate Cook, joined forces with Chris Hallweaver to create Northern Girl, LLC. The new business was born on a simple premise: sell the top notch percentage of farmer’s crops on the fresh market and process the surplus to feed local consumers the rest of the year. With production already in place and a shared-use kitchen and business incubator in progress at Loring Development Authority in Limestone, Northern Girl will move to Van Buren when construction of its $450,000 food processing plant is complete. Local supporter Renee Felini notes how the cooperative environment encourages individual entrepreneurism: “You want to have that feeling that ‘I did this.’” With shared facilities and cooperative distribution, entrepreneurs retain ownership of their product and their production while benefiting from community and economy of scale. Felini concludes, “You have that supportive environment. You’re not alone.”
Local initiatives abound in Aroostook County and other agricultural areas of Maine. Sigrid Houlette, district coordinator for the St. John Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, is working with other area organizers in Fort Kent to start Valley Roots, a producer and local product cooperative. “I believe that being able to source our foods and other products as close to home as possible is the healthiest option for all, businesses and consumers alike,” she notes.
Paula Day, president of the Maine Alternative Agriculture Association, notes that the biggest challenge is local demand. “Distributors [entrepreneurs] happen whenever there is a market to be supplied,” she says. The first distribution challenge is educating consumers about the superior quality, value and benefits of locally produced food.
Day notes that while Maine producers who rely on national and international markets frequently are held up as distribution success stories, “To me, the best success stories are those that put locally produced food into the kitchens of Maine consumers.” Those public relations models include farmers markets, food clubs, community-supported agriculture memberships, retailers of Maine products and high-quality gourmet restaurants that make their professional reputations based on their use of local products.
Cathe Morrill sums up where Maine stands in the “buy local” movement and in producing quality food products for regional, national and international trade: “Maine has a reputation for quality as ‘the place of make.’ It’s a great place to live, work, grow, produce, and enjoy.”
The strength of local food producers, distributors, retailers and consumers in Maine is a spark for our economy and a boon for businesses at all points of the food chain.

                          

Girls got to attend three workshop sessions. They could be found building a tool box, welding, working on a sheet metal cut-out, trying out computer aided drafting, exploring heavy equipment, and more throughout the day.

Keynote speaker Emily Smith, Aroostook County farmer

A highlight of the day was a panel of girls currently enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.  These girls were able to share their experiences of learning in male-dominated classroom settings, and to dispel myths about girls’ ability and aptitude for work that is often viewed as “heavy,” dirty, or more suited to males. These students were role models of success-displaying confidence to pursue their passion and live the message, “you can do anything.”

Totally Trades is organized by Women, Work, and Community. Financial support is provided by the Maine Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration and the Maine Department of Education/CTE.  Time Warner Cable provided t-shirts to all Totally Trades  attendees this year.  In addition, the Aroostook County conference was hosted by Northern Maine Community College (NMCC) and the primary local sponsors were Northern Maine Development Commission and Sarah LeClare, Attorney.

WWC helps women and men explore careers in all fields. For more information contact your regional WWC staff.

                          

• Potential employers (especially if I will be handling their money!)
• Insurance companies will give me a better rate if my credit is good
• Potential landlords want to know how I handle my money
• Utilities will charge less to set up my service if my credit is good

These companies will be more interested in your credit history than your credit score. To get a free copy of your three credit reports go to www.annualcreditreport.com. You can request them online, by phone, or by mail.

                          

Jenn Dobransky

By Jenn Dobransky, Special to the Bangor Daily News

For Deb Gill and Nanako O’Donnell, co-owners of Pig and Fish in Arrowsic, the day always starts with the question, “What are you working on today?” From there, the two creative entrepreneurs set off designing and fabricating colorful and useful products for the home. They then ship their creations across the world.
In early 2011, motivated by the appeal to sell directly to customers, Gill and O’Donnell decided to market their products exclusively online. Pig and Fish promptly joined Etsy, because it is an established online marketplace for handmade goods.
“We love that our store is always open. People can stop by whenever they want, spend as much or as little time as they like, browse or buy. Aside from the obvious accessibility to the entire world, the convenience of shopping online cannot be denied,” O’Donnell said.
Many would agree that the benefits of selling online are vast. For Pig and Fish, one major benefit of the online selling model is greater connection.
“The Etsy community not only puts us in direct contact with a pool of potential buyers, but it also connects us to so many talented small-business owners,” O’Donnell explained. “Prior to joining Etsy, we never thought that through the Internet we would make real connections with people we’ve never met. We were wrong — the computer may be a flat screen, but the Internet is a portal that can put you directly in touch with real people. We’ve had the pleasure of connecting with Red Tile Studio in Dallas, Texas. We didn’t know about them and they didn’t know about us — until we met on Etsy. Now we run an Etsy team together and we started a collaborative line called ‘1901 Miles’ where we use their modern prints as backgrounds on our designs — all done through the Internet and all from our little yellow house in Maine.”
Certainly there are many challenges to operating an online business. Competition online is fierce. This fact forces e-tailers, or electronic retailers, to have a clear marketing plan, including an aggressive social media strategy which requires daily management.
“If you do a search on Etsy for ‘home decor,’ you’ll get a return of over 442,500 items to browse — that’s a lot of competition. The biggest challenge for us has been getting noticed, but it has also pushed us to seek out ways to promote our business. For marketing Pig and Fish outside of Etsy, we dove right into understanding how social media intersects with our business and then we work to utilize these outlets to our benefit. It takes a tremendous amount of time to research, study and implement such information in our small business, but each new thing is a way to better define our brand, reach a larger audience and grow,” O’Donnell said.
Technology has made this type of business possible. And the online analytics — the data that show how people find a website, how they explore it and what the website owner can do to enhance the navigating experience — makes operating an online business easier and gives e-tailers the opportunity to increase their business success.
“You don’t have to be a techie geek to understand analytics because this data is now presented in an easy to understand format. We study our Etsy and Google analytics to keep a real time beat on what people are searching for and looking at. We then find a balance between what the market wants and what we feel drawn to creating. You may not understand why a certain product is selling so much, but if there is a demand, we see it as our job to fill it,” O’Donnell said.
When I asked O’Donnell about the advice she would give to a new entrepreneur who wants to sell her products exclusively online, she didn’t hesitate: “You must realize you’re embarking on a journey. You may not know all the answers, but if you don’t start somewhere you won’t end up anywhere.”
According to their website, Etsy’s mission is to “empower people to change the way the global economy works.” It is “a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy.” To be sure, Pig and Fish, as well as many others, are doing just that.

                          

Jobs where you are paid to think

Even if you are not an artist, creative writer, or musician, there are still careers in the creative economy that might be for you.

What is the Creative Economy, anyway?
The Creative Economy has many elements, including the arts and humanities such as visual art, music, and literature. Many artists can make a living  making and selling their own artwork.

The Creative Economy also includes other types of activities, businesses, and organizations. At its most basic, the creative economy is the “ideas” business. It’s about turning ideas into products, services, and solutions to help individuals improve their lives and  make our communities  better places to live. Workers engaged in the creative economy can build a better mousetrap, help people work together more effectively, and make our society function more smoothly.

What kinds of jobs are you talking about?
Creative Occupations have been called jobs where people are paid to think. They cut across industry sectors and include high-tech manufacturing, engineering, the sciences and math, human and health services, computer services, education, and public administration. They are sometimes called “knowledge work” and usually require higher education such as a Bachelor’s degree.

It’s estimated that 36 million Americans, or about one third of the workforce, hold creative class jobs. These jobs pay 60 percent more than the average salary and have been far less vulnerable in the recession, averaging just half the level of the overall unemployment rate. In Maine, more people are now employed in the creative economy than in the woods products industry.

Some creative economy jobs might not be apparent at first glance. For example, in education, not only is there a need for teachers but also for people making educational products such as videos, web materials, and print materials. Behind the scenes, many expanding businesses rely on creativity and innovation for growth. The growing science and technology industries are based on research and development by creative workers.

And, there are jobs in the arts industry itself for non-artists. All those arts organizations need accountants, computer systems administrators, marketing people (i.e. writers, speakers, and designers), digital communication experts, and managers. And they need those employees to be creative thinkers about their jobs and comfortable in a creative environment.

                          

By Eloise Vitelli  Special to the Bangor Daily News

Would you like a chance to win a free Kindle Fire? How about a chance to meet the person who could help you grow your business? On April 25 at the Augusta Civic Center you have the chance to do both. A Meet the Lender ‘speed-banking’ event will bring together over 13 banks and community lenders with small business owners from around the state. Like similar speed-dating events, this one is designed to give lenders and businesses a chance to get to know each other through a series of short conversations.
Business owners get to meet face to face with up to three lenders, pitch their business plan, and learn what specific lenders are looking for in extending credit. Lending institutions get to hear directly about small business financing needs. “It is all about helping our small businesses grow and succeed,” according to Marilyn Geroux, Deputy District Director for the SBA, one of the event sponsors.
When John Trask decided to apply for a loan to purchase a key piece of equipment for his Mainely Promotions printing business, he shopped around looking at different interest rates.  While most of the lenders he talked with weren’t interested in his relatively new venture, he did learn what banks were looking for and what he needed to bring to the table. When he finally landed at his local bank, he found people he knew who were willing to work with him.  “Having already talked to others, I knew what {financial information} I could give them and I was prepared to move my accounts there”, he said.
According to Pam Bowerman, Vice President of commercial lending at Norway Savings Bank, roughly 60% of commercial loan applicants they see are ‘pretty well prepared’. She broke loan applicants into three categories: existing business customers who know the drill from past experience and come with documents in hand; businesses looking to change lenders or who are looking at a different level of financing have a general idea what to expect; and finally, the start-ups or shoe-string businesses ready to take a leap forward. “Only about half of these businesses have really done their homework. They come with lots of passion but often no plan and some definite misconceptions,” Pam explained.
Having a business plan is a huge help. It doesn’t have to be fancy. “It is really your thoughts put to paper: what you propose to do, how you are going to generate sales and market your business. It has to make sense”, Pam explained. She agrees that the numbers side of things can be the most intimidating and she is grateful for the resources available through organizations like SCORE, SBA, the Maine SBDC and others who can help loan applicants put together their cash flow statements, balance sheets and other financial documents as part of their overall application package.
John Trask acknowledged the importance of the help he got from Women, Work, and Community in preparing financials both for his initial loan and again when, as the economy went south a few years later, he went back to his bank to refinance. As he noted, “There is no security in any business, so it is really important to work with someone you can trust, who knows you and your business”.
From the lender’s side, Pam too stressed the value of good communication. “It really is a two-way street” she pointed out. The decision to extend credit relies heavily upon ‘the credibility of the owner.’
The speed-banking event paves the way for business and banker alike. Nearly a dozen agencies that offer resources to small businesses will also be on hand: the IRS, USDA Rural Development, Finance Authority of Maine, Department of Economic and Community Development, among others.
Jeanne Hulit, SBA Office of Capital Access, and Kenneth Willis, First Vice President of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston will be opening the afternoon with their perspectives on the economy, small businesses, and the availability of credit.
WWC and the Maine SBDC are offering ‘Getting Credit Ready’ workshops and individual assistance prior to the event. Classes are listed on www.womenworkandcommunity.org and www.mainebusinessworks.org  websites.
Other sponsors include the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Federal Home Loan Bank, the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, SCORE, the Maine SBA, and Women, Work, and Community. For more information contact Sandra Fontaine at Sandra.fontaine@sba.gov or 207 622-8381.  To register go to http://www.bostonfed.org/bankinfo/firo/events/2012/business-opportunities-in-community-development-lending/augusta/index.htm
Oh, and about that Kindle, and two other door prizes, a Livescribe and Hand scanner – you have to be present to win!

                          

Participants at the popular Extreme Couponing workshop

families stretch their hard-earned dollar.  As attendee Tamara Morgan said of the day, “This was incredibly helpful. In today’s times with everyone struggling to make ends meet every bit of advice is extremely helpful.”

Workshops ranged from Crash Course in Credit, Eating Well for Less and How to Pay for Education, to Pampering on a Penny and Extreme Couponing. Sponsored by the Western Maine CA$H Coalition, the event brought in area organizations, financial institutions and businesses as resources.

The Western Maine CA$H (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope) Coalition provides free tax preparation by IRS certified volunteers throughout the tax season. It also helps build a more secure financial future for residents of Greater Franklin County by offering opportunities to learn more about ways to earn money, keep more of it, and grow it. Find out more about the coalition and its members here.

 Stretch-A-Dollar Day was made possible through the support of KeyBank Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Services in partnership with UMF’s Partnerships for Success.