Coffee Shop Owner

transcribed by Brandon Carter
Coastal Journal staff

I grew up in the Berkshires, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  I went to St. Michael's in Vermont, and then I moved to Boston.  My first job out of college was as a commercial real estate broker in the early-mid 80s, during the big real estate boom.  It was a good job with good money and great people.  I learned a great deal about hard work and persistance, but after spending seven years in Boston, I got restless. 

I took some time to travel.  I went to New Zealand, Australia, all over Indonesia, working all kinds of odd jobs, like cleaning fish.  I met up with my best friend in Spain and spent three months in Barcelona, which was eye-opening.  It's a really vibrant, unique city; I like to tell people, “They did it right there.”

But you can only travel for so long.  I came back to the states and substitute-taught in the Boston public school system for a little while before I joined Outward Bound.  I worked for five or six years with Outward Bound, and again, I met some really good people, but I decided to go for my master's.  I left Outward Bound and went to the Muskie School of Public Services, where I got my Master's in Community Planning and Development.

Going back to school opened up some interesting opportunities for me here in Maine.  I got a job as an economic developer with Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI) in Lincoln County.  Starting from scratch in Lincoln County presented some real visceral challenges, not the least of them navigating the local political waters.  I did it for four years, but it was a hard four years.  A mountain of stress accompanied the work, and I didn't have much help to deal with it.  At the end of four years, it was time to get out.

I started talking to my wife Julie about starting our own business.  After working at CEI, anything seemed possible.  We had little to no anxiety about opening the coffee shop because we had already started from scratch before, and if we could survive that, we could survive starting a business.  At the time, we felt there was a real vacuum on Main Street for coffee shops; we felt confident that a “shop on the corner” would do well.  With tremendous support from our friends, some loans, and our own savings, “Little Dog” opened in January of 2005.

The name “Little Dog” came from a late night of brainstorming.  Julie and I had been trying to come up with a passive but memorable name for the longest time, but one night while we were lying in bed, she just kind of blurted it out.  Our friends were especially receptive to it, so we decided to call our new venture “Little Dog Coffee Shop.”  Plus, our dog Otis has made a fine store logo.  

Since opening “Little Dog,” Main Street's become a pretty competitive scene for shops like ours, but that's not a bad thing.  Competition pushes you to do better, try harder.  We've tried a lot of different things here-local art, music series, different kinds of food, merchandise.  Competition with other businesses generates different ideas, but your most important competitor should always be yourself.  There's no room for complacence.  While I would say that I'm confident in our performance here, I can admit to, at least initially, underestimating just how hard it is to make money.  Even if you think you're doing really well, the costs pile up quickly, the bills have to be paid, and pretty soon there's not much left over.

But there’s only so much you can control.  The customers seem happy and are always nice, the staff works hard, and I live less than a mile away from the shop with my wife and the twins.  Maintaining a family takes hard work, too, but Julie’s been a tremendous anchor for our family.   At the end of the day, we’re proud of what we’ve started here.