The first directory of Maine-built, woman owned businesses publishes just in time for the holiday shopping and sourcing season

[Portland, Maine – November 18 2021]: The CEI Women’s Business Center (WBC) today launched Maine Women’s Business List, the first public directory of woman owned businesses across Maine. The directory is a response to consumers, companies, and organizations wanting to purchase from enterprises across the state that are owned by women. It is free to use and easy to search.

The companies listed in the directory are searchable by geography, industry or keyword. All entries are self reported, and the WBC encourages any business headquartered in Maine and which is also at least 50% female owned, to register. This includes cis women, and also trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer and non-binary individuals.

Maine Women’s Business List is a natural complement to the work being done by the WBC, and is open to all women owned businesses across the state.

“This directory is an important tool to help lift everyone working in Maine’s economy,” said Sarah Guerette, Director of the CEI Women’s Business Center. “We want this resource to make it easy to transact with woman owned businesses in our state because their success will ripple throughout their workplaces, their families, and ultimately their communities. Our hope is that the Maine Women’s Business List will help increase the visibility of women in business in Maine, as well as help us understand them and their needs better.”

When a business registers, they are prompted to answer a series of questions that will help contribute to much needed data about the power of female entrepreneurship in Maine.

While anyone, anywhere can search Maine Women’s Business List, the directory is also designed to be used as a tool to help Maine’s female entrepreneurs connect with each other.

Entrepreneurs Zara Bohan and Hillary Crowell have seen the power of such connections. Zara co-owns Coveside Coffee in Portland with her husband, Andrew. They held their first makers market in the Spring of 2021, where they connected with fellow List member, Hillary Crowell, of The Cultivated Thread, a Bath-based maker of beautiful handmade textiles. The pair now work together regularly.

Similarly, Even Keel Card Company founder Caitlin Hopkins hand-prints greeting cards with custom made stamps. Her made-with-love look spoke to Rheanna Sinnett of Otaykwa Cabins and Floating Camps in Bremen. The two woman owned businesses teamed up, and the result was a stunning new set of reinvented letterhead stamping for Otaykwa that feels deeply reflective of Rheanna’s vision for the brand moving forward.  

If you are a woman who owns a Maine business, or know one, please visit Maine Women’s Business List and register at https://www.mainewomensbusinesslist.com/.

About the Women’s Business Center at CEI:

The CEI Women’s Business Center is a home for women who want to start or grow their own business. We work to build a network of peers, experts and advocates, who understand the challenges that disproportionately affect female entrepreneurs and provide resources to meet those challenges. For more information about the directory, please email womanowned@ceimaine.org.

About CEI
Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) helps to grow good jobs, environmentally sustainable enterprises, and shared prosperity in Maine and in rural regions across the country by integrating financing, business and industry expertise, and policy solutions. For more information, visit www.ceimaine.org.