UNABLE TO PARTICIPATE in her usual extracurricular activities after foot surgery last year, Mardi Farmer’s mother suggested she participate in the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy.
It is easy to see that 11-year-old Mardi Farmer is clever — poised in a large wicker chair, the Woolwich native speaks with forethought and precision. What is less immediately obvious is that this young dynamo is also a new business owner.
And she’s a girl with a plan.
“My business is called Nail Paintz,” said Mardi. “I sell Mainethemed nail polishes — I haven’t seen any other polishes that have that uniqueness.”
Unable to participate in her usual extracurricular activities after foot surgery last year, Mardi’s mother, Libby Farmer, suggested she participate in the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy.
The year-long program, designed for ages 11-18, takes students through the process of launching a business — from writing a business plan to pitching their business to a panel of investors for startup capital.
“When we got the syllabus, it was this really huge packet of things that she was going to have to do,” said Libby. “I was intimidated by it, so I thought, ‘She’s not going to want to do this.’
“But I told her, if she thought she could do it on her own, I would support her,” she added. “Mardi spent a whole day working on it and through the whole process she never lost interest — she just got more and more involved in it.”
The business plan was by far the hardest part, said Mardi.
“It’s 19 pages long,” she said. “You have to find a manufacturer and know how much everything is going to cost — the product, the labels, everything.”
Mardi said that the entrepreneurs in the academy worked with mentors to develop their business plans, including the chamber’s interim executive director Carolyn Farkas-Noe.
“They helped us through, especially with the powerpoint presentation and speech cards we had to write for investors,” said Mardi.
“A lot of it we had to do by ourselves,” she added. “We had to take on a lot of responsibility.”
Premiering with a line of 12 colors, Mardi solicited help from friends and family in developing names for the polishes “that related to things in Maine.”
“One of our colors is ‘Lobster Red,’ and another is ‘Blueberry,’” said Mardi. “This one was supposed to be ‘Whoopie Pie,’” she added, indicating a shimmering taupe polish, “but it was lighter than I expected so I called it ‘Mudflat’ instead.”
This kind of adaptability is key to being a business owner, said Mardi.
“If one thing goes bad you can’t just give up. There are probably going to be a lot of things that aren’t going to go the way that you want them to,” Mardi said. “That happened to me a couple times.”
Just a few weeks before Mardi was set to present her business to the investor panel, comprised of three local business owners, she had to rewrite major components of her plan because her product samples weren’t going to arrive in time.
“You have to have a lot of perseverance,” she said. “And organization, definitely.
If you lose stuff it’s not going to be fun.”
Though the presentation itself was a little intimidating, the question and answer session after was a breeze, said Mardi.
“The questions weren’t too bad. Because you’re making the business completely by yourself,” said Farmer, “you get to know your business really well going through the steps.”
“I was really surprised the first time I heard her speaking,” said Libby, who attended the presentation. “I thought, ‘My goodness, this is an 11-year-old kid — no microphone needed — just up there telling them her plan.’ I was really amazed at how much she had grown through the process.”
Mardi was selected by the panel, not only to receive the full amount of startup capital she was requesting, but also to compete regionally at the Saunders Scholars Competition in Rochester, N.Y., for a scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mardi said she didn’t win the competition, but she “wasn’t as bummed about it as some of the other kids” because she has already decided she wants to go to Harvard Medical School.
That is still seven years away, though. Next on her agenda, Mardi is looking into setting up a booth at the Bath Heritage Days and will soon be selling her polishes online.
Nail Paintz will also be sold at unTangled, a hair salon in Boothbay Harbor, and, she hopes, at Lisa- Marie’s Made in Maine, which has locations in Bath and Portland.
“My friends and I really like painting our nails,” said Mardi, “so my target market is the younger generation, maybe ages 10 to 29, and also tourists.”
Though she wanted to “start small,” Mardi said she wants to expand the business in the future, first by expanding her Mainethemed polishes with seasonal lines and then — may be — by branching into other states.
Mardi said she just has to manage balancing school work and her business, with some free time to hunt and fish with her father and hang out with her friends.
She isn’t looking for business partners though, at least not yet.
“I like being the only boss. I like to know where everything is and be in control,” Mardi said. “I dont want to have to check with two other people before I do anything.”
For more information about Nail Paintz, contact Mardi Farmer at nailpaintz2014@gmail.com.
rgargiulo@timesrecord.com
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