What Small Business Would You Like to See? (Portland, Ellsworth: renting, loans)

[peachie_in_maine]

I wish there was a gas station in my town. I have to drive 7 miles for gasoline.
I know that's not alot, but if your not going by a gas station then it's a bit of pain.

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Glad that we could help.

Being allergic to tomato you would do well in Italy.

We lived in Naples Italy for a few years, and well, they do eat a lot of pasta, though tomato sauce is rarely put on pasta in Italy.

When I was served tomato sauce on pasta in Italy it was in our home where we cooked it, or else in another American's home.

It is funny the bits and pieces that do make it across the ocean and then become huge as if that one bit was the entire picture.



I do hope that you can find a profitable business for yourself.

So true. Many areas have a hard time grasping the idea of macaroni and gravy. Heavy into seafood on the coast.

[BacktoNE]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

how about a good electronics repair shop.

Oh dear, we have to hire an electrician to hook up our TV these days. You really don't want either of us working on your electronics.

[BacktoNE]

Forest, you mentioned that you have just the one store, a gunsmith, and that anything else would change the feel of the town. In a good way? Or are people very happy with things as they are right now?

That is something else that we know we need to be sensitive about. We don't want any town to feel like we are bringing something negative to the area. We want whatever we do to be have a positive impact on the town.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

how about a good electronics repair shop.

When I was in highschool, my shop class was Tv and stereo repair. It was where I got into electronics. As an Electronic Tech over the decades since then, I have observed the industry a bit.

It is not economically feasible to repair TVs today. New units are cheap, everything inside is modular, to spend the hours to work out what needs to be replaced costs more than buying new. They are disposable. So many manufactures making new models every year, it was never their intention for any of their units to be fixed. So there are no tech manuals anymore.

The gunsmith in my town can not support himself doing gunsmithing. He has a background in the music industry [playing and doing sound recording repair]. He wants to setup a music instrument and amplifier repair shop next door to his gunsmith shop.

There was a time when hobby electronics was a big industry. Heathkit made DIY kits that you could make your own stereo. I have worked with men who made their own computers, no IC chips, just transistors. 'Popular' Electronics' magazine had multiple schematics of projects each month. There were lots of things that you could make.

It has all changed. Most of the chemicals that you need to etch your own circuit boards are now 'controlled substances'.

The 'idea' of an electronic repair shop seems like a nice idea. But in practice, eh.

'Computer Renaissance' is a great franchise. Taking in old PCs, fixing them and re-marketing them as cheap functional PCs. Bins filled with used boards [modems, graphic adapters, etc, all $5 a piece.

But even they are going under. They don't make enough from those repairs to pay wages.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by BacktoNE

Forest, you mentioned that you have just the one store, a gunsmith, and that anything else would change the feel of the town. In a good way? Or are people very happy with things as they are right now?

That is something else that we know we need to be sensitive about. We don't want any town to feel like we are bringing something negative to the area. We want whatever we do to be have a positive impact on the town.

If another storefront opened, and if they were successful, then I think it would change our town in a bad way.

I really doubt that any other storefront would be successful here.

The gunsmith has part-time hours, and spends a lot of time with no customers.

We do not get much traffic. Our road runs parallel to the freeway. 20 miles with one intersection, and that one intersecting road is not plowed routinely. If your up North going South then use the freeway, if your South going North likewise. The only folks who drive through here, either live here; or they are purposefully avoiding the freeway.

130 households own land in our town, about 50% are not residents. The residents make up most of our road traffic. Add to that the once a week cruise of the game warden and the sheriff. And that about adds up all of our road traffic.

So we have severe limits on how much traffic we get.

I am 7 miles from a freeway onramp, 12 more miles to Bangor. All of the shopping available in the city is fairly close by. For any store here to compete with Bangor would be foolish. We have a small population and nearby is a wide selection of stores with huge selections.

[BacktoNE]

Thank you Forest. I thought that is what you meant, especially given how close you are to Bangor.


Just mentioned Argyle to DH and he reminded me that the old camp was in Amherst, pretty much next door.

[BoundtofindME]

There is a huge demand in our area for a reliable property management business. With Maine leading the nation in number of 2nd homes, you can see why this would make sense. You need not be a real estate agent to be able to offer these services. The startup costs are minimal, as you can do business right out of your home. There are a number of activities you could specialize in and subcontract out the services you would not want to handle. Alot of the activity is seasonal, as it relates to booking reservations, however there are many opportunities for acquiring skills required for property winterization and general caretaking of vacant properties. In our yellow pages, there is no category for property management and most people end up calling the local real estate office. I have been informed that the small number of businesses doing this type of work in my area are currently turning down new clients due to the number of clients they currently serve.

Could you maybe share with us some of the things you enjoy, i.e., hobbies, skills, interests, or how you would envision your life in Maine to be. Knowing this, may help someone identify a need that exists in one of our many towns right now. This is a great topic to ponder!

[starwalker]

One thing I have noticed here is that many -- if not most -- Mainers and rural Maine businesses wear multiple hats.

I am building my art and graphic design businesses -- which I relocated from NC -- from my location about half an hour north of Bangor. Neither are dependent on immediate local traffic/support and both rely heavily on the WWW for marketing and traffic.

I will eventually end up with some sort of farm-based business as well -- not yet sure what direction that will take but following Maine Writer's thoughts, I want to make my land support itself.

I also work in the closest to me local business -- a "convenience store" (Maine-style) in Levant, which supports TWO of them. Nearby towns have lost theirs (Stetson comes to mind) with at least many of those customers now patronizing the Corner County Store.

CCS has a strong meat market (with a meat cutter who comes in twice or more a week to cut, and ground beef produced fresh daily by the employees), Citgo gas pumps ( as well as a smaller quantity of diesel and K1 and propane exchange) and does the expected brisk business in cigarettes, pop and beer and snacks. They also have a movie franchise (DVD) and recently revamped the rental procedure to require applicants to have a Visa or MC-backed credit or debit card associated with their rental account, to which late/lost movies can be charged (after 10 days). They were losing their shirt in non-returned movies, I guess. They also sell a bit of wine and as of last summer, hard liquor as well. And they have a grill, fryers and pizza ovens for takeout sandwiches (hot and cold), fries and other fried foods, and of course pizza. Many days, someone from the early morning crew will bake muffins; they also have a warmer that is filled with breakfast sandwiches in the AM and pizza slices starting mid-morning to early afternoon. There are local small businesses that also come round regularly with snack and baked goods ("Sweet Pete's" and "Daily Bread" and someone who makes fudge and holiday candies).

They have a basic stock of grocery and related items (paper products, pet food), some larger bags of pet and livestock feed, a odd assortment of hardware, oil for vehicles and equipment and a very small magazine rack.

Oh, and they are open from 4:30 AM to 9 PM.

Whew! I think I have it all.

They have been there for a LONG time, and the current owner had a previous business (small engine repair, I believe I heard) there before this. Most of the customers (this time of year, at least) are locals and many know the owner and his family.

I don't know if this will help the OP at all, but I thought I would share the view from inside a small town store, as seen by an employee "from away."

[reloop]

Originally Posted by island mermaid

I know of a few of these places in the Portland / Brunswick area that do well. I see no reason why they wouldn't do well in northern Maine either. I was willing to pay to have someone prepare a simple homemade meal for my busy family. I don't think I ever paid more than approx $15 max for enough to feed a busy family of 4. It was far less expensive than eating out and well worth my time in the kitchen. People still have to eat, no matter where you live.

Just a thought...

Ooohhhh...fabulous idea Island Mermaid. With many working families, I'm sure that would be welcome. Just outside of the Bangor area was a tiny restaurant that was operated from a local home. It's closed now and is sorely missed! It was mostly patronized by local families that worked long hours and didn't want to spend what little evening family time they had preparing dinner.