The Realities of Small Business

Eminger Berries files for bankruptcy

With the abrupt closing and departure of Susan Eminger, of Eminger Berries fame, there has been no shortage of water cooler speculation about what happened and her whereabouts.

This morning’s Lewiston Sun Journal ran what appeared to be a wire story indicating that Eminger Berries has filed for bankruptcy. The two-year-old business, which shut down its operations suddenly, last month, shows documents filed on June 20th, seeking Chapter 7 protection from creditors.

According to the news story, the company shows assets of $124,974 and liabilities of $229,537, with sizeable unpaid bills to FedEx and UPS.

The business, which opened in 2005 with Eminger filling orders from her home when she began, was featured on the Food Network, specifically Paula Deen’s show, the culinary equivalent of having a book featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Eminger has apparently relocated to Texas, with her husband and two small children.

Starting a business is never easy, even with a delicious product and some national exposure. Having met Ms. Eminger, who emanated confidence and capability, I hope she lands on her feet and finds something new to focus her food-related talents on.

Death of a Coffee Shop

Barnie’s Café, a wonderful coffee bar, featuring light breakfast and some yummy sandwiches and other summer fare, is closing its doors on Monday.

Located in the historic Bates Mill, in Lewiston, Barnie’s was one of several new businesses that had located to the renovated Mill No. 6 and featured dozens of coffees, from espresso, to latte and cappuccino. The complex, which is home to one of the city’s major employers, TD Banknorth, as well as partial operations for Androscoggin Bank, medical offices and two restaurants, seemed like the perfect locale for the upscale coffee shop, feauturing Wi-Fi for business clients.

Having utilized Barnie’s for several client meetings and a Saturday rendez-vous with a potential RiverVision Press book project suitor, I enjoyed the café’s atmosphere and coffee, not to mention that it emanated a much hipper vibe than any other coffee shop in a town. While Barnie’s was a franchise of the Florida-based Barnie’s Coffee and Tea Company, it had local ownership and wasn’t just another one of multiple chain store offerings in Lewiston/Auburn, catering to the caffeine habit.

While local economic development people insist that there isn’t a trend developing, these two closings, coupled with the recent closure of Uncle Troy’s a locally-owned family BBQ restaurant across the river, aren’t positive signals to those of us that prefer variety and something other than the big-box, or pre-packaged gastronomic experience.

A playhouse and some berries

I remember the fun we used to have, as a kids, when we’d inherit an old appliance box, or other large cardboard container and design our own funky, make-believe playhouse. Apparently, even in the midst of a plethora of gadgets, games and techno-driven toys, playhouses are still in vogue.

Kids Crooked House, a Maine-based company, located in Windham, has been building playhouses for kids since 2004.

From the company’s website, we learn that “in 2004 cousins Glen Halliday and Jeff Leighton went on a quest to find a creative playhouse that was more than a shed and less than $10,000. They found nothing. After a little research and hours of cartoons, Glen drew up the plans for a playhouse that looked like it was built by a cartoon character. The drawing had angled walls, crooked windows, and a twisted roof. Many angled cuts later, the first Kids Crooked House was born."

Now, these Maine entrepreneurs are finalists in Yahoo!'s Ultimate Connection Contest, after being chosen from among 9,000 entries. If they win, they’ll receive a marketing makeover worth over $100,000. Don't forget to vote for the Maine guys!

While Haliday and Leighton’s business is on the way up, another local entrepreneur seems to have fallen off the map.

Susan Eminger, creator of the immensely popular dessert-stuffed berries that led her company, Eminger Berries to be featured on Paula Dean’s Home Cooking, on the Food Network and in Dean’s son’s cookbook, is closing down her Auburn operation and moving to Texas.

According to this morning’s Lewiston Sun-Journal, a city official, who spoke to Eminger on Wednesday, stated that Eminger Berries has “closed and, she (Eminger) is moving to Texas.” The official refused to give a reason for the closure and move, “out of respect to her.”

Eminger was one of eight local entrepreneurs on a panel I moderated back in March, at the Afox Small Business Conference. Like many of the entrepreneurs on the panel, which included Fuel’s Eric Agren, Eminger was very forthright in sharing with the audience the joys and also the pitfalls of entrepreneurship and life as a small businessperson.

The Sun-Journal article spoke with Jeremy Usher, from Firefly, in Damariscotta who said that a Google trends report on June 3rd listed Eminger Berries as 15th as the most searched phrase on Google. The 14th most-searched phrased happened to be “The Soprano’s Last Episode.”

Usher is quoted in the article as saying, “She seems to have vanished without a trace to most people.”

Entrepreneurship is fraught with pitfalls. Building a brand and delivering a product, even after reaching that elusive goal of popularity and success, doesn’t necessarily mean that things get easier.