Toby and Kelly Sheehan are no strangers to Flanders Bay. Many decades ago, Toby vacationed in this spot with his family. Now he’s back – and running the enterprise with his wife. The couple expanded the business from only cabins to include a BBQ restaurant and food truck, Christmas trees, and a bee operation. They’ve incorporated themselves into the community and are ready to see where the future takes them.

Photos by Savannah Tracy. Q&A as told to CEI by Flanders Bay Cabins Owners, Toby and Kelly, in their own words.

Tell us a bit about yourselves.

Our names are Toby and Kelly and we have owned Flanders Bay Cabins since 2018, and we started the BBQ restaurant shortly thereafter.

We’ve actually vacationed on this property since the 1950s, so our families used to come up and when the property came up for sale in 2018 we bought it and retired here. And we’ve been running the businesses since then.

What did the business look like when you bought it?

When we bought the property, it was overgrown and since then we’ve started a Christmas Tree Farm as well. We have about 1,500 Christmas trees out there. Two years ago we started a bee colony and have grown up to 20 hives now. The BBQ business has grown from a little shack out front to this newly renovated building that became a sit-down restaurant, and this past fall we got a BBQ truck. Now we’re able to do local fairs and festivals. So we’ve been able to expand the business that way.

Why did you start the BBQ business?

When we first moved up, this building was just storage for the previous owners, and we figured we could bring it back to life and bring a business inside. So we started doing the barbecue and like I said, at first it was just a little roadside stand and then it grew into something indoors and now it’s pretty popular. Our season is from Memorial Day through late October, Friday, Saturday and Sundays. And of course, with the food truck now, we do events during the week as well.

How is your relationship with your customers?

They’re becoming more accepting as time is going on. Since we’re from away, there’s a little stigma about that. But you know, they’ve come around. We support a lot of the local businesses, and we sponsor the softball teams and that sort of thing. So we I think we’ve ingrained ourselves in the community and now people feel like we’re part of the community. We become friends with our customers, really. It’s a small mom and pop operation so we have some of our friends and neighbors and kids work here. It’s just more of a family feel than a business feel.

Why did you add solar panels and heat pumps to your cabins and restaurant?

The energy bills and the cost of electricity were growing, and we figured we’d research solar panels. From that point, we figured, well, if we get the solar panels, we can have heat pumps and can extend our season by having heat later in the September and October time frame and air conditioning during the summer. The heat pumps gave us the ability to extend the season, and the solar panels gave us the reason to have heat pumps.

What are you most proud of with Flanders Bay?

I would say that it’s grown organically every year and being accepted by the community. And the ability to take the property and expand on what it was. We’ve added a couple of different revenue streams since we started, the Christmas trees, honey bees, the barbecue, none of that existed when we bought it. It was just cabins. So the pride would be in building the business up and expanding into different areas.

And maintaining the history. The cabins were built originally in the 1930s, and so this is the latest iteration, but they’re still from the 50s and 60s. There’s a lot of history here, a lot of people vacationed here over the years and we’d like to maintain what the history is, along with growing the business.

What are the challenges running and growing a business?

I would say hiring help to grow the business. It’s hiring cleaning staff for the cabins and folks to run the BBQ. We rely a lot on family members. But I’d say staffing is one of the big issues, probably the biggest issue. We’re so seasonal. And it’s tough to bring on people that you know and give them a full-time year-round job when we’re just open for a few months and a few days.

What does being a small business owner mean to you?

I would say independence and the flexibility of our time. It’s our vision. We’re both self-starters and like the work. So, you know, we just find new opportunities and go down that path and just make it work.

Would you expand the business more?

We say no every year and then we wind up doing something different. The kids have talked about growing the bee operation and getting it to a more commercial level. My son and his girlfriend are in Texas, so as opposed to wintering the bees over in Maine when they’re not productive and have a 50% survival rate, they could have a two site operation. They could grow the business. So I see expansion from that standpoint.

What is your advice to other business owners?

I would say that find a passion, something that you love to do and maybe moonlight doing it to begin with. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and maybe keep your day job and start to explore that on the side until it grows.

Is there anything that you wish that you would have known before you started?

No, not really, because we learn as we go. The only regret would be we wish we had started sooner. Our runway is not as long as it as it could be if we had started in our 30s or 40s.

What are your long-term goals?

The long-term vision for the business would be for them [their kids] to carry it on in in some sort of capacity, whether it’s expanding the bee operation and BBQ.

What do you want potential customers to know about Flanders Bay?

Support small businesses! And have small businesses get involved with the community so people feel comfortable coming here. We try to maintain that happy medium where we’re servicing the local customers and the people that travel here for the summer.

How did you hear about CEI?

We learned about them through Solar Logic. When we were looking into the heat pump and solar panels, they mentioned that CEI had funding available for those types of projects and pointed us in your direction.

What is your relationship with them?

It’s been great. We started off with the solar project and secured funding for that and then they were very helpful in moving over to the other phase of it, which was the heat pumps. They’ve been great to work with.

Would you recommend CEI’s services to other small businesses?

Yeah. The lending rates are more than competitive, and the staff has been great to work with. We would definitely recommend them.

What’s the most important quality a business owner should have?

They have to be willing to work hard and be self-driven and motivated. A lot of people come up with these grand plans and visions, but they just don’t execute because they’re not willing to put in the work. It sounds good on paper, but it’s a grind. Small business is a grind, so you have to love what you do and be self-motivated. But the beauty is you’re working for yourself and your own schedule, so there’s not that pressure of a time clock.

What are your takeaways from this experience?

Now the first thing that comes to mind is we should have done this sooner. So that’s a positive reflection on the whole experience and that we love it so much. The biggest takeaway is also to find the passion which was the barbecue and the Christmas trees and the bees and explore that. And then that makes you motivated to get in and do the work.

What is your favorite dish from Flanders Bay BBQ?

Well, I [Toby] make all the meats and Kelly does all the sides, so I would say from a meat perspective, brisket, that’s what people seem to like the most. Definitely the brisket for me [Kelly].

What is your favorite part about living on Flanders Bay?

The property and the ability to walk down the path and look at the water every day. Just enjoying the beauty and being able to see Acadia from across the water. Enjoying nature gives you a sense of peace.