Exit Interview: Susan Sorensen, owner of AboutFace, helps customers put best
Susan Sorensen has been helping clients in the Upper Valley put their best face forward since 2014, when she opened AboutFace Skin Therapy in Lebanon. Enterprise caught up with Sorensen, a licensed aesthetician, to discuss skin care as part of an overall health regimen, and the challenges of marketing skin care services in the era of multi-level marketing promising miracle cures. (Responses have been lightly edited for length and...
Made In The Upper Valley: Quechee’s F.H. Clothing pivots to mask making to keep some cash flow happening
More than 40 years ago, Joan Ecker started Fat Hat Clothing during a tough situation. She was a single mom, launching her business largely from the back of her Volvo and sewing hats beneath a tarp while her friend helped her build a home. Still, she pushed through. In the decades since, Fat Hat — now known as F.H. Clothing — grew into a big business, producing comfortable women’s clothing from its headquarters in Quechee. Yet, in 2020...
Lessons from the pandemic: Upper Valley businesses have bolstered their web presences and strengthened relationships
Dan & Whit’s general store in Norwich has been owned by the same family for 65 years, but no one had seen anything that could prepare them for managing the local grocery through a global pandemic. “We didn’t know what we were doing. Customers didn’t know what they were doing. We told them, ‘whatever happens, we’ll make it right,’ ” said Dan Fraser, owner of Dan & Whit’s. “It was just a work in progress, and we went into it...
Business of Agriculture: Farm-to-table dining takes on new meaning amid pandemic
Eric Pray is used to shipping seafood all over the country. But since the coronavirus took hold, he has shifted his focus closer to home — selling lobsters from a homemade tank in his garage. Pray, of Portland, Maine, is one of hundreds of fishermen, farmers and food producers who have shifted to a direct-to-consumer model amid the virus outbreak. The pandemic has stressed and sometimes disrupted supply chains, shuttered restaurants...
Fake snow is in high demand; just don’t ask how it’s made
The nightly holiday show on Disneyland’s Main Street culminates with soaring music and fireworks exploding high over Sleeping Beauty Castle. But the faces in the crowds really light up when the music fades and something unexpected gently falls from the sky. A toddler, sitting on her father’s shoulders, spreads her arms and exclaims, “It’s snow!” Spoiler alert: It’s not really snow. The white puffs drifting to the ground at the...
The food truck industry is growing in Vt. and N.H. and shows no signs of slowing down
On a humid June night, hundreds of people waited in Lebanon’s Colburn Park to sample fares from 13 food trucks. While the patrons stood in line, generators buzzed and chefs pivoted through the hot interiors of the trucks, filling orders for everything from lobster rolls to fried cauliflower to Thai food. “It seems very popular,” said Meagan Henry, an administrative assistant with the city’s Recreation and Parks Department and...
In the Spotlight: Vermont trio competes in ‘The Great Food Truck Race’
Times Argus Competing in national TV contests has become something of a family affair for the Aldriches in Montpelier. Most recently, Sue Aldrich was a member of Team Make It Maple in “The Great Food Truck Race” on The Food Network, which premiered in June. The Aldriches are no strangers to national TV competition. Sue Aldrich’s husband, Alex, the former executive director of Vermont Arts Council, was a quarter-finalist on...
The HR Pro: How to cope with sudden layoff? Here’s some ideas
Star Tribune You’ve been laid off unexpectedly and need to get a job fast. Readers offered their advice on what to do next. Before you jump into next steps, take some time to catch your breath. It’s really important to process what happened, especially if you weren’t ready for it. It would be natural to be angry, sad, afraid or a combination thereof. Don’t be hard on yourself for these feelings; just notice and let yourself feel them....
Score Stories: Country Kids Clothing bucks ‘retail apocalypse’ theory
While some of the country’s most prominent retailers are closing their doors due to the rise of e-commerce, Liz Joyce, owner of Country Kids Clothing, a boutique in the Power House Mall in West Lebanon, is bucking that trend. Since opening her brick-and-mortar location in July 2012, she’s turned a profit all seven years, and she’s only getting started. “People have called it ‘the retail apocalypse’ and the consumer shift to online has...
The Exit Interview: Samantha Stanford, Owner and Founder of Dirty Dog Mobile Grooming
Americans spent $6.6 billion on pet boarding and grooming services in 2017, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, and the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that jobs in pet grooming will grow by 11 percent through at least 2023. Add to that a 2018 American Veterinary Medical Association report that shows almost 30 percent of Vermont and 24 percent of New Hampshire households own at least one dog, and...
