Spotlight On: 4x4 Group Buy

Jason LaLiberty was looking for a way to get discounted parts for 4-wheel drive vehicles after seeing video of a woman rolling her Jeep over in Utah and walking away. That’s when he came up with the idea to get a group of people together to buy in bulk and get a discount from the manufacturers. The idea called 4x4 Group Buy took off while he lived in Arizona.
“Jeep owners are very loyal. That’s what helped us. Seventy-five percent of our customers are Jeep owners, so loyal to the brand,” LaLiberty said. It’s not just Jeeps they carry parts for, however.
He opened a store on Route 4 in Auburn, but has completely relocated to the Shops at Sebago off Route 302 in Windham.
“We have more room for product and inventory,” LaLiberty said. The business is mostly Internet based, but since moving to Windham he has seen an increase in sales. Before the business moved to Auburn, only half a percent of the business was in Maine, now 10 to 15 percent of the business comes from within the state, he said.
“A lot of what we sell you can’t use on the roads in Maine,”  LaLiberty said. “But, Maine has definitely gotten better in the last five years.” Their top selling products are Rough Country suspension lift kits and tires as well as exhaust kits and diesel performance programmers, which gives a 4x4 “ridiculous amounts of power.” They also sell LED light bars. Prices range from $20 to $25,000. There’s something for any budget, he said. “We try to have the best prices on everything so they don’t have to shop around,”  LaLiberty said. The online volume helps keep prices lower for the local customers, he said.
On Saturday, 4x4 Group Buy is hosting a grand opening celebration with a barbeque, raffle and a DJ starting at 11 a.m. “The location here is a great spot,” he said. “I turned a hobby into a business. I like talking about Jeeps and trucks during the day,”  LaLiberty said. Visit them online at www.4x4groupbuy.com.

Think LOCAL! Community Networking establishes business connections by Leah Hoenen

In an increasingly electronic world, face-to-face meetings can be vital to growing local businesses. Facilitating and fostering those personal connections among local entrepreneurs is the goal of networking group Think LOCAL! Community Networking, which hosts weekly meetings in support of area business people.

Meeting every Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Think LOCAL! members each spend about a minute giving thumbnail introductions of themselves and their work, before listening to a featured presentation about business, said President Crystal Rogers. Monthly, the Think LOCAL! chapters meet for a larger meeting.

Rogers said the group’s mission is to support local businesses and non-profits and help them grow through business referrals based on networking and relationship building. “You don’t want to refer a family member to someone you don’t know. You want to refer them to someone you know and trust,” she said.

There are several regulars to the meetings, but drop-ins are always welcome, said Rogers.
Past President Gary Frappier said, “We live in an Internet world where people are connecting online. The business experience that results might not be favorable – maybe the work doesn’t come in on cost or on time.”

At Think LOCAL! meetings, people have a forum to connect on a more personal level. “This made sense to me – to go and develop a relationship of trust and to help each other’s business,” said Frappier, who joined the organization two years ago.

Frappier said the Windham chapter of Think LOCAL! centers around 10 regular attendees, and averages 12 to 15 participants each week. Anyone is welcome to join – nobody will be turned away based on their profession, he said.

Rogers said the Windham chapter includes a photographer, Legal Shield representative, an attorney, a picture framer and massage therapists. Members schedule one-on-one meetings with each other to spend additional time learning about the other’s business and personal lives, as well, she said.

Jeff Ball founded Think LOCAL! four years ago. Ball said he learned the value of meeting people and establishing relationships at his first job, when he was Program Director for a YMCA and attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

“We help the unemployed, small business entrepreneurs and so on. We act for the week as that person’s sales force. We go out into the community and spread the word about that person’s business,” said Ball. If he hears a person is looking for a financial advisor, he can refer them to a financial professional from his Think LOCAL! group.

“We are here to support presidents of banks down to the Tupperware lady. We’re there giving them a pat in the back or a kick in the rear, whatever they need for the week,” said Ball. “We each know about 200 people the business person doesn’t know, which gives them access to a professional network of 4,000 I can reach out to all because I go to a Think LOCAL! meeting one time a week.”
Windham attorney Phil Watson has been participating in Think LOCAL! meetings for a couple of years. He said referrals from the networking group come second or even third hand.

Attendance to weekly sessions is free, said Ball, although there is a $5 fee to attend events. The group accepts donations and sponsorships.

Think LOCAL! groups meet throughout Maine and New Hampshire, from Bangor to Dover and Portsmouth, said Ball. Think LOCAL! Community Networking is online at http://www.meetup.com/ThinkLocalCommunityNetworking/ and on Facebook.

Spotlight On: Vacationland Tours

In 1991, Janet and Rodney Waterhouse weren’t looking for the next great adventure. Rodney was working part-time jobs and Janet worked at Saint Joseph’s College, when they decided to buy an old GMC bus in New York and drive it home to Windham.

“Rodney drove a bus for VIP and worked for Hood. We set up tours for our square dancing crew and loved both parts (scheduling trips and driving the bus),” said Janet. Now Janet sets up the business and Rodney drives the buses. Vacationland Tours has two buses now.

“We don’t want to be a big bus company, just to fill his retirement and have fun with it,” she said. “We don’t go out looking for a lot of business. We just want to be busy enough to make enough money.”

Most of Vacationland Tours’ business comes by word of mouth. They also have transported project graduations, including the Windham project graduation last weekend. They work with the Westbrook seniors and business leaders, who hirer Vacationland Tours to transport staff to different locations. Each bus carries 47 people.

Janet is getting closer to retirement age herself, she said and would like to do more charter work and schedule trips like the one they have planned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, August 13-16. She also plans many gambling trips to Connecticut, Hollywood Slots in Bangor and the Oxford Casino. Trips she’s looking forward to scheduling soon are to the Rockettes in New York City and Niagara Falls. 

Janet works with special companies that help set up local tours for bus tour guests once they are in the area. “They find tours you’d never know about if it wasn’t for these companies,” Janet said.

On the Lancaster trip attendees will eat in an Amish home, stop at an Amish bakery and drive through a barn where free range cows wander in and out.

Most of the people on the tours are seniors and middle-aged. “There are a lot of walkers underneath our bus,” Janet said with a laugh. And, although the buses are not entirely handicapped accessible, Janet and Rodney do make accommodations when they can.

Running a bus tour company is not all fun and games. There are a lot of rules and regulations that must be followed, including carrying $5 million liability insurance per passenger. Vacationland Tours is also registered with the State of Maine and has to stop at all the Department of Transportation checkpoints. The buses are well-maintained with a mechanic on-staff. The company also has a part-time bus driver, Larry Sprague, who fills in or drives the second bus when needed.

“It can be pretty stressful. You always worry how it’s going,” Janet said, but follows that statement up knowing she has contingency plans at the ready should something happen.

“We want to do trips, meet people and make a little bit doing it,” she said.

To contact Vacationland Tours about upcoming trips or if a group needs a bus for a tour, email vacationlandtours@yahoo.com or call 207-892-8005.

Business by Kelly

My name is Kelly Mank. I have been asked to write a business column for The Windham Eagle by some of our clients. I decided that as the publisher of this paper my ultimate goal is to help the Windham community and if my experiences, successes and failures can help people, then I would most definitely help. A little background on me… I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. I have Bachelor’s degree in business administration, an associate’s degree in business management, and a degree in photography. I live in Windham with my amazing husband, Niels, (for those of you know us, you know how amazing he is) and our four fabulous children. I live my life with a very positive outlook. Everything happens for a reason. What can we learn from it? And, how will this challenge make us stronger individuals? Enough about me…
What will this column be about?

Owning four local businesses and being very involved in this community, I definitely have had my learning experiences and continue to learn every day. I will choose one topic every week, probably give you a story that will make you laugh, and explain how we not only got through it, but grew from it as a business. If you are having challenges as a business owner please feel free to write questions to me at BusinessByKelly@TheWindhamEagle.com.

Being a business owner is not a 9-to-5 job. It is a lifestyle. I truly hope that I can help at least one person every month (or as needed by my editor) with one of the many rewarding challenges to entrepreneurship.

Spotlight On: K & J Heating

After 10 years as a Westbrook police officer, Ken Viger, decided to do something where he could make people happy.

“As a police officer you deal with people on their worst day. You call me up on Christmas Eve and you have no heat…I give you heat and you’re happy,” Viger said.

In 2005, he took the opportunity to go out on his own after having been licensed and spent time working with his father-in-law at his heating business.

K&J Heating travels all over southern Maine and the mid-coast region doing maintenance, emergency repair and efficiency upgrades.

“If you want to burn it, we’ll do it for you,” Viger said. K&J Heating works with oil, natural gas, propane gas, corn cobs, pellet boilers, cord wood and radiant heat. The only thing they don’t do is thermonuclear heat, which isn’t ready for household use, Viger joked.

“I love doing the work. Every day is something different. No two systems are alike,” he said.
Viger keeps busy year round with maintenance calls and new construction heating systems. He said he hasn’t had the traditional slow down in business for years.

K&J Heating, which has one employee, has done major upgrades for older buildings, including one in Lewiston where the owner changed to natural gas and got the return on his investment in one year. “One year he was paying $20,000 to heat a three-story building with oil. The first year after the new system was put in, he spent 15 percent of that,” said Viger.

Viger is trained, license and insured. The training he said, is self-motivated. He keeps up to date on new systems and then can offer more services to his customers.

K&J Heating is very through in all it does often checking the manual to make sure nothing has changed since the last install of that product, even if they’ve installed 50 to 100 of them.

K&J Heating is very supportive of local sports and Scouts. Viger coaches and has been a Cub Scout leader.

To contact K&J Heating in Gray, visit www.kjheatingmaine.com or call 415-0873.

Spotlight On: OTT Communication

Maine-based OTT Communications has been in the telephone business for 125 years, but the company of today is completely different from what it was when it began as Saco River Telephone.

“We are primarily a business phone and Internet as well as some residential phone service,” said OTT Communications marketing manager Mary Post. The company based in New Gloucester serves western Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, New Hampshire and New Gloucester, Maine.

“Telephone service has evolved. Just like you transition your cell every two years, so has your phone,” said Post. “Our biggest obstacle is shedding the idea that we are just a phone company. We can customize,” Post said.

The service is VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, meaning the Internet carries packets of voice information to the receiver of the call. Only one phone line is needed in the digital world, even for 10 people. It’s the same speed, no matter who is on the phone or online, Post said. “It optimizes itself.” No longer do customers pay for things they used to, like touch tone, intra-company calls, local calls or call recording.

The phone system is completely portable. As long as there is an Internet connection, the phone will work like it’s in the office. A restaurant can shut down during inclement weather and the hostess could bring the phone home to take new reservations and to let callers know the business is closed. A seasonal business could take the phone to Florida in the winter and no one would know any different. 

“Whatever you need, we can do it all,” Post said. “We have a unique portfolio for technology. We will build it,” Post said.

Most plans are under $100 per month. Each business has an in-person training session and more than once if needed.

“We are a local company. We really take it seriously,” she said. Customer service is very important to the company. When someone emails or calls, they might be speaking with the director of sales Bob Froberg. “How you’re handled and how you’re taken care of…that’s the difference,” said Post about the difference between OTT Communications and other phone companies. “It’s like buying a toy at the local toy shop or at a big Walmart. What relationship do you have?” Post asked.

OTT Communications is also part of the community it resides in. “We’re happy to be our businesses’ business,” said Post. They sponsor sports teams and all employees, 200 of them in New Gloucester, are given eight hours a year to volunteer in some capacity.

“We’re not industry specific, we’re business specific,” said Post. “Sometimes it’s the small things that make the difference.”

Reach OTT Communications at www.OTTCommunications.com or call 1-877-643-6246.

Lucille's offers vintage, handmade goods by Leah Hoenen

An eclectic collection of new, vintage, rediscovered and remade clothes, jewelry, décor and more sits tucked inside Lucille’s, a new shop along Route 302 in Westbrook.

With gray walls, a turquoise floor and throwback music playing in the background, Lucille’s reflects the fun and spunky creativity of owners Jess Gray and Caiti Enos.

The two met through mutual friends, and a couple of short months after that meeting, they had a business plan. Gray said, “It was, ‘I like vintage,’ ‘I like sewing,’ let’s do this.”

In late 2011, Gray and Enos developed the idea for a store specializing in vintage, handmade and retro goods. They’ve been selling items online since 2012 and opened their Westbrook store in April this year.
The name Lucille’s refers neither to B.B. King’s guitar nor Lucille Ball, said Gray. “The funny thing is the lack of a story. We had a hat – a literal hat – and drew the name out of it,” said Gray. Lucille was the second name. Mabel was first, but didn’t have the same pizzazz, Gray said.

Lucille’s offers a wide range of items – found, made over and handmade – for all sorts of tastes. From books and furniture to dishes, jewelry and clothes, Lucille’s contains a plethora of vintage finds of many eras, comfortably displayed in the store on Route 302.

Proprietors Gray and Enos make a creative, artistic and complementary pair. In addition to already-made items, Lucille’s offers custom sewing. With vintage clothing, it’s often difficult to find clothes that fit properly, said Gray, so she and Enos hope to have a line of custom clothing.

“If you see something you like and it doesn’t fit, I’m pretty good at copying it,” said Enos, who makes a variety of clothing, from simple skirts to a prom dress.

Enos is a talented seamstress, but her background is in archaeology. She has dug all across New England. “I guess that’s where I get my appreciation for older things,” she said. “For a long time, I’ve been digging.”
Gray chimed in, “Now, you do a different kind of digging.”

Gray said she held a series of office and food-service jobs before Lucille’s was born. “I was always incredibly bored with regular jobs. I started selling clothing on Etsy for a couple of years,” she said.

For Gray, thrifting is a long-established way of life. “I’ve been thrift shopping since before I could walk. My grandmother had an antique store,” she said. “I’ve always loved older things. I loved hunting for things.”
The thrill of the hunt – and the unexpected find – keeps this pair going.

Poring through flea markets, yard sales and estate auctions, Enos and Gray assemble a collection of vintage finds. And, they always ask if there’s more to see.

“We ask everyone if they have anything,” said Gray, recounting the story of a trip to Orono. The pair traveled there to pick up one item, and learned the seller had a basement full of clothes. “We spent a 14-hour day going through it,” Gray said.

Enos and Gray try to schedule their shopping trips together. “We have the best luck when we’re together,” Enos said.

“I made so many aprons,” said Enos. When they started out, the pair made many aprons and repurposed frames – used to hold writing boards. “I had a craft room. We sat in there and crafted and crafted and crafted,” Enos said.

In their early days, Enos and Gray sold their wares at a flea market in Brunswick and later at Portland’s Flea for All, where they still sell periodically.

Every Friday, Lucille’s offers 50 percent off clothing.

Keep up with Lucille’s and get a sneak preview of items in the store by visiting shoplucilles.blogspot.com.