Of all the places we've been, this state seems to bend over backwards to help small businesses thrive, and we think we found one of the reasons for it: a television show. On the air since 1987, Maine Public Broadcasting produces a television show called Made in Maine, and today, we want to explore what happens when everybody in a state studies and celebrates the role of business in their community.

Maine Public Broadcasting is to be congratulated. Most of the companies profiled on Made in Maine are small businesses. In one of the geographically largest states, we found that people truly believe small is beautiful.

DANA CONNORS (President): Everybody in Maine watches Made in Maine.

HATTIE: Dana Connors is president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.

DANA: The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the State of Maine; and week after week, Made in Maine provides the viewing public with the wealth of resources that we have in this state.

When they showcase an individual or three-or-four-person company, and put in front of our public the type of show that Made in Maine has, it brings results. Individuals, the entrepreneurs, all the people throughout our state have a chance, to not just see but to believe, to not just recognize what this state has to offer but to appreciate our vast resources, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the success that comes from that.

How could you not love that show?

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Unidentified Man #1: Well, you can definitely tell the people who are going to enjoy their stay here rather than the people who aren't.

ZOE ZANIDAKIS: When you see someone walk off the boat with high heels on, you know that they're probably not going to come back.

Unidentified Man #1: (Voiceover) We're charming. That's our thing. If you want convenience, go to a Holiday Inn. We're here to capture the charm of the island.

ZOE: People go, `What do you do out there?' And I say, `Well, you come out to explore, relax, sit on the front porch, do some hiking. Don't worry about the telephone. Don't worry about anything. Just relax.'

(Voiceover) And now that we've got the restaurant running full time...

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Inside Maine Public Broadcasting

MARY ANNE ALHADEFF: (Voiceover) Made in Maine is one of our signature programs. Here at Maine PBS we have a very strong commitment to local production. And Made In Maine is part of our locally produced line up of programs that reflects back to the viewers the activities and the values and the culture of the sate of Maine.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Mary Anne Alhadeff is the CEO of Maine Public Broadcasting.

MARY ANNE: There are many entrepreneurs in the state of Maine and folks who are considering developing their own businesses. So, Made In Maine features economic success stories and also introduces viewers to some vey entertaining business owners.

LOU McNALLY: (A Segment from Made in Maine) You know, Guilford of Maine boasts that 45 percent of their work force has been there for more than 10 years, and it's all made in Maine.

HATTIE: (VoiceOver) This is Lou McNally.

LOU: (A Segment from Made in Maine) Hope you enjoyed the show. Join us again next time, won't you, for another edition of Made in Maine.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Since the beginning, Lou McNally has been the host of Made in Maine.

LOU: But it wasn't but three weeks into the season, the first season, that the requests started piling up left and right. And to this day, I mean, we could shoot this as a daily show, four hours a day, and not run out of ideas.

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CHRIS SWEET: Hi, this is Chris Sweet from Maine PBS and the television program Made in Maine. Is Don available? I wanted to know if July 29th would be a good time to come up there. He said the week of the 8th of July was bad. If you wouldn't mind asking him if the 29th would be good. All right. Thanks, Trip. OK.

BERNIE ROSCETTI: We were doing an auction as many stations do and some of the material that was coming in crafted by small Maine businesses and craftspeople really began as an awakening moment for us. We began to really become aware that there were a lot of things being made, a lot of things going on that we had no idea about. So, that sort of prompted us to begin to look around at various businesses down the block, down the road, down to the other part of the state and we began to get excited about, this is a great idea for the series.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Bernie Roscetti is the Director of Programming at Maine Public Broadcasting.

BERNIE ROSCETTI: Over the years, Made In Maine has been our most popular program with our viewers. It's a success story, as a television program, about success stories about business.

STEVE DUNN: So you were discussing...

HATTIE: Chris works closely with Steve Dunn, the editor of the series.

STEVE DUNN: ...for the 15th season?

CHRIS: Yeah. We'll have, you know, 15 years kind of in the lower left-hand corner just to celebrate that it's our 15th season. We're going to have a special full-screen, too, `Where Are They Now?' for that segment that we're going to do this year.

STEVE DUNN: Introduce that?

CHRIS: Yeah. Taking a look back at the different seasons of Made in Maine and selecting one business and do a three- to five-minute segment.

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Affirmation of a viewer-participant of Made in Maine

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Kathie Leonard's company, Auburn Manufacturing, was featured on the program.

KATHIE LEONARD: It was a wonderful experience for us. It was a wonderful experience for my company. I don't consider myself having been the star of that show. It was our company and it was our people. In fact, I think there were more of our employees on camera than me during that segment, which was wonderful. The people on camera, especially people working for companies, can tell the story in their own words. It's not scripted. They're more animated, and I think we all respond to that better as an audience.

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HATTIE: (Voiceover) Governor John Baldacci is busy spreading the good news about Maine.

JOHN BALDACCI: We've got a lot of good talented people here. A lot of good Yankee ingenuity; and I know first hand, a lot of independence too in our state. And I think that's great; Maine has a lot to offer.

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Maine & Company: Tap Into Economic Development Leadership

HATTIE: (Voiceover) This is Joe Wischerath.

JOE WISCHERATH (Executive Director): I run Maine & Company, and Maine & Company is a private non-profit that was founded in 1995 for the purpose of bringing new businesses into the state of Maine.

HATTIE: How do you recruit companies to come here?

JOE: There's a tremendous work ethic and I think that's one of the things that stands out versus other states. When we talk to most companies in the state of Maine, they'll tell you that their people in the state of Maine outperform their employees in other states.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Henry Bourgeois is the CEO of the Maine Development Foundation.

HENRY BOURGEOIS (CEO, Maine Development Foundation): The foundation is a non-profit organization, very committed to economic growth in the state. Our mission is to drive and promote economic growth. And we do that through policy development work, a lot of leadership development work and community development work.

HATTIE: Why do you think small is beautiful?

HENRY: Well, we're deeply committed in this state, in Maine, to an independent and entrepreneurial spirit. And for us that translates into small communities, small farms, small businesses around the state. We believe at the Maine Development Foundation, and most research in the country supports this, that innovation happens best in small businesses, in small enterprises.

The small enterprise could be part of a larger one, but small business is where it's at. In fact, in Maine, the driver of an economic growth in Maine is small business.

Unidentified Man #2: (Voiceover) We made a decision to devote a complete facility to development work. Then we decided since we're going to devote a complete facility to development work, why not do a really good job of it.

ED DINAN (Chairman): Small business is the driver of economic growth and vitality and that's particularly true in the state of Maine.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Ed Dinan is the chairman of Maine & Company.

ED: Well, I think there's three hooks in the state of Maine. The first hook is the telecommunications network. I think this network means that they an operate out of here. We just brought in another company the last couple of weeks. We brought in a major company three or four weeks ago and one of the things that they're finding is that they can do business here just like anywhere else.

And one of the things that's really interesting is when they get here, they get a couple of other benefits. They get the quality of life. It's a beautiful place to work and live. And they also get a work force that's second to none.

Small businesses in the State of Maine get connections to the world that are as good as anywhere else, anywhere in the United States. But not just the United States, in the world. One of the interesting things up here, we have long distances between cities and some of our workers. We're doing telecommuting. It's not different than California, but we don't have--it's not because of urban sprawl, it's not because of traffic, it's because of distance. And what we've done is we've put a network in place that allows businesses to work in large areas seamlessly.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Bob Ludwig, founder of Gateway Studios, is a great example of a business owner who had achieved success then moved his company to Maine for the lifestyle.

BOB LUDWIG (Founder, Gateway Studios): Very often, because of the reputation I have, people will just send me tapes from around the world. In fact, moving to Portland, one of the reasons we did that was that we figured that a lot of people would just simply send me tapes by federal mail, you know, and stuff like that. But it turns out that we've had more artists and producers come up here than we even had in New York. So there must be something about here that they really like.

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Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Maine & Company works hard to recruit this type of business. But the state is also committed to helping anyone start a business. This is Valarie Lamont.

VALARIE LAMONT: Well, I am the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business at the University of Maine, located in the School of Business. The center is the first center for entrepreneurship and small business in the entire University of Maine system and in fact, in the entire state of Maine.

JIM WILTHONG: It's education, technical assistance, access to capital, access to markets. I mean, that's really what the process is for developing small business.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Jim Wilthong, an entrepreneur in residence for the Kauffman Foundation, works closely with Valarie as her business center offers the Kauffman's 11-week FastTrac program to train up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

JIM: Well, Maine actually has a very good infrastructure for helping small business to succeed. If we look at it in a logical way, education is always at the very foundation of what we do. There is also a lot of money available for small business if they have an organized plan. And having an organized plan is really the key.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) John Massaua is the state director for the Small Business Development Center program.

JOHN MASSAUA (State Director): The future has always been bright for Maine and it's always been great for small businesses.

HATTIE: So, John, what does it take for a small business owner to succeed?

JOHN: First of all, they have to have a willingness to work hard; it's just not rolling out of bed and starting a business. You have to work hard at it. You have to have some knowledge about it.

Often folks will come to us, say they want to start a restaurant business and we ask them, `Well, what do you know about the restaurant business?' and they said, `Well, we like to eat and I cook well at home and the relatives love it.'

That's not knowing the restaurant business. So really, a little bit of experience might be appropriate, that they are willing to ask questions, and willing to get help is significant factors in their succeeding. Also, save a little bit of money to get started.

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Network with Many Local Bankers: Meet Susan Snowden of Key Bank

SUSAN SNOWDEN: You can't get a smile from me. I'm a banker.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Susan Snowden is a vice president for Key Bank, one of the small business friendly banks in Maine.

SUSAN: It's not a transactional relationship in Maine. In Maine, people want good advice. They want relationships. They want their banker to come in and add value to help their business grow. And so that's a critical piece. We are an important part of the team that advises a small business.

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Meet the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME)

HATTIE: (Voiceover) This is Charlie Spies.

CHARLIE SPIES: Well, I'm the CEO at the Finance Authority of Maine, or FAME is our acronym, which is a great name 'cause people can remember it. What we do is provide financial assistance for businesses in the state of Maine, businesses of all sizes, but most of our work is with small businesses. We're designed to come in and fill a gap where the private sector doesn't necessarily or can't work. We're not designed to compete with banks, but we're designed to make capital available where it might otherwise not be available.

A person comes into a bank, the lender has three choices. He can says this is a great idea or it just doesn't fit our profile, or we'd like to help you but there's a little bit too much risk. That's where FAME can come in with debt enhancement. We can guarantee or insure a loan so that if the bank makes the loan, but they don't get paid back, we will pay the bank back up to 90 percent or 90 cents on the dollar. So the bank can go ahead and work with a company where they otherwise wouldn't. We're not competing with the bank, but we're making capital available.

HATTIE: So what you're saying is if I've got a good idea, you can find the money.

CHARLIE: Come on up to Maine. We've got a great place to live, great lifestyle and we have capital available for good business ideas.

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The Lightbulb

HATTIE: If you already own a business, or if you want to start one, Maine is a friendly place. There's a banker who actually smiles at you. The biggest reason you will succeed in Maine is you are not looked down upon if you only have two or three or four employees.

People are proud of your success if you're doing good work. You're given respect. They don't seem to be hung up on your sales revenues as much as on what you are actually doing for your customers.

The fact that Maine Public Television has been producing a television series since 1987 that takes viewers inside of some of the state's smallest companies, and big ones, too, is proof that there is enormous respect and fascination with what small businesses are able to produce and create.

We wish that every PBS station would find a way to shine the spotlight on the great small companies in their viewership area because we know they'll also find that small is beautiful.

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(A Segment from Made in Maine)

LOU: And here we are aboard the Christian Alf with Roger Berle. Roger, how are you?

ROGER BERLE: Great, Lou. Good to meet you.

LOU: Roger, you're the owner of Finestkind Builders and ...

JEFF BUTLAND: Well, I think we've always had a small business culture here in the state of Maine, little cottage industries.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Jeff Butland is the New England Regional Director of the Small Business Administration.

JEFF: And you know, the Legislature and our governors, they've all worked very, very hard to make sure that these small businesses are capable of competing on a national or an international scale. But I think it goes back to the Downeast Mainers who are independent, who want to work for themselves, who want to work at home, who want to work out in, you know, the garage and the back yard and that culture has, you know, always existed here in the state of Maine.

We probably had last year about 10,000 people avail themselves of our services. We need to be more relevant so that people know that when they do have an idea, when they do what to start their business, that they can find real help at the SBA.

JACK CASHMAN: I am the Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.

HATTIE: (Voiceover)This is Jack Cashman.

JACK CASHMAN: That's the agency that sets the state policy for ecomomic development and the direction that the state is going to take and provides all the assistance to entrepreneurs and small businesses. I think we've done a very good job of setting up a working relationship with Maine small businesses. We provide incubator spaces, technology grants and financial assistance. We participate in a number of trade shows to promote Maine products, and maintain a web site to promote Maine products. For the future I would like to see us concentrate more on the development of the industries that will lead us into the economy of the 21st century. Higher technology, bio-med and aqua-culture.

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Association Executives

HATTIE: Many manufacturers in Maine join together. Eric Howard is the director of the Maine Wood Products Association and Lisa Martin is the executive director of the Maine Metal Products Association.

ERIC HOWARD (Director, Maine Wood Products Association): Wood has been an important part of the Maine economy since the British first came here. The British came here because they needed tall trees for their masts for their boats. They needed wood to build the boats. And so that is the basis for our wood industry. The association got started about 10 years ago when a group of small businesses got together and said, `We should work together to market Maine.'

They realized that although they were very good at making their products, as small businesses they weren't always the best at marketing what they made or running their businesses. And so they got together to say, `How can we learn from each other and work together to better our image and better our products? '

The best way that we work with our members is to try to help them help each other. And we have about 200 members right now and they make a wide variety of products and they're different sizes. About a third of our members are family small businesses, one or two people, working in their house, working in their garage, in their basement.

LISA MARTIN: My name's Lisa Martin. I'm the executive director of the Maine Metal Products Association. We're a statewide association that represents the metal manufacturing and precision manufacturing industry in the state of Maine. We have about 202 members statewide. We have a lot of those small, what we call garage operations, small family, one or two person shops--is that they like their life in Maine.

Unidentified Man #3: (Voiceover) After we finish the design work and the printing, it comes out to the shop where it's assembled and the fabrication begins.

LISA: Made in Maine has not only allowed many of our companies to feature their products to show some of the beautiful things that we make here, but it also has educated me, my family and other folks that watch it on the incredible things that are made by small companies here in the state of Maine.

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SUSAN SNOWDEN: Well, the great thing about Made in Maine is it showcases some of our best citizens.

This is the true bread and butter of Maine. These are plain vanilla people that care very much about making things work, strengthening their business, growing their business and taking care of their employees and their communities.

Unidentified Man #4: (Voiceover) Whether it's a commercial boat or a pleasure boat, the first and foremost it must be a seaworthy, safe boat. These people are going to go out to sea, whether they're going to go out to make a living or whether they're going out for a pleasurable weekend. My father and Raymond Bunker taught me to build boats. I did not learn that at school. I wanted to hand that down to the next generation of boat builders, the same as they did to me.

(Voiceover) At a very early age, I saw the pride of workmanship that Dad and Raymond put into these boats. And it's carried over. When I see a boat leave, sometimes there's a lot of sadness that we hate to see a boat go that we've worked on so much. But that's almost always offset with the joy that the owner has. It's almost like the kids running for the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. These people, when they come to pick up their boats, you can tell that they're just grinning from ear to ear.

SUSAN: And those are the people that I know I want my children seeing on TV. Those are the people that we want other businesses and kids in high school to emulate and live in Maine and grow their own companies.

KIMBERLY McCALL: I think Made in Maine is important for the state overall because it lends to that aura and e cache of Maine-made products. People I know are tickled by the idea of living, vacationing and buying in Maine. And so it all adds to the credibility of that branding.

ERIC: I think Maine is a great place for small manufacturing businesses who make a product for sale because Maine has a very powerful image.

ED DINAN: We have people coming into the state because they want to work here, they love the quality of life, and they have the opportunity to deal with London, Tokyo, Hong Kong ... communicate across the world.

MARK LORING (Owner, The Saltwater Grille, Restaurant): People are just, you know, sort of hard-working, honest, straight forward, shoot from the hip.

JACK CASHMAN: The show promotes Maine products. You can be producing the best product in the world but if nobody knows it's there you're not going to sell it.

GOVERNOR BALDACCI: We don't have all the rich resources maybe found in other states but what we do have is that value of hard work, industry and ingenuity. We try to match things up, to get by and make ends meet. And Mainers, you can't say no to them. If you say no to Mainers they'll figure out a way to do it just to prove you wrong. And I think that's why our state leads in so many different areas.

BERNIE ROSCETTI: To me Made in Maine serves as an object lesson, serves as an encouragment for people everywhere. Outside of Maine, it doesn't matter whether you're in Maine or not, but it serves as a way for people to start that idea that they've always wanted to start. And they're hesitant about it and they say... 'oh there's probably too many problems, too many things that can go against me.' But seeing that success story of someone in Maine might be the difference that gets them started on their own dream.

GOVERNOR BALDACCI: People want to be their own boss. They've worked for other people, they've seen the pitfalls, they've seen the ups and downs, but they want to be their own boss. And getting into business on their own and working long hours, working weekends, getting the family involved because it's their enterprise, it's their foundation, gives them their future and I think that's what Maine people want. They want to be in charge of their own destiny.

DANA CONNORS: Maine takes great pride in considering itself the entrepreneurial state.

Unidentified Man #7: It's really why I'm in Maine. It's a part of who I am, what I've done and I really do believe small is beautiful.

DANA: Champion individual ownership, trying to provide them the type of incentive, encouragement, maybe it's an incubator space, maybe it's a government program, maybe it's an incentive, but we recognize the key to our success is the individual, the individual's ability and creativity to take something from an idea and to build that into something that bears fruit.

(Voiceover) This state is very proud of that fact and we try to do everything we can to nurture it, to preserve it, but most of all to build it.

HATTIE: Is everybody ready to move to Maine?

The wonderful thing about this large state is that people truly believe small is beautiful.

I'll see you next time.