50 Businesses, 50 Solutions
For Wayne Moulton and his wife Kali, owners of Sages Entertainment in Portsmouth, there’s little that hasn’t changed since the pandemic hit. Sages Entertainment is built around two verticals: educational content for schools and libraries, and straight entertainment like balloon art and magic shows at birthdays, fairs and shopping centers.
With people now severely curtailing how they come together, the Moultons have had to completely rethink how they do business.
Lauren Saltman, of Newfields, helped friends, family and neighbors organize their homes for 20 years before she realized that her skills could translate into a business. Two years ago she formalized her services, launching Living Simplified to help people throughout the Seacoast region declutter and organize their homes.
“It’s really what I love to do,” said Saltman.
Before the pandemic, she would go to a client’s home and work side-by-side with them, coaching them through the process of clearing out a space and establishing systems to keep the area organized in the future. But when the pandemic hit, Saltman knew she had to reimagine her business model.
Sayer Palmer was all ready to launch her businesses, coming into 2020. She’d long had plans to start a farming career, but they’d been delayed after she became pregnant in 2018. Now, she was ready to get started, providing fresh, local produce to Grafton, Canaan and Enfield.
“I had started ordering seeds, gathering supplies, and doing a lot of crop planning and business planning,” said Palmer, owner of Open Woods Farm in Grafton.
Then, in February, the coronavirus outbreak began to catch her attention. In March, Vermont announced that it would not open farmers markets because of the pandemic, and Palmer was worried that New Hampshire might do the same, undermining her business plan.
When Tyler Stager and his friend David Symonds found themselves working reduced hours at their jobs as automotive technicians, they started chasing their long-held dream of starting their own auto shop.
“It gave us time to think,” said Stager, 27.
At the time, Stager and Symonds were working at two different New Hampshire auto shops. Both had had hours reduced, and Stager was ultimately laid off. But despite that, the duo became convinced that the pandemic could be a good time to start a business.
Fueled By Kids is a nonprofit that was founded in 2016 by Mikol’s oldest sister, Grace, who is now a junior in college. She was at one of Mikol’s basketball games, when she started chatting to a social worker about food insecurity in the Manchester school system. Rather than just talking about the problem, Grace took action, starting a program that fed about 80 kids that year.
During September, David Gray, of Warner, spent countless hours in the North Country, tucked into a tree stand beside his fellow veterans, both men and women. Gray is the New Hampshire lead for The Fallen Outdoors, a nonprofit that provides outdoor activities for veterans and active-duty military. He was bear hunting with the veterans, but also serving a much bigger purpose.
When the pandemic hit in March, Waypoint, a social service organization that serves people throughout New Hampshire, sent their 300 employees home. But much of their work with at-risk populations was essential — there were still seniors in need of home care, new young mothers in need of visits and homeless youth that needed food and clothing.
