McConnon is available to discuss the sales figures and additional implications. To reach Professor McConnon, contact George Manlove at (207) 581-3756.

Total taxable sales rose from $16.4 billion in 2010 by 3.6 percent, to $17 billion in 2011, with building supplies and automotive and transportation categories leading the market with a 6.4 percent increase and a 5.2 percent increase, respectively. Because of much lower spending increases in other categories, including food, general merchandise, restaurant and lodging business spending and others, the overall taxable sales figures show a 3.6 percent increase.

“We’re just growing very slowly,” says McConnon. “If you take into consideration inflation at 3.2 percent, overall sales growth was relatively flat.”

McConnon notes, also, that fourth-quarter taxable sales – which reflects holiday shopping — carried the year in sales gains. A comparison of fourth-quarter sales of building supplies for 2010 and 2011 reflected a 14.1 percent increase, from $522.3 million to $596 million. Auto and transportation, which does not include fuel purchases, rose 7.6 percent in the fourth-quarter comparison, from $786.5 million in 2010 to $846 million in 2011.

A comparison of all taxable sales in the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011 shows a 4.9-percent jump, from $4.3 billion to $4.7 billion.

“The retail sector is a very important sector of Maine’s economy,” McConnon says, “and we often times look at it as an indicator of consumer spending. The overall finding is that spending increased in 2011, but very little.”

McConnon also observes that big box and department store sales declined by .4 percent while specialty stores (jewelry, sporting goods and mom and pop stores) were up 3.4 percent over the year-long analysis.

Taxable sales, though creeping up, still do not equal Maine’s sales levels in 2007 the year the recession started, according to McConnon, who notes that the increase in taxable retail spending in Maine recently correlates with rising consumer confidence in the stock market.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Transferring the Farm is a day-long workshop offered in Houlton or Waterville, Maine. We have offered this program across New England over the past several years. The workshop will help farmers and farm families make informed decisions about transferring the farm to the next generation. Each workshop will address details on retirement and estate planning, legal approaches to protect assets from taxes, tools you can use to transfer farm assets, and determining your goals to address transfer planning.

Brochure (PDF)

Program

Registration begins at 8:30 AM. Each workshop will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 PM.

Welcome: We’ll start by giving an overview of the day.

First Things First — Getting the Farm Transfer Process Started: Transferring the farm starts by taking stock—we’ll talk about communicating for success, looking at the future of the farm, setting goals, and ways to include the whole family.

Transferring the Farm Tools and Techniques: We’ll define what is an estate and address various economic considerations in farm business transfers.

Farm Transfer and Estate Planning: We will be joined by an attorney who will explain how business entity selection, gifting, and other legal aspects affect the transfer.

Question and Answer Period: We have scheduled time to answer questions you may have about farm transfer at this point in program.

New Ideas and Creative Solutions: Here, we’ll discuss the role that farm link programs and land trusts can play in farm transfers.

First-hand Experience: We hope to have farmers will share their experience with farm transfers to either related or unrelated farm successors.

Q&A and Wrap-Up: We’ll have time at the end of the day to answer additional questions you may have.

Registration Form

Please register before March 7, 2012 to avoid a late fee.

Name(s) _______________________________________________________

Address ________________________________________________________

Town __________________________________________________________

State ________________ Zip _____________

Phone ________________________________

E-mail ________________________________
(Your workshop confirmation will be sent to your e-mail address unless left blank. We do need a minimum to hold this workshop)

Workshop Location (check one):

__ Higher Education Center. Houlton, ME, Wednesday, March 14, 2012

__ Governor’s Restaurant. Waterville, ME, Thursday, March 15, 2012

Workshop Fee: $20 per person; includes registration, workshop packet, and lunch.

Number of people attending _________ X $20 = _________

Late Fee (if postmarked after March 7) = ____ X $10/person = __________

Total Enclosed: __________

Please make check payable to University of Maine Cooperative Extension and mail with completed Registration Form to:

Transferring the Farm Workshops
Gary Anderson
5735 Hitchner Hall
Orono, ME 04469-5735

Directions

Directions to Houlton Higher Education Center: From I95 take Route 1 (North St.) into downtown Houlton. At the intersection of the Bangor Rd., continue through the intersection onto Kendall St. At the intersection of Military St., turn right and continue to the UMPI at 18 Military St., Houlton, ME

Directions to Governor’s from 1-95: Get off at exit 130 (from the north turn left and from the south turn right). Governor’s is collocated with the Fireside Inn at this exit.

For More Information

Contact Gary Anderson, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, (800) 287-7170 (toll free in Maine only). Direct line 207-581-3240 or 2788.

Hosted By:

• Land For Good
• Maine Farm Link
• University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension
• University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension
• University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension
• University of Vermont Extension

Funding provided by The Northeast Center for Risk Management Education

A free, online webinar is now available to help merchants tailor their marketing toward this growing, nontraditional tourist population.

University of Maine economists Jim McConnon and Todd Gabe recently collaborated with University of Southern Maine’s Small Business Development Center, CruiseMaineUSA, Discover Portland and Beyond, and Portland small business owner Sandy Jones of “Something Fishy” to produce the 20-minute webinar. The webinar offers a series of “chapters” with information and marketing tips for Maine businesses poised to roll out the welcome mat for cruise line passengers and other tourists visiting Maine.

“Capturing the Day Tripping Tourist – Cruise Ship and Destination Event Visitors” is for small business owners, economic development practitioners and local community officials who want to strengthen their tourism development efforts, according to McConnon a UMaine Cooperative Extension specialist and professor or economics, and Gabe, a professor of economics in the UMaine School of Economics. Both have extensively studied and documented spending habits and personal characteristics of cruise line passengers.

Maine has ports servicing cruise ship lines, passengers and crew in 10 communities: Kennebunkport, Portland, Freeport, Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Rockland, Camden, Belfast, Bar Harbor and Eastport.

The new online resource offers facts and information every sidewalk vendor and shopkeeper should keep in mind, says McConnon, whose research interests also include microbusinesses and home-based business development in Maine.

“This is for businesses and communities that will be looking at tourists coming in, whether it’s for the lobster festivals, the Fourth of July, American Folk Festival… These tips offer effective strategies for capitalizing on destination tourism,” McConnon says.

Some of the ideas are straightforward and elementary, such as offering excellent customer service. Others are more specific, such as merchants in port communities checking to see which cruise liners will be docking locally and putting up signs welcoming passengers from specific ships, and offering them exclusive discounts.

“These are tips from experts and those who work in destination tourism,” McConnon says. “Many of the tips are research-based, particularly those related to cruise ship customer marketing.”

McConnon and Gabe recently wrote a report about cruise line passenger spending.

Amy Powers, director of CruiseMaineUSA, says McConnon and Gabe’s 2009 analysis of cruise line passengers showed that more than 70 percent of cruise ship passengers are older, educated and earn more and spend more while on vacation. These nontraditional visitors, she adds, will most likely come to visit ports of call businesses regardless of weather, which isn’t true of more local day-trippers whose plans can be disrupted by bad weather.

The webinar, produced and recorded in the last several months, includes interviews, charts, graphs and easy-to-overlook information that can help merchants make appealing pitches to tourists.

“Developing this webinar along with some of the top experts on cruise ship tourism in the state offered us the unique opportunity to get some of our research findings out to business owners who can use the information to boost their bottom line,” adds Gabe. “Knowing more about cruise ship passengers can help businesses immensely when implementing their marketing plans.”

With the July 4 holiday approaching and the tourist season underway, McConnon and Gabe are available to discuss some of the tips in the webinar and from their research about what visitors will be looking for in the way of hospitality, experiences and souvenirs. Please contact George Manlove at (207) 581-3756 for assistance reaching McConnon or Gabe.

On Thursday, July 7 in Belfast, Dana Morse will present information on the advancing technology of scallop aquaculture to shellfish producers, chefs, fishermen, and others. Morse, who has visited scallop farms in Canada and Japan, will present details of various scallop production methods, market information, and business models.

Morse also will review the techniques and results from scallop culturing efforts in Maine since 1999, when Maine fishermen began experimenting with enhancing wild stocks of scallops by collecting juvenile scallop seed or “spat.”

“Maine’s waters have been very productive in terms of the number of scallops that can efficiently be collected,” said Morse, a marine extension associate with Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “With the seafood industry looking for opportunities to diversify, shellfish aquaculture presents unique opportunities as well as challenges.”

The presentation begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 7, at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast. Anyone who is interested is welcome to attend the free discussion, but registration is requested. To RSVP, please call 207.563.3146 x205, or e-mail dana.morse@maine.edu.

For more information, visit Maine Sea Grant’s Resources for Shellfish Growers.

Assorted truffles, one of the 90 varieties of handmade candies sold by Monica’s Chocolates of Lubec, Maine.

In the 10 years she has been in Maine, Monica Elliott has turned tragedy into triumph. She and her husband, Stanley, had moved from Lima, Peru, to Lubec, where he had just started working as a fisheries consultant when a brain aneurysm left him in a coma and nearly took his life. Elliott, who had spent 30 years building a successful fashion design business in Peru, found herself in a Down East Maine community where she didn’t know the people or the language. So she took adult-ed classes in English. And she sought out advice from experts, including Cooperative Extension specialists Bassano and McConnon, who offer small-business workshops and one-on-one consultations.

Read more about Monica’s “sweet success” in UMaine Today.

The Pricing Your Products for Profit workshop will provide an overview of what is involved in successfully developing a pricing strategy. The highlights will include: What is Profit?, What is my market willing to pay?, and Record Keeping for developing prices.

UMaine Extension’s Dr. James C. McConnon, Economics and Small Business Specialist, will be the key presenter. Registration is requested. Please contact UMaine Extension’s Franklin County Office at 778-4650 to register or for more information.

The home-based and micro-business training curriculum originally was created in the late 1990’s by a team of faculty members from universities across the country to aid Land Grant faculty, outreach entrepreneurship educators, economic development professionals and entrepreneurs. A similar national team revised the material during the last two years. Jim McConnon, University of Maine Cooperative Extension specialist and professor of economics, served on the original team and the revisions team, which also extended the curriculum to the web.

The 20-chapter package, “Cashing in on Business Opportunities,” is freely available and covers everything a person would want or need to know about starting and growing a business enterprise. Topics range from technical and logistical business planning analysis and legal questions to practical concerns, including how to set a price for a product or service and avoiding familial conflicts when basing a business in the home, McConnon says.

“The curriculum targets educators and faculty across the U.S. and economic development professionals, and others who work to support micro and home-based business development in the U.S.,” he says.

There is no charge for any part of the guidebook and related educational and reference materials. Target audiences also include non-profit associations and others who support micro and home-based business owners in Maine, New England and the United States.

The curriculum, divided into four sections, is hosted by the Southern Rural Development Center in Mississippi. The guide and curriculum, along with downloadable PDF documents and PowerPoint presentations, is located on the web at http://srdc.msstate.edu/cashing/, with additional details in an SRDC news release at http://srdc.msstate.edu/news/081210_cashing.html.

Those interested in participating in the free, interactive webinar Dec. 8, log onto http://msues.na4.acrobat.com/srdc/ 15 minutes before the program begins. The webinar is from 1-2:30 p.m. EST.

The revision team included Alan Barefield, Mississippi State University; Mike Best, Tennessee Tech University; Karen Biers, Utah State University; Rachael Carter, Mississippi State University, Hank Cothran, University of Florida; Jim McConnon, University of Maine; Glenn Muske, North Dakota State University; Katy Williams, Southern Rural Development Center; Kent Wolfe, University of Georgia; and Al Wysocki, University of Florida.

Related resources:

• Home-Based Business series, Bulletin #3031
• Your Business Plan: A Fact Sheet for Small-Scale Business Owners, Bulletin #3005

Black Friday, so called because it is a chance for many merchants to get their budgets in the black, traditionally is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Many retailers also roll out what could also be the best bargains of the year. For some retailers and small businesses in Maine, seasonal sales account for 25-40 percent of their annual sales.

The National Retail Federation projects a 2.3-percent rise in retail spending this holiday season, an improvement from last year’s 0.4-percent increase and the dismal 3.9 percent holiday sales decline in 2008. The 2010 forecast is still below the
10-year average of 2.5 percent.

According to McConnon, Maine retailers are likely to see a slightly better year than last year. Year-to-date (January 2010-August 2010) retail sales were up about 3 percent from last year, personal income in Maine was up 2.6 percent in the first two quarters of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, and wage and salary income was up 1.7 percent in first two quarters of 2010 compared to 2009. However, Maine unemployment is still high at 7.7 percent in September, compared to 8.1 percent during the last quarter of 2009. U.S. consumer confidence fell 6 percent from February 2010-August 2010.

Shoppers this holiday season are expected to continue to focus on price and value. As a result, retailers will offer promotions throughout the shopping season. Apparel, sporting goods, books, music and personal care (low-ticket items) are expected to do better than high-ticket items like housing-related categories, large appliances, etc., McConnon’s research indicates. Jewelry is expected to be very popular this year as are mobile devices like iPhones and androids as consumers start to loosen their purse strings.

A bright spot this year is that online sales are expected to increase again this year. Offers of free shipping, discounts and growing trend of social networking continue to spur online sales. Although online sales represent only 3.4 percent of all retail sales, they have grown in importance over the past decade.

Some tips for holiday shoppers this year include: develop a budget to guide purchasing choices; make a list and stick to it; shop early, as retailers burned by oversupplying two years ago, are keeping inventories down; look for discount coupons and check out online coupon sites; avoid crowds by shopping early and late in day; and keep receipts.

Tips for retailers this holiday season include: provide exceptional customer service; keep a sharp eye on pricing; price for target markets; manage inventory carefully; and don’t cut back on advertising.