BATH — Small businesses in four Maine counties could receive a small marketing boost through a contest going on this spring.

The Women, Work, and Community mini-grants program will award a grant of up to $400 to aid entrepreneurs in promoting their businesses through targeted marketing projects, according to a March 25 press release.

The contest is open to men and women.

Business owners in Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties, with four employees or less, are allowed to make a pitch. They will do so before a panel of judges at University College Bath/Brunswick, 9 Park St., from 9 a.m. to noon on May 7. Entrepreneurs must express interest in the contest and sign up for a slot by April 30, and the grant will be awarded about a month later.

WWC invites applications from individual entrepreneurs and small businesses, along with business partnerships. Nonprofit groups are not eligible.

Pitches should focus on branding, marketing and access to markets for microentrerprises in the Mid-Coast, according to WWC.

Grant recipients in the past have used the money to build websites, produce business cards and brochures, develop branding materials and logos, promote their products and services at trade shows and events, buy banners or signs, and work with other small businesses to tap into new markets.

For more information or to express interest in making a pitch, contact Women, Work, and Community at 386-1664 or jenn.dobransky@maine.edu. Log onto womenworkandcommunity.org for more information.

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.