Category: Blog

According to the Center for Workforce Research and Information, Maine sees a 3% spike in employment for June, July, and August. To put a number on it, Maine’s seasonal businesses are employing around 20,500 more people each month in the summer. As anyone who runs a seasonal business in Maine knows, that number is not high enough. t’s a struggle for Maine’s seasonal businesses to get fully staffed each spring, and it seems to get harder and harder each year. Mainland businesses, particularly in high traffic tourist destinations like Bar Harbor and Ogunquit, rely heavily on the H-2B visa program, which allows a predetermined number of out-of-country workers to work seasonal jobs in the United States.

As a small business owner you try to do it all: producing a product or service, marketing to attract new clients, running a retail operation, and keeping on top of the books and financial reporting. It’s a lot, and there never seem to be enough hours in the day. However, the important part of any small business strategy should be the ability to step back and look at your business as a separate entity, not simply an extension of your life—that’s a strategy for burnout. The key, to quote Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, is to learn how to “work on our business, not in your business.”

For quality of life, businesses and career opportunities, and access to education and health services, the Town of Roque Bluffs is proposing a community-wide broadband project that would bring fiber internet service to every premise in the town. At an informational meeting at the Town Hall on April 15th at 6:30 p.m., the Select Board and its citizen Broadband Committee will seek approval from residents to fund this project and pursue grant funding support.

Success in our Island Fellows program comes from many different areas. One such area is our intentional integration of Fellows as full members of the communities in which they live and work. We all understand that this process takes time, requires patience, and that it looks and feels different for each fellow in each community. We support the fellows in this community integration by helping them focus on it as a goal in the first quarter of their fellowship. Fellows reflect, in writing, about that experience at the end of their first three months on their island. Learn more about what becoming a part of these communities means to three Fellows as they reflect on their experiences.

Most small business owners feel isolated—there is rarely an opportunity to share questions, concerns, or ideas around what works for others in a non-competitive environment. At the Island Institute, one of our goals is to connect island and coastal business owners with peers so that they can have those conversations. Connecting with peers and colleagues is one of the many ways we help address this and other challenges these new small business owners face. A good example of this type of networking is the annual “Industry Day” event that our ABD program hosts for its participants. This marketing-focused day provides an opportunity for these aspiring aquaculturists to establish relationships with buyers, wholesalers, restaurants, and retailers.