Business Writer

The Other Portland

/ Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment
Winter in Portland, just as nice.

Winter in Portland, just as nice.

I’ve loved Portland, Maine for a long time. It’s where I got engaged and where I’ve spent nearly every birthday since. It’s a city I visit with friends and go to visit friends. I walk the waterfront and the Eastern Promenade. I eat and drink and repeat. It’s almost criminal how many great places there are to get a beer, a cocktail you’ve never tried before or a dish that will leave you licking the plate. When my friend and editor of Market Watch magazine asked if I wanted to write a profile about the city’s beer, wine and cocktail scene, I didn’t have to think about it for long.

I contacted dozens of restaurants, bars, distilleries and breweries. The ones featured are places I love, but I easily could have included more. It’s a story that helped me make some great contacts in Portland and one I hope leads to more profiles of the city.

“The Other Portland” is only available in PDF form, so please click through if you’d like to read the rest.

The Other Portland

Craft beer and an emerging cocktail culture define Maine’s largest city

Walk into Pai Men Miyake, a noodle bar in Portland, Maine’s Longfellow Square, and one of the first things you see is the craft beer list. On a prominently displayed chalkboard adjacent to the front door, guests can scan the list of 12 draft beers when they walk in. Half of the venue’s taps and six of its 12 bottles are reserved for regional craft beers, which are regularly rotated, offering patrons an opportunity to try the latest local expressions.

Steaming bowls of ramen, such as the Kimchee Beef with braised short rib ($13), are commonly ordered with a Mainebrewed draft like Bissell Brothers’ The Substance ale ($7 a 16-ounce pour) or Oxbow Farmhouse pale ale ($6 a 12-ounce pour), says bar manager Jack Van Paepeghem. The menu also includes Japanese beers, such as Sapporo, which is $3 a 16-ounce pour during happy hour.

A casual Japanese restaurant may not be the first place Portland visitors look to find a robust craft beer program, but Pai Men Miyake is considered a top spot for sampling local beer and was on Eater.com’s 2013 list of “14 Essential Maine Craft Beer Bars.” Van Paepeghem says customers usually look for locally made beers, whether it’s a Pilsner or a darker brew. “My responsibility is to keep a balance,” he says. “I could have 10 IPAs if I wanted, but that’s not my style.”

Heather Sanborn, co-owner of Rising Tide Brewing Co. and president of the Maine Brewers’ Guild, says Portland residents expect a well-curated craft beer menu stocked with Maine products at local bars and restaurants. “New places in the Portland area need to have a significant beer program,” Sanborn says. “They’re not so much putting Bud Light on tap, but instead building a strong regional craft beer plan. It’s become as important as having a good wine list—or maybe more important.”

To read more, go to: Market Watch, “The Other Portland”

Beer into Spring

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Spring beers come out when we're all still wearing these.

Spring beers emerge when we’re wearing these.

If you lived in the Boston area during the first three months of 2015, you surely weren’t drinking “spring beers.” Buried in more than six feet of snow left most of us New Englanders sucking down heavy winter beers deep into the season, despite what the seasonal beer calendar said. I’m sure spring happened somewhere in the United States and I hope they enjoyed my take on the role spring seasonals play in craft brewing industry — which I wrote last fall.

Spring Forward

Brewers use spring seasonals to audition innovative beers

Winter may mean snow and ice for the northern half of the country, but in the world of seasonal craft beer, spring has begun. Typically launched in January, spring beers have the poorest sales performance of the seasonals, but brewers say that’s no reason to ignore the opportunities they offer. Craft beer producers often use spring to come up with interesting and innovative brews.

Beer drinkers have become accustomed to expecting certain products during the year. The end of summer brings pumpkin beers and malty Oktoberfest brews. Winter and the holiday season highlight darker, flavorful beers, and when the days are warm, drinkers can choose from a wide selection of lighter summer beers. But there are no expectations with spring beer styles, which may be part of the reason for sluggish sales. Craft beer sales dip during the first three months of the year, rebounding just as summer beers hit the shelves, according to Nielsen Scantrack data.

“Historically, brewers would make lighter beers in the summer and heartier ones for sustenance in the winter,” says Jennifer Glanville, brewer and manager of the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston. “They also used seasonal ingredients they had on hand, such as fruit, herbs and spices, to enhance their brews. Although nowadays we have the ability to make beers with a variety of ingredients year-round, there’s still something special about celebrating a certain time of year using seasonal ingredients.”

To read more, go to: Market Watch, “Spring Forward”

A year in beer

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Portsmouth Brewery Royal Impy and California Common

Portsmouth Brewery Royal Impy Stout and California Common

It’s been more than a year since I toured the new Smuttynose Brewing Co., facility with Peter Egelston. I got a look at the plant just before they began production and way before the new restaurant, Hayseed, had opened. This research resulted in the article below, featured in the industry magazine, Market Watch. I was impressed with Egelston’s openness and the facility’s high-tech approach to beer making. We discussed how technique and technology influence the beer’s flavor, other endeavors like the Portsmouth Brewery, as well as some business philosophy. The story is only available to me in PDF, so make sure to click through to read the rest.

Brewing Balance

With the opening of a new facility in Hampton, New Hampshire, Smuttynose Brewing Co. aims big while maintaining its craft character

When Smuttynose Brewing Co. finished the first of-the-art brewery in Hampton, New Hampshire, at the end of February, it wasn’t just an inaugural run on new equipment. This batch had been nearly 10 years in the making. Smuttynose founder and president Peter Egelston began searching for a new location in 2004 to replace the original 25,000-square-foot Portsmouth brewing facility, an inefficient, dark and cramped space tucked away in the depths of a light industrial development. Egelston’s first choice was a crumbling riverside mill building in nearby Newmarket, a popular off-campus hub for college students attending the University of New Hampshire. He approached the town leaders and was welcomed with open arms—at first.

Read the rest of the story in PDF form here: MW0414_smuttynose

When something new comes along

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Photo Mar 13, 6 23 59 PM

Opening night in the gallery at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth

 

Sometimes I’m inspired to write about a subject because I think editors will love  the idea, or that it will gain lots of reader interest. But sometimes I write about a subject because I am legitimately curious. Last winter, I toyed with the idea of starting a non-profit that would support creative freelancers like myself throughout the northern Boston-metro area. What better way to fund my research than to write a story about the risks and rewards of launching a non-profit?

I learned there are many dedicated people in this state giving their time and gallons of sweat equity to do things that no sane business owner would touch. That includes 3S Artspace, a newly opened gallery, performance space and restaurant in Portsmouth, which I used to open my article. I also learned I don’t have the patience, political capital or connections it takes to start my non-profit idea, which means I’ll be freelancing in my home office for a little while longer.

Here’s my latest piece, featured in New Hampshire Business Review’s March 5 issue.

Navigating a non-profit

The learning curve is daunting for those launching a nonprofit organization

“My mom would tell you that I’ve been talking about 3S – in one iteration or another – since I was about 15 years old,” says Chris Greiner, executive director of 3S Artspace, a performance space and gallery now under construction in Portsmouth. “I’ve always wanted to be a part of establishing a gathering space and cultural hub of some sort, whether it was an arts center for teens, a bookstore cafe, or the multidisciplinary arts space that I eventually landed on.”

The idea started in 2005, and by 2009 Greiner had organized a group of friends and mentors to serve as a fledging board of directors, including an architect, an attorney and a local business owner. Greiner left his job to pursue 3S Artspace full-time, and by March 2011 it was incorporated as a New Hampshire nonprofit with federal 501(c)(3) status. This spring, 3S Artspace will complete construction and open its performance space, art gallery and restaurant in the city’s rapidly changing Northern Tier.”

To read more, please go to the New Hampshire Business Review website.

 

Where do freelancers find ideas? Sometimes it’s a shot in the dark

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I wasn’t covering the UNH Career Fair last October for anyone. There was no story due in the hours that followed and I certainly wasn’t getting paid. So why did I spend 3 hours out of my day and a couple bucks in parking to attend? I needed some business story ideas.

Finding story ideas is one of the hardest parts of being a freelance writer. I’ve been getting better at it, largely by focusing on publications I’ve worked with in the past. I ask them straight up — what are you looking for? Editors always have a wish list of stories they’d like to publish but don’t have the staff to do it. Simply asking them to share that wish list with you is a huge step toward landing a story with them.

Attending networking and trade events is a tool I’ve used lately in better meeting editor’s expectations. I’m not pitching the event as the story, but instead am contacting the editor before I go and asking him or her — if I were to go looking for story ideas, what should I keep an eye out for? This gives me a list of questions to ask people at the event and helps get me closer to finding a subject worth writing about.

I got the idea for this piece for New Hampshire Business Review after attending the UNH Career Fair last fall. I didn’t pitch the event as the piece, but instead called the editor beforehand letting him know I would be attending and talked about some potential stories that could come out of it — who’s hiring, who’s growing, what majors are in high demand? I got some suggestions from the editor and headed over.

As is often the case when walking into a room blind, what you expect to find and what you actually find when you get there don’t always line up. I spoke with plenty of representatives from out-of-state companies, but didn’t find many local, innovative companies. And then I came across On Call International, a swiftly growing company with a unique business model based in Salem, N.H. I pitched a story based on the editor’s recommendations and landed an assignment.

Attending these events can sometimes be a gamble and don’t always pay off, but I’ve more often than not, I can come up with something an editor is willing to bite on if I look hard enough. You can read a portion of the piece below.

Traveling? The last number you call may be in Salem

Keeping cool heads during a crisis has been On Call International’s mission since its inception nearly 20 years ago. It’s a trait that has served its customers well, helping them navigate their way out of foreign jams big and small. It’s also a trait that has helped the company through some rocky times, bringing On Call International from the brink to recognition as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country.

The travel risk management firm provides a wide range of services for travelers both in the United States and abroad. Whether it’s a medical emergency, an arrest or a lost passport, On Call works with officials and medical staff on the ground wherever the client is located to resolve the situation, sometimes traveling to the customer to bring him home.

Last year, On Call International fielded 500,000 incoming and outbound client calls, and 300,000 emails to and from clients. The company brought home the remains of more than 300 people and sent 400 private jets and air ambulances – equipped with a rescue nurse and medical equipment – to locations around the world to bring clients home.

For the rest of the story, go to NHBR.com.

Knowing what you don’t know

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2012-10-25 13.17.49

There are plenty of skills I picked up as a reporter that have served me well in my freelancing career — aggressive researching, interview timing, writing on tight deadlines, and the ability to quickly know what you previously didn’t know. This last one, probably the most vital.

I’ve learned about Community Development Block Grants, the many challenges of running city government, the ins-and-outs of New England’s energy grid and other esoteric subjects well enough to tell others about them in a 20-inch story written at an eighth-grade level. While I’m not at a daily anymore, I am occasionally called upon to learn and write in a short time frame. Like when I was asked to provide some content for a cloud server service website. Crash course in IT anyone?

 

5 tips for a better business blog

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Don't let your company blog become like this -- worn out with tired references.

Don’t let your company blog become like this — worn out with tired references.

It’s probably the most neglected spot on any business’ website:  the company blog. No one has time to whip up 500 words on the work the firm has planned for the summer or provide insider tips for customers, so updates become few and far between. Yet if you are looking for ways to improve your company’s credibility with customers or stand out among competitors, it’s worth it to invest some time into blogging.

Take a look at your company blog, as it is today. Are most of the blog posts little more than a press release retread? A few pics from the company Christmas party — in 2012? It’s time to put more effort into your company’s blog. Here are a few easy steps you can take without a total behind-the-scenes redesign.

1. Always include photos

Think about the blogs and websites you enjoy reading. Likely what drew you in were the great pictures. I like Smitten Kitchen because it has lots of beautiful pictures of food, along with helpful photos showing different steps in the cooking process. Or take Fathom’s list of 24 Best Travel Blogs. All are exploding with eye-catching images that make your mouth water for a vacation far, far away. You don’t have to be an award-winning photographer, but you and your employees should train your eyes to look for great blog photos, and then take them. Set up a Dropbox account where phone pics can be stored so that everyone who posts to the company blog can access them.

2. Think like your customers

If your company provides a service, think of all the different Google searches your potential customers are doing in hopes of finding someone who does what you do. Try to write blog posts that show that potential customer your company is the answer to her prayers. This essentially how inbound marketing works. 

Take Skillings & Sons, Inc., a family-owned well drilling and water system company based in New Hampshire. Not the first company you’d think of when it comes to producing an interesting and readable blog. Marketing firm and inbound marketing specialists Means-of-Production (which hired me to work on content production), created one advice-driven blog post for Skillings & Sons each week, showcasing their wide range of services and staff’s expertise. After one year, Skillings & Sons saw their web traffic go up 233 percent and online sales leads up 20 percent.

3. Keep it under 600 words

Whether you are providing instructions on how to change an air filter or are expounding on the benefits of blogging (ahem!) your posts need not be more than 600 words. Not many people have the time to read more than that, even if they are engaged in the subject. 

4. Keep it light

Company blogs should be helpful to consumers, but also provide a window into your business culture. Do you allow people to bring pets to work? Snap a photo of Rex and post it on a slow Friday. Have you brought on a new hire? Post a welcome message, introducing him to your clients. The main focus of the blog should be pertinent to your business, but customers respond well when they see the faces of the people behind the company. Don’t be afraid to let them into the break room once in a while.

5. Keep it up

As someone who struggles to keep my own company blog current, I know it’s tough to produce the content needed for regular posts. But maintaining a schedule is important not only for your site’s SEO, it shows your company is consistent and credible, important attributes to highlight when trying to attract new customers. Of course, you can also hire a firm like BLH Writing Solutions for content production and designing post schedules that will keep your company blog regularly updated. 

For more information about blog content services, contact Beth at blh@gardnerstate.com.

When it’s changing all around you

/ Beth LaMontagne Hall / Leave a comment
2014-06-12 18.50.29

The little nugget enjoying a Friendly Toast fry

I pitched a story about the Friendly Toast on a Tuesday morning. Less than 24-hours later I wondered if I had made a mistake.

Jeff Feingold, editor of New Hampshire Business Review, liked the idea immediately. He asked for a profile of the well-known Portsmouth eatery and a look at the benefits and challenges that come with taking over a business that everyone seems to love just the way it is. By noon on Tuesday, I had posted the following on my Facebook page, hoping to nudge some opinionated people into commenting on what I had heard was a controversial change in management.

“As a regular Facebook user, I’ve notice the Friendly Toast changing ownership story has elicited strong opinions from Seacoast residents who are long-time patrons, and especially from those who once worked there. I am writing a story for a business publication about the new ownership and the direction they are taking the business. But if I’m going to write this, I don’t want to gloss over that’s there’s been some controversy in the change in ownership. I would like to interview a few people who work/worked there and long-time customers about the changes being made. I’m not sure what will end up in the final story, but I want input from these folks before I sit down to write it.

Have you worked for the Toast in the past 5 years? Are you a regular customer who’s been to the Toast since the new owners have taken over? Are you a customer who’s had a hard time going back now that someone else owns it? Do you feel this change is just one more sign Portsmouth has lost its soul? Please contact me about being a source. Or if you’d just like to leave a ranty comment about the Friendly Toast, past or present, that’s fine too.“

The response to this post was immediate, but mostly from people I expected to chime in, not necessarily people I wanted to interview. Around mid-afternoon on Tuesday, I got a private message from a woman saying she had some friends who wanted to talk to me for the story. I gave her my email, letting her know I wanted to talk to anyone, pro or con. I received an email a few hours later from a long-time customer raving about the royal treatment given to his relatives, who recently married, and their extra special love for the Toast. The story sounded familiar, and I soon figured out why. It was featured on the Friendly Toast’s own blog.

The next morning, I found an email from a representative from the owner’s marketing company, letting me know that the Friendly Toast owner would love to chat. Before I had a chance to email her back, I got a message from the owner (!?) saying he can’t wait to do an interview.

Before I could even ask, I have an interview lined up.

In any other city, this would seem like a lucky break for the reporter and nothing more, but in Portsmouth, where a city meeting on sprucing up a small parking lot draws a skeptical crowd and causes a 30-minute debate over where to put a dumpster, this is a symptom of a much later problem.

Portsmouth residents and business owners are divided on the growth the city has seen in the past decade. As other communities struggle to pull themselves out of the recession, Portsmouth is booming. We’ve seen two new hotels go up and another is on its way. There will soon be conference center and a Whole Foods — a big deal for a city of 25,000 people — and enough luxury condos to house all the rich empty nesters north of Boston. Some see this as progress. Other say the soul of the city is dying. Any change, no matter how badly needed, is maligned as another sinister way to rid the city of its historic charm. The result of this long distaste for anything new are hideous fake historic buildings made of brick, nowhere to park because we can’t decide where to build a new garage or if we should even encourage more people to come, and a divided City Council paralyze by the ginned-up outrage of a small but active minority.

It is in that context that the new owners of the Friendly Toast became wary of anyone accusing them of changing yet another Portsmouth institution. Despite improvements to the building and operations, rumors of horrible working conditions and substandard food being served flew around town. I brought these rumors to the owners during our interview, and he addressed them. I was honest. I had to include some dissenting voices, and he understood. I suppose after operating in Portsmouth for six month, you see outrage over the color of the walls and the size of the servings as part of doing business here.

Friendly Toast, Portsmouth, NH

Friendly Toast, Portsmouth, NH

Portsmouth eatery with a past looks to the future

Walk down Congress Street in Portsmouth any Sunday morning and you’ll find a crowd of roughly 15 people milling about on the sidewalk, waiting for a table at the Friendly Toast.

For 20 years, the diner-style restaurant has been an anchor in downtown Portsmouth, attracting both visitors and locals with its big plates of homemade food and retro décor ripped straight from the walls of your crazy aunt’s house.

The menu has 75 items that include nachos, burritos, milkshakes, homemade soups and nine different burgers, but breakfast is the true star at the Friendly Toast. Served all day, offerings include the basics, like eggs benedict and blueberry pancakes. What the Toast is best known for is the original dishes, like the popular Guy Scramble – a mix of eggs, cheddar, avocado, black beans and fresh salsa – or the Green Eggs and Ham – a play on eggs benedict that includes anadama bread and a homemade triple herb sauce. Most dishes are served with a big, butter-slathered piece of toast, made from bread baked in-house daily.

These eclectic dishes have earned the Friendly Toast national recognition. The restaurant took fourth place in the Best Breakfast in America contest held by “Good Morning America” and was named “one of the best breakfast places in America” by Esquire magazine.

This year, the restaurant earned the state’s best breakfast honors in New Hampshire Magazine’s “Best of NH” readers’ poll, and both the Portsmouth Friendly Toast and its sister location in Cambridge, Mass. received a certificate of excellence from the review website TripAdvisor.

The Friendly Toast’s two locations bring in about $5.5 million in combined annual sales. The Portsmouth location has 45 employees and seats 143. It’s open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. most days, and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday night, making it the largest late-night dining spot in downtown Portsmouth.

The Portsmouth Friendly Toast generates roughly $2 million in sales annually, but co-owner Eric Goodwin believes sales could easily grow to $2.5 million by the end of 2014.

A restaurant with a past

Goodwin and business partner Scott Pulver purchased both Friendly Toast locations in October 2013. With their new ownership come a number of changes, including upgrades to the kitchen and a new point of service computer system.

The changes caused some blowback among the locals, mostly worried that the laid-back, not-trying-to-be-cool coolness of the Friendly Toast would be lost. But Goodwin repeatedly emphasizes that the quality of the food and the overall feel of the dining experience have not and will not change.

“We are mindful of the historic value,” said Goodwin. “We want to strike a balance between ensuring all the things that make the Friendly Toast unique and special stay, while trying to protect the sustainability of the restaurant and utilize the industry’s best practices.”

To read more, please visit New Hampshire Business Review

Will Write for Food

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How a love of food and a past gig led to this business story assignment

Fresh, local produce at Monadnock Food Co-op

Fresh, local produce at Monadnock Food Co-op

 

As the City Hall reporter at the New Hampshire Union Leader, I would often write news features about the residents’ various efforts to improve the city, from forming neighborhood watches to opening a farmers market. One of my features was about the Manchester Food Co-Op and their monthly potluck dinners to recruit new members. The group had only a few hundred members then, far from their 1,000 member goal before opening a retail store. I didn’t give that co-op much thought until years later, when I was roaming the aisles of the Monadnock Food Co-Op on a recent visit to New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region. If Keene could open a successful co-op, then Manchester must surely be close. And what other communities are talking about open similar cooperative grocery stores? You’ll find the answer in the story below.

The latest food co-op to open in NH

The latest food co-op to open in NH

A hunger for local food

While it may seem counter to New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” mentality, the cooperative business model is becoming a popular way for local communities to provide an alternative to the traditional supermarket.

Over the past five years, there has been a surge of interest in cooperative grocery stores as consumer interest in organic and locally sourced foods has grown.

Since 2009, food co-op stores opened in Littleton and Keene, and the Manchester Food Co-op is currently searching for a downtown location for a new grocery. Great River Co-op in Walpole is raising funds with the hope of opening a store in 2015, and Berlin, Gorham and Brookline have had discussions about launching a co-op in their communities.

To read more, click through to the full story in New Hampshire Business Review.

Venturing into the business world

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Business journalism was never something that appealed to me, though I knew the job security was better in that field of expertise than say being an expert in education or environmental policy. Statistics, spreadsheets, tax law all seemed so, well, boring. But then I had a conversation with New Hampshire Business Review Editor Jeff Feingold.

“Our stories can be about anything really, as long as it has something to do with business,” he told me. Putting it that way, writing about business, which I know almost nothing about, didn’t seem so scary and not nearly as boring. My first piece for NHBR was published last week. You can read the full piece here.

Shortage of young people entering New Hampshire’s accounting industry is a worrisome trend

A high demand for qualified, entry-level accountants is driving up starting salaries and creating an environment of almost full employment for these young workers

“April is the cruellest month.” The line from T.S. Eliot is especially true for college seniors.

These near-graduates spend the month juggling senior projects and finals with polishing their resumes and visiting job fairs. College seniors not only want to start their careers, but also avoid another summer spent scooping ice cream, bagging groceries and waiting for their independent adult life to begin.

But there is one group of sought-after students that will spend this April worry-free, at least when it comes to finding a job.

According to professionals in New Hampshire’s accounting industry, a high demand for qualified, entry-level accountants is driving up starting salaries and creating an environment of almost full employment for these young workers.

“There are lots of good firms looking for good people,” said Robert Smalley, a CPA at the Manchester accounting firm BerryDunn, which hires between two and four accountants every year, often recruiting from the University of New Hampshire.

UNH offers a “very high-level program,” said Smalley, but it’s simply not producing enough graduates to meet the demand of the state’s accounting firms and corporations.

The demand is so great that Smalley and his colleague Jennifer Sanctuary, also a CPA, recently collaborated with UNH Manchester to create a new accounting “track” – essentially a minor – for business students beginning in the fall of 2014.

The track requires students to take seven accounting-based courses throughout their time at UNH Manchester, including managerial finance and federal taxation and auditing. These courses are designed to give students the skills and expertise needed for certification as a management accountant or as a certified public accountant.

The accounting track is modeled after UNH’s Durham program, but will also include curriculum Smalley and Sanctuary developed to reflect the kind of skills they use in their day-to-day work.