• Simply Divine Brownies will win $100,000 from Forbes.com if it gets enough votes.

• Free brownies and milk in Yarmouth this weekend to get voters motivated.

• If they win, the money will be used to create a line of ready-to-bake frozen brownies.

• To vote: go to www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs or visit www.simplydivinebrownies.com

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To vote

To vote in the Forbes.com contest, go to www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs or visit www.simplydivinebrownies.com and follow the link on the front page.

Brownie maker is grand prize finalist

BRUNSWICK – After beating out nearly 1,000 other businesses, Simply Divine Brownies is just one step away from winning $100,000 from Forbes.com.

And the gourmet brownie company is looking for your online votes to get it there.

Simply Divine Brownies has been named a top five finalist for Forbes.com’s “Boost Your Business” contest. If voters like the company’s 500-word business plan, short video presentation and grand prize pitch, it wins $100,000.

Simply Divine Brownies CEO Trina Beaulier has said she would use the money to produce, package and market a line of ready-to-bake frozen brownies.

Voting ends Dec. 1. To kick-start voting in Maine, the fledging brownie company will offer free brownies and milk at Gift &Vine on Route 1 in Yarmouth from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Visitors can also learn how to vote on Forbes.com then.

Beaulier came up with the idea for Simply Divine Brownies in the fall of 2004. On their way to New York, she, her daughter and a friend had stopped at a quaint bakery and picked up some desserts that looked beautiful but ended up tasting horrible. Beaulier, a newly retired teacher with time of her hands, thought she could do better.

Using her own brownie recipe – fine-tuned after taste-test parties with friends – Beaulier started the business in her kitchen.

Less than two months later she had so many orders she had to move operations to the second floor in Mill 2 of Fort Andross in Brunswick.

The company has been featured on the “Today Show,” Al Roker’s “Roker on the Road” and the Food Network. Its brownies have also popped up on the Rachel Ray Show and in celebrity goodie bags at the Oscars.

By next June, Beaulier and her daughter, Meggen, who serves as president of the company, will add a retail and manufacturing space in Freeport.