Houlton to host follow-up forum on area’s home-based businesses

HOULTON – Aiming to capitalize on the success of their inaugural forum, town officials say they have scheduled another symposium geared toward reaching out to local entrepreneurs who don’t necessarily head to an office every day.

A follow-up session to the town’s first ever Home-Based Business Symposium, which was held June 29, will take place at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Houlton Higher Education Center.

Town officials initially decided to host the conference to reach out to the many small-business owners in Houlton who typically work out of their homes.

The town’s goal was to glean information about the nature of the home-based businesses that have been established in Houlton, in concert with learning what kind of support these entrepreneurs would like to receive from the town.

The Houlton branch of the Maine Center for Women, Work and Community, a statewide nonprofit economic development organization that strives to assist women in achieving success in the Maine economy, contributed some grant money to help fund the effort.

Town Manager Douglas Hazlett said recently that the results of the June session “exceeded his expectations.”

“It went very well,” he said, noting that the audience included a mixture of nearly 20 artists, consultants, economic development leaders and those who had not yet established a home-based business but wanted to do so.

“We had a very spirited discussion about why these entrepreneurs had come to our town, the problems that they faced as well as opportunities that had been presented to them.”

Some of the obstacles described by attendees included a lack of access to telecommunications equipment and affordable health insurance.

The group also expressed interest in receiving more education about available resources and exploring the possibility of forming a consortium to buy necessities such as office supplies.

Many of those concerns will be addressed at the upcoming meeting. The session will include a presentation about programs available to assist small businesses, along with a discussion geared toward benefiting those who want to get their enterprise up and running but need a bit of business education.

Organizers are hoping for an even bigger turnout this time. During the June session, Hazlett challenged each participant to convince two people to join them on Tuesday.