Grants benefit farm, ice cream truck
PRESQUE ISLE — New Ventures Maine announced the winners of its marketing mini-grant competition for small businesses in Aroostook County.
Contributed photo
John O’Meara stands with some of his herd at O’Meara Family Farm in New Sweden. The dairy and livestock operation received a New Ventures Maine marketing mini-grant in the organization’s latest funding round.
The O’Meara Family Farm in New Sweden and KTC’s BrainFreeze of Madawaska were selected from what New Ventures officials called “a strong group of applicants” from throughout The County.
Located on the East Road in New Sweden, the O’Meara Farm received an award of $100. The business focuses on producing organic grass-fed beef as well as lamb, pork, some seed crops, and breeding stock. According to owner John O’Meara, their mission is “to farm in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner while providing the highest quality products for our customers.”
The marketing mini-grant will help them pay for the annual web-hosting fee needed in order to build their web presence through the creation of a website. The new web presence will help them improve relationships with customers in other regions of Maine and beyond while developing new connections to customers outside of the local region.
In Madawaska, KTC’s BrainFreeze on Pleasant Avenue received an award of $300. Started in 2013, this business is a family-owned and operated, full-service ice cream truck. They sell over 25 traditional prepackaged novelty ice creams, sundaes, floats, cones, bowls, milkshakes, and soft drinks.
The marketing mini-grant will help them explore the markets in central Maine through attendance at the 2017 Whoopie Pie Festival and Red Hot Dog Festival. With targeted Facebook ads, print media ads, increased traffic to their newly designed website and marketing their Gifford’s hard-serve ice cream options, they hope to expand sales during the two events.
Kim Smith, grant writer and public information officer for the City of Presque Isle, served on the grant review committee, lending her expertise to the review process.
“Anyone starting a new business or trying to market a small enterprise knows first-hand the value of funding for marketing. The availability and ease of application of these micro-grants are invaluable and carry a huge bang for the buck with an impact felt countywide,” Smith said.
“For me as a reviewer, those that presented a business and/or marketing plan garnered the highest marks as I knew they understood their product, their challenges and their competition and thus had the most likelihood of succeeding.”
New Ventures’ grant criteria included having five or fewer employees, gross annual sales of $250,000 or less, and articulating a compelling marketing project to support business growth. Support for NVME’s mini-grants program was provided in part from The Betterment Fund.
A statewide organization serving all 16 Maine counties from nine centers and outreach sites, New Ventures Maine offers skills development and support in the areas of career planning, entrepreneurship and financial management.
For more information, contact New Ventures’ northern office in Presque Isle at 768-9635, visit newventuresmaine.org or call 1-800-442-2092.
