FARMINGTON – University of Maine Cooperative Extension recently presented the Writing for Your Business workshop series for five Franklin County small businesses. Kim LaRoche (Sunshine Pools), Jean Rouillard (J. & J. Rouillard and Sons), Dick Mitchell (Maine Energy $aver$), Robin Jordan (Robin’s Flower Pot) and Lynn Thurston (Blue Sky Produce) all took part in the three-evening workshop taught by Marc Edwards of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Caroline King of Maine Word.
Writing for Your Business took place in early February and covered a number of topics to help small business owners tell their unique story with words. This workshop gave business owners the skills necessary to write effective and creative marketing materials to use in their growing businesses. Participant created a core statement for their individual businesses and learned how to use that statement other marketing applications.
Dick Mitchell, who is the process of opening his new business, said, “I found better ways to communicate with my customers in print.” While Jean Roulliard’s comments focused on tools that she learned “to distinguish my products and services from my competitors.”
According to participant Robin Jordan, “The class provided me with information on the many resources that are available to promote my business. It also made me look at my business in a different way. Thank you to the Extension for offering this class and Caroline for providing me with many useful tools.”
Kimberly LaRoche said “I found the first class to be especially helpful in getting words out of my head and onto paper where I can use them to create a mission statement and a business plan. This will help us to assemble documents to present to local banks for financing.” According to LaRoche the most significant elements of the class were “the ideas and brainstorming that we were able to do as a class; ideas to advertise for free and how businesses that compliment each other can collaborate to provide support and awareness of each other’s businesses to the public.”
Marc Edwargds, in his reflections on the class, said, “Having Caroline King, a small business owner herself, partnering with University of Maine Cooperative Extension in providing this program was a large part of its success. The participants really exemplified the entrepreneurial drive needed to succeed as small or home-based businesses, especially in these economic times.”
For more information about future classes, please contact Marc Edwards at University of Maine Cooperative Extension at 778-4650 or Caroline King of Maine Word at 491-9810.
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