They make vegan doughnuts, design homes, host campers in the foothills of western Maine, crunch data for Global Fortune 2000 companies and pop popcorn. And for them, 2018 was big.

We asked five business owners who opened or expanded last year about lessons learned, reasons to celebrate and what they hope’s ahead for 2019.

Here’s to a poppin’ next 12 months.

Lone Mountain Riverfront Campground: Andover

Owners: Tom and Corie Learned

If you were taking a 10-story elevator ride, how would you describe your business and what you do to a fellow passenger? We have 31 spacious sites in a variety of open fields, edge of water and forested, on a 150-year-old farm in the beautiful mountain valley of Andover. The rolling fields, miles of trails and beautiful white sandy beach are a great destination.

Origin story: Corie had been the office manager at Wolfe’s Neck Campground in Freeport for 10 years and has a real good handle on the industry. My experience is in general contracting and my family goes back six generations in Andover. We have been looking to purchase property here for 20-plus years. When this farm became available, we went straight into action to acquire it. We wanted to share this beautiful property. What better way to do so than create and build a destination campground?

We have three sons, one daughter and a son-in-law, and all have helped on every level from Day One. It took us a year and a half to build it and open. Everybody was pushed to the limit. This year during Old Home Days in Andover, our campground was full and our whole family was here to celebrate without work!

I wish someone had told me . . . We knew that it would be a lot of hard work and take a lot of money and time, but it was well worth it.

Biggest WOOT of 2018? The very first camper was a Class A motor home that pulled in on June 29, our first day of being open, and we checked in this really nice young couple who were pulling a Jeep and had grown up in Andover. And couldn’t wait to go exploring! Corie and I were just excited that we were open!

Most looking forward to in 2019? We will have three decked-out cabins available along with our glamour tenting sites. We’d like to have a lot of good folks come and enjoy the natural outdoor experience that Andover has to offer.

Meldrum Design: Kingfield

Owner: Ashley Hopwood Farrar

Elevator pitch? I am a freelance architect. I specialize in creating beautiful spaces through sustainable, functional and budget-conscious design. My company, Meldrum Design, is 4 years old and originated in San Diego, but last year my husband and I moved to Kingfield. My favorite types of projects are single and multi-family residential as well as light commercial.

Origin story: In 2014, I was two years out of college and working for a stereotypical architect in California. While I believe there’s a need for those types of architects, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. Rather, I wanted to make great design accessible to people without oodles of extra money. That’s when Meldrum Design was born. Since then, my husband and I have lived and worked in Texas and the U.K. and finally, last year, we decided to settle in Kingfield. The outdoor activities drew us here and the people made us want to stay. It’s been an amazing year working with my Maine clients. The projects are so interesting and the building community is relatively small. It makes for some fantastic working relationships.

I wish someone had told me . . . I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by entrepreneurs so I got a lot of advice. One of the things that didn’t fully hit me until I started my business: As a service-based small business owner, you have to (get to?) wear all the hats. You have to be the skill or service provider, the marketing director, the CFO and the CEO. Or you have to have the funds to delegate those jobs. It’s a lot of work and can be very expensive.

Biggest WOOT of 2018? I finally earned my architecture license. It was a long road: 12 years of undergrad, grad school, apprenticeships and running my business. And after that, a year of exam taking. Passing that final exam was a huge victory.

And now that I’m on the other side, I realize the value of all that schooling and testing. I’m educated in building science, utilities and structures, and, combined with my design experience, I’m well prepared to help my clients find the right solutions for their projects.

Most looking forward to in 2019? Hopefully 2019 brings more opportunities for learning and growth. The Maine climate is quite different from my experience in California, buildings have different requirements. But I love a good challenge and, thankfully, most of my clients understand when, occasionally, I have to research before giving them a recommendation. In 2019, I’d like to be able to rattle off recommendations like a seasoned Maine architect.

Infonomic Data: Bethel

Owners: Brian and Malinda Gagnon

Elevator pitch? We’re a consultancy powered by technologists, business strategists and entrepreneurs. We take complex business challenges and utilize data to help businesses grow or become more profitable. We’re building some really cool software too . . . more to come on that in the future!

Origin story: We met ski racing in high school at Black Mountain in Rumford. Eleven years later, we re-met and got married. Brian has spent his 22-year career as a technologist working at Computer Sciences Corp, VWware (pre- and post-IPO) and was most recently head of global engineering at Western Digital. Malinda is a Bates College and Boston University grad and was a founding team member of Google’s Boston office. She’s also led a consulting group and product and strategic partnerships group at the world’s largest media investment company, GroupM/WPP. Malinda’s clients have included Procter & Gamble, General Electric, Volkswagen and Walmart among many others.

Our clients are Global Fortune 2000 as well as emerging companies with rapid growth goals. We work across all industries — technology, consumer products, to financial services.

I wish someone had told me . . . Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. We tell this to our clients regularly! Now is always the right time. Just keep at it because there’s never a perfect time and you never will know everything. Be comfortable with always learning and evolving!

Biggest WOOT of 2018? We’re profitable in Year One! And have an awesome team that is growing!

Most looking forward to in 2019? Building our team, seeing our clients succeed and accelerating software development.

Break coffee shop: Auburn

Owner: Sadie Blais

Elevator pitch? We are a coffee shop in one of the oldest and coolest buildings in the area, the Engine House. We strive to put out quality food with as many local ingredients as we can. We do sandwiches with different homemade condiments, bagels from Rose Foods, locally roasted coffee and specialty coffee beverages such as lattes and cappuccinos, and made from scratch pastries and vegan doughnuts.

Origin story: I went into Fianna Studio to get a tattoo and the artist, James, who owns the building with his wife, and I were talking about how much we both admired the building. He showed me the space he had for lease. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So a few days later we started the lease process and not long later I started renovations. I always knew I wanted to open a restaurant of some kind, but I really had no plans for this until I started going at it. The location sold me, so I went for it.

I wish someone had told me . . . I’m very thankful that I had my dad to support me, because having done this before, he was able to walk me through the whole process and helped guide me through all the obstacles. Opening a business is hard, especially with all the inspections we had for all the new plumbing, electrical and renovations. I did have to experience everything the hard way, but I learned everything from my dad.

Biggest WOOT of 2018? My biggest accomplishment of 2018 was just getting the place exactly the way I wanted it and opening! It’s been a great first (half) year and I’m really excited to continue growing.

Most looking forward to in 2019? Growing my business in 2019 and adding more to my offerings. I love interacting with my customers, so I’m really excited to meet new people and learn as much as I can!

The Sweet Life Kettle Corn Company: Farmington

Owners: Tabatha Mitchell, Janice Crandall and Erica Emery

Elevator pitch? We are a mom (Janice) and two daughters hustling to get as many people as possible eating and enjoying our delicious kettle corn. We produce kettle corn made from non-GMO ingredients that we sell throughout the summer at festivals and concerts. In 2018, we started renting commercial kitchen space on Farmington Falls Road and we are now able to sell in small stores and we have increased our capacity to have local groups sell kettle corn as a fundraiser.

Origin story: We started as a mobile food vendor, like a food truck but we didn’t have a truck, just a tent, in 2015. We were basically trying to jam in as many events as possible in the warm months and shutting down for the winter. It was totally on accident that we found our kitchen space, it wasn’t even advertised as vacant. We were in the right place at the right time when a popular Mexican food truck business decided to close their winter location and we wasted no time in securing the lease! We knew pretty early on that we wanted the capacity to pop year-round because we wanted to be in stores and start selling as a fundraiser opportunity for local schools and groups.

I wish someone had told me . . . We wish we had known how much time we would be spending doing things other than popping popcorn! Between securing events, communicating to vendors and groups doing fundraisers, marketing, delivering, accounting and more, it seems like we spend a large amount of time on those tasks compared to actually being in our kitchen making our product. However, it feels great to be your own boss and be producing a product that we get so many rave reviews about!

Biggest WOOT of 2018? We got a grant from New Ventures Maine so we can develop a bar code and nutrition label for our kettle corn. This is exciting because it will open up doors to bigger stores and accounts!

Most looking forward to in 2019? Getting our kettle corn into more retail outlets. Right now we have three outlets, but with the new nutrition label and UPC code, it is going to open up more opportunities for us.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

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