Like so many others in Maine, Colleen Macklin was a casualty of the recession. She was laid off from her job selling scissor lifts for Southworth Products Corp., and decided to look at self-employment as an option. Her love of jewelry making and her desire to turn her part-time hobby into a viable business led her to apply to Women, Work and Community’s New Ventures Entrepreneurship Training program in the Spring of 2009. However, due to high demand, and limited space, Colleen was not accepted into the 12-week program.
She didn’t give up.
Instead, she took WWC’s Steps to Economic Security, and then re-applied for New Ventures in the Fall of 2009. She was accepted, and blossomed in that program. That year, her business Seamack Jewelry was accepted as a new vendor at the New England Products Trade Show, where she landed contracts from retailers up and down the coast of Maine.
Colleen was named a WWC Southern Region Ambassador in 2010. During that year she expanded her business to fairs, festivals, and more trade shows. Today, her business is a feasible, viable enterprise, and one of WWC’s best success stories.
