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Young Houlton entrepreneur benefits from SBDC assistance
HOULTON - A young woman in the Shiretown proves entrepreneurs come in all ages. Meryem Rogan started Promise Pretzels of Maine right after high school graduation and now a year and a half later the business continues to grow.
"I've always liked baking and cooking and I didn't know if I was going fully into it but my friends encouraged me to give it a try," she said. "It kind of just happened."
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Meryem Rogan of Promise Pretzels of Maine shows off some of her Valentines Day creations.
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To take that next step from passion to business required some assistance. She said the community has been very supportive, but she also sought out professional assistance from Northern Maine Development Commission's (NMDC) Rod Thompson, Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Director.
"We worked on her business plan, identifying markets and making necessary connections," Thompson said.
He also connected her to the Top Gun Prep program, which was offered no charge to entrepreneurs in Aroostook and Washington counties thanks to a grant to NMDC. Top Gun Prep is a series of online classes that cover products, business models and companies, innovation engineering for entrepreneurs, customer development, startup market research, entrepreneurial marketing, revenue streams and business model innovation, financials for entrepreneurs and financing your business.
Rogan sells her chocolate covered pretzels at farmers markets, some retail stores, the Internet, but mainly by word of mouth. She has about 50 or 60 different molds for her chocolate, but said the moose and rose pretzels are the most popular.
Always looking to expand the footprint of Promise Pretzels of Maine, Rogan has also branched out into a completely different market.
"We are making dog treats now, Pupzels, which are fully organic sweet potato dog treats that look like little pretzels," she added.
Social responsibility is also a part of her business plan. A portion of the profits goes to medical missions around the world.
Rogan is optimistic about the future of Promise Pretzels of Maine. She is looking to produce her soft pretzels using only Maine made ingredients and tie her brand to Maine and Aroostook County.
"I definitely want to get it into more stores, possibly down in Bar Harbor and at the beaches were the tourists go," she added.
More information about Promise Pretzels of Maine can be found at www.promisepretzels.com.
Thompson encourages anyone who is thinking about starting a business or an ongoing business that may need some assistance in a specific area, like market research, marketing or operations, to get in touch with the SBDC.
More information is available at www.mainesbdc.org, www.nmdc.org or by contacting Thompson at (800) 427-8736.
SBDC is a partnership program of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, the University of Southern Maine and NMDC.
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