Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I I N O. X I X S TA R T U P S / E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P I n 2016, Jennifer Judd-McGee started a little shop called Swallowfield as an experiment. An artist in Northeast Harbor, she had been selling her work online and through galleries, and also worked with commercial art agents doing freelance editorial and licensing patterns. "But I'd always had a secret dream of having a shop," she says. She noticed a Main Street storefront on the market. "It looked perfect and not too scary," she says. e idea was to sell Maine-made wares and her own artwork. Over the next couple of years, she did well enough, but realized she didn't have a full understanding of what it takes to run a business. In 2018, she enrolled in a new edu- cational opportunity called the Mount Desert Business Boot Camp. "I never went to business school and I didn't know what I didn't know," Judd- McGee says. "I was trying to figure out what it would take to make a living." e three-day camp offered plentiful programming and business mentors. "It was a little intimidating," she says. "But once I realized that not just the boot camp leaders but all of the volun- teers from the different banks and small businesses and organizations were there to help us, it felt great." Accidental entrepreneurs "So many of our local businesses were founded by what I call 'accidental entre- preneurs,'" says Jay Friedlander, a founder of the boot camp. "ey are passionate, and talented and excited to do some- thing they love. Later, often through the school of hard knocks, they realize they weren't equipped with the business skills they needed to succeed." at "skills chasm," as he calls it, claims businesses of all kinds. "e boot camp is designed to fill in the skills chasms and quickly give these business owners the skills to succeed Jennifer Judd-McGee, left, and Kathleen Miller, Executive Director of Mount Desert 365, outside Judd- McGee's Swallowtail store in downtown Northeast Harbor. Judd-McGee participated in the Mount Desert Business Boot Camp twice, finding plentiful programming and mentorship. I never went to business school and I didn't know what I didn't know. — Jennifer Judd-McGee Swallowfield S E P T E M B E R 5 , 2 0 2 2 22 P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D Entrepreneurs get a boost from Mount Desert Island program B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r F O C U S

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