BELFAST, Maine — Sometimes it’s good to be off trend.
A recent study by a national organization that promotes entrepreneurship has found that the numbers of women launching new businesses in the United States has fallen to its second-lowest level in nearly 20 years.
But when Belfast businesses leaders saw the May 28 report from the Missouri-based Kauffman Foundation, and its statistics showing that women made up 36.8 percent of entrepreneurs in 2015 compared with 43.7 percent in 1996, they looked around their city and felt instinctively that the downward trend didn’t apply here.
Though they have no specific numbers, Our Town Belfast director Breanna Pinkham Bebb said many of Belfast’s business owners, both new and established, are women. So, she said, the downtown booster organization decided to do something to appreciate and commemorate that fact.
“We just wanted to take a moment to celebrate all of the great women who have contributed to Belfast’s revival over the years,” she said Thursday, just before many of those women gathered to have their photograph taken near Belfast City Hall.
The photo focused on women who own or co-own businesses in downtown Belfast, but others were included, too. Altogether, 56 women — and one dog — came together to pose, smilingly, for posterity. They included some who have been in business for decades, weathering the ups and downs of the midcoast economy, and others who are so new they haven’t opened their doors to customers yet.
Michelle Walker, owner of Coyote Moon, started her Main Street clothing and gift store 26 years ago with one part-time employee and a vision that was not understood by everyone in the then-gritty town.
“The guys working at Cold Mountain Builders took bets when I opened on how long I’d be in business,” she said, adding that she was pretty sure no one won the bet. “In general, I always felt supported by this community.”
Over the years, Walker has filled out the same space with much more stock and staff, now employing 13 part- and full-time employees.
Meanwhile, a couple of doors down the street, Karen Brandenburg is working on opening a new store called The Meadow of Belfast. She co-owns a similar store in Blue Hill called The Meadow of Blue Hill. When she and her husband came to Belfast for dinner one night and saw that a good-looking Main Street storefront would be available soon, they jumped. She said that the gift and home store should be open by July 4.
“We’re very excited. I feel it’s really going to be great,” she said.
The photo of the women, in a special frame that all have signed, will be hung at the Our Town Belfast office and eventually at the Belfast Museum.