AUBURN – Mary Ella Jones attended the small business conference at Central Maine Community College Tuesday to network and hone the business plan for her family’s environmental consulting company. By noon, she’d also had a promising lead for a new client.

“It’s already paid off,” she said.

Jones, who runs Jones and Associates in Poland with her husband, was among the nearly 200 people who turned out for the AFOX Small Business Conference. AFOX, an acronym for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, was the third of four regional conferences on small business entrepreneurship sponsored by the Baldacci administration. The intent of the conferences is to provide a networking opportunity for Maine’s smallest – and often most isolated – businesses, along with tangible resources and skills to help them launch or strengthen their businesses.

“Research shows that developing business skills improves a small business’ chances of success,” said Jim McConnon, a business specialist with the university system who provided technical expertise for the local conference organizers. “If you can improve your decision-making, management skills and identify alternatives, you can grow your business.”

The conference offered a little something for everyone. Kirk Hall was rimmed with booths from many area businesses, from banks to marketing agencies, looking for new clients and eager to explain services and products. They were mixed in with booths from business advocacy organizations such as the Small Business Administration, AVCOG and the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Attendees perused the booths in between a full roster of workshops. More than 30 sessions were offered to give entrepreneurs something tangible to take with them.

The topics – “Insurance: What does a small business need?” to “Understanding Financial Statements” to “Customer Service Tips and Techniques” – were all geared to small business.

A panel of local entrepreneurs, including Susan Eminger of Eminger Berries, Eric Agren of Fuel restaurant, and Celeste Yakawonis of the Perfect Basket, shared the experiences of getting their businesses off the ground. The panelists also shared a key ingredient of the successful entrepreneur, according to keynote speaker Michelle Neujahr.

Passion.

“How many of you think entrepreneurs are born?” asked Neujahr, as she raised her own hand. “We go after our dreams, even if they don’t pay off right away.”

Convinced of her own entrepreneurial destiny since she was 8, Neujahr said passion will get entrepreneurs through the rough patches, but they need more. Drawing on her own experience in direct sales, and in her family’s construction business, she said having a plan, a sensitivity to people and a willingness to market and promote your business are just as essential as passion.

A business plan with a purpose will give a business mile markers to keep it going in the right direction and a sensitivity to people – both clients and employees – will build relationships to help it grow.

Neujahr said her family’s construction company made it a point to send a restaurant gift certificate to clients whose kitchens were torn apart for remodeling. Likewise, when crews were behind schedule and over budget on a condo project, she showed up at the work site with 35 pizzas and recognized the contributions of each employee, one at a time. The following week every crew member showed up to work on time and put in full days.

“Employees want recognition,” Neujahr said. “It’s the most important thing.”

Those relationships paid off when it came to promoting the business, too. She and her husband wrote 250 postcards to everyone they knew, saying they were launching their own construction company and they would appreciate any referrals.

“We got 25 jobs using relationships we already had,” she said.

Neujahr encouraged the audience to implement at least one of the things learned at the AFOX conference and she applauded the Lewiston-Auburn business community for already embracing the power of networking. She said a comment made to her by a fellow small business person on the first day she and her husband launched their own company has stuck with her about the risks of entrepreneurship.

“He said, ‘You’re standing on the edge of opportunity, and the view is truly better from there.'”