While a common perception of a retiree may conjure up images of morning tee times and gated condominium complexes in Florida, David Atwater, 70 of Damariscotta, has decided to cast his post retirement sweat into the grueling, demanding, and often financially precarious world of a small business ownership.
As the Damariscotta selectman approaches the one-year anniversary of his venture, the Bakery, he is cautiously optimistic toward the future.
“People told me that if you could make it through the winter, then you have a fighting chance,” Atwater said April 12. “I’ve had four or five merchants tell me this has been their worst winter in years. So not only did I have to negotiate my first winter, it was also apparently a really bad one.”
Atwater moved to Lincoln County in 2000 after spending 38 years in Concord, Mass. as a financial analyst. While he had always thought of moving to Maine, he realized the difficulty in making a “go” of it here.
“It can be a hard life, especially with a family,” said Atwater. “Maine really is a small business state and that requires sometimes two or three jobs.”
Atwater, who had no formal cooking experience before opening his shop, took part-time courses at noted culinary institute Johnson and Wales in Vermont during the mid 1990s. After a brief foray into the restaurant business in Massachusetts, Atwater decided to convert the former space occupied by Oliver’s Print Shop in downtown Damariscotta into a bakery.
“People had said to me we need a bakery,” said Atwater. “So I sensed an opportunity and did it.”
So far, Atwater said, the venture has been rewarding. On a typical day, he gets up at four in the morning and heads into the bakery to begin making muffins, breads, and scones. He is constantly tinkering with the amount of his available stock, an inexact science he says that can change daily.
“Sometimes I’ll make six muffins and that will be enough but occasionally someone will buy them all,” he said.
Atwater is part of a growing national trend of aging baby boomers that are turning to entrepreneurship in their golden years. According to the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City based foundation devoted to entrepreneurship; the rates of entrepreneurship are 50 percent higher for people between the ages of 55 and 64 than people between 20 and 34.
Even though he understands the considerable commitment the business will involve, Atwater said he has devoted the next five years to the bakery.
“There’s been a lot more to this than I thought,” said Atwater. “It’s a real challenge and a real reward.”
