COVER STORY

Phyllis Giordano, an interior designer, is reflected in a mirror in one of the rooms created at "Dover Bluff," the annual Decorator Show House put on by Old York Historical Society.. Deb Cram photo

Phyllis Giordano launched Painted Treasures nearly four years ago in her home. She opened shop on Route 1 in York a year later, and hasn't looked back as her second career became its own little treasure.

The "small business" tag is almost superfluous across the region, as entrepreneurs dot the seascape. Tourists certainly help, dropping their greenbacks here and there. But Giordano helps us zero in on another reason for a bumper crop of local merchants: community and regional support.

In this of all things, size matters, experts tell Seacoast Ventures. Small businesses partly excel in Maine and New Hampshire because the states are small and everyone seems to know somebody.

"It's a very small state, so you can know people easily and you can get assistance easily," says Warren Daniel, Seacoast regional manager for the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center. "The players are readily accessible."

Giordano says she was pleased to find tremendous local and regional business assistance.

"The challenges to me were learning what you could accomplish by yourself and when you need to seek help," she says. "You can't do it all."

Case in point was her company sign. Though she produces fine hand-painted furniture, primarily vintage and custom pieces, Giordano hired a sign specialist. And though she is a former marketing strategist, she conferred with a colleague to hone her message.

Statistics from Maine and New Hampshire show the states' economies are almost entirely driven by small businesses. Daniel said that between 1992 and 2000, companies with 10 to 99 employees had the most growth. "Our niche market is really existing businesses looking to grow their business," he says.

Most job growth comes from smaller companies, adds Jim Roche, president of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire. "Small businesses are in many respects the backbone of the economy," he says.

The definition of a small business often envelops companies with 100 or fewer employees, or 50 or fewer employees.

The federal government has set and revised the numerical definition over the years of what defines a small business. The definition varies from industry to industry. This "size standard" can be measured by the number of employees, business receipts, or business assets. The Small Business Act states that a small business is "one that is independently owned and operated and which is not dominant in its field of operation."

Most manufacturing and mining industries are defined as a small business if they have 500 or fewer employees, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Wholesale trade industries with 100 or fewer employees are small businesses. Other size standard thresholds include $6 million for most retail and service industries, $28.5 million for most general and heavy construction industries, and $12 million for special trade contractors.

Small businesses are often start-up companies, which have a certain failure rate. Some grow over years to where they technically no longer meet the definition. They are, as the statistics show, constantly evolving. Most firms in the Portsmouth labor market have 100 or fewer employees, according to a 2006 employment analysis by the New Hampshire Labor Market Information Bureau. More than 1,000 firms of nearly 1,700 in greater Portsmouth recorded 10 or fewer employees.

In the Seacoast, a number of the mom-and-pop shops are run by retirees who are doing what they have always wanted to do, says Cathy Goodwin, president of the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce. They get assistance from numerous sources, from the Small Business Administration to regional planning commissions in southern Maine and southeastern New Hampshire.

Living the dream comes with a certain sweat equity, which people from the region embrace, according to Goodwin. She says it is noticeable in the area's high level of customer service, an important factor whether one has a gourmet jelly shop or a tourist pushcart.

"I think it came out of the old Yankee work ethic of getting it done and doing it right," Goodwin says. "There's a confidence in who we are. Doing what you love translates into good work."