Anya Heyl is an entrepreneur. The Edgecomb woman has run Wannawaf in Boothbay Harbor since May of 2003. With thoughts of turning Wannawaf into a national chain, she opened a second store in Portland in June 2013.

After investing all her savings into that store, it didn't work out. The Portland location closed a few months later. Since then she has been struggling to make ends meet.

Now the entrepreneur is in the throes of a new business venture, Pine Cone Fire Starters.

Last winter was especially tough for Heyl and her 9-year-old son, C.J.

“Things were tight financially, and I had no propane to heat my house, so I was heating with a space heater and a wood stove,” she said.

She quickly tired of the effort it took to find twigs and sticks to start a fire every morning, and with last winter's snow cover it became especially trying.

Heyl began researching ways to make the chore easier, and more fun.

Loving the ritual of building a fire, Heyl wanted to make something special for that ritual. She found that shredded paper combined with candle wax was a good fire starter.

Things started looking up. Shortly after finding an efficient way to start her fires, she received a gift from a local group of volunteer retirees formed to help with heating needs.

“The Woodchucks gave me firewood last winter when I was struggling, and that's how I heated my house,” she said.

Once her heating problems were solved, Heyl's natural entrepreneurial mindset kicked in. If these little fire starters had made her life easier, why wouldn't they work for other people?

“Starting businesses utilizes all my skills,” she said. “This is what I do for fun.”

Heyl likens it to climbing a mountain.

“You have obstacles, you hit a dead end and you have to find a new foothold. But once you hit that peak at the top of the mountain, you know that what you've created is really satisfying. I enjoy problem-solving, and there's a lot of that in starting a business.”

A plan began taking shape.

“I had started creating these fire starters for practical reasons, but they didn't look pretty enough to me, so I thought, 'how am I going to make them look good?'”

Heyl, a sucker for pretty packaging, started experimenting with making her fire starters look as good as they worked.

“I love Christmas and I love wrapping and packaging. This has all the works of everything I love. My whole life I've been covered in paper and plastic.”

The fire starters are now as pretty as they are practical. They’re made with soy wax and shredded craft paper.

Working out of the home that she shares with C.J. and their two dogs, Heyl's enthusiasm for all phases of her operation is evident. She melts the wax for the fire starters on her kitchen stove, and there's a scale on the kitchen counter to weigh the shredded paper.

Covering her dining room table are the packaging items Heyl loves. Wooden crates, boxes, different colored twine and hand-cut stamped labels. The attractive crates, made by Liberty Crate Co. in Hope, can be reused, and look nice enough to sit on a hearth or next to a wood stove.

“You have to create an efficiency system. I will spend a day making the (shredded paper) balls, then the next I spend melting wax,” she said. “It takes just as much time to melt a gallon of wax as it does five gallons.”

The fire starters come in different natural scents: white pine, toasted marshmallow, sandalwood, cinnamon stick and unscented.

Heyl recently entered into a competition through Shopify.com, an e-commerce platform, to win a trip to “Entrepreneur Island” for a contest on Richard Branson's private island (actually Necker Island) for a five-day business workshop. The five winners will be mentored by some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, including “Shark Tank” judge Daymond John.

“All the business gurus are going to be there,” Heyl said. Along with Branson and John, Heyl's “business idol,” Timothy Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” and book author Seth Godin will be there.

Dick Reid, Heyl's business partner, is knowledgeable in the sales end of the business.

“He has been a good coach. He's an entrepreneur like me, and he enjoys the project just as much as I do,” she said.

The company will be offering pick-up locations for people who don't want to pay the extra expense of shipping costs. A Second Season in Boothbay will be a designated pick-up spot, as will Liberty Crate Co. in Hope.

New retailers for Pine Cone Fire Starters are being adding weekly. At this time they can be found at A Second Season, Ornament in Bath and Granite Hall Store in Round Pond

Heyl will be giving 3 percent of every sale to the Woodchucks heating assistance program.

“The Woodchucks gave me firewood last winter. I think you need to give in order to receive. And I know what it's like to be cold.”

For more information, go to www.pineconefirestarters.com.