JOURNEY with Sharkey's of Liverpool

Sharkey's of Liverpool Owner Jim Nichols shares why it's vital to keep learning, keep growing, and keep fostering relationships and experiences that stand the test of time.

Jim Nichols on the Sharkey's Event Stage, Liverpool, NY

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S H A R K E Y S B A R A N D G R I L L . C O M

Jim Nichols, along with his wife Kristin, own Sharkey's in Liverpool. Eleven years ago, Jim had the dream of opening a bar and restaurant with volleyball courts.

"I knew nothing about the restaurant business. Even now, eleven years later, we're still trying to learn things about it!" says Jim.

Beach Life

I built my business based on my experiences of going to the beach in Southern California. No matter what profession you were in, at the end of the day you’d stop at the beach to see if all your friends were there. Sometimes we'd play volleyball. Sometimes people would play cards, but you always went down there to see who you would run

into. I think it's important to have a group of good, regular customers that come in that I consider my friends, they consider me their friend. It’s kind of like the family picnic that happens every day here at Sharkey's. I’m very proud of what we've done here to create that for people. OnStage Sharkey's has twelve sand volleyball courts with leagues every day of the week in the summer. Their massive stage with pavilion hosts popular concerts. "We’ve had bands like 38 Special, Buckcherry, national acts that we’ve brought to Onondaga County, which we're very proud of. We’re still growing and still going strong.

"I built my business based on my experiences of going to the beach in Southern California...

It's kind of like the family picnic that happens every day at Sharkey's. "

What makes our place special, at least to me, is knowing the people and the friends we’ve made that come and enjoy our place and we enjoy our time with them. "

Inspiration Kristen, my wife inspires me. She loves working here with me,

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most of the time anyway! She’s very much a part of what has made Sharkey’s what it is today and how it will continue to grow. Balance By nature, I'm a very positive person. I always want to be upgrading and doing new stuff. And it's good to have someone that keeps you grounded. Kristen helps keep me in check, but then supports me when there's something that I really want to do. We make a great team.

Pick Your Passion

The best thing about being an entrepreneur is that you are your own boss. It’s hard sometimes because you're responsible for everything, but the best part is when my kids were young, if I wanted to go their football game or their volleyball game or their basketball game, I could make that decision to go do that. Being able to call your own schedule, and the work that you put in and what you build is yours at the end of the day. The most important advice I can offer to anyone whether first starting out or looking to even reinvent themselves and their business… is pick something you're passionate about. Something you can really enjoy doing. Don’t pick something because you think it’s going to make you a lot of money if it's not something that you're excited about. Next is to make sure you have a proper funding to do what you want to do. As a young kid, I thought I knew everything. As you get older, you learn to ask people that have done ventures before. Ask them what they’ve learned. If they’d do anything differently. At the end of the day, a lot of your success will be about the relationships that you have with people in your industry and in the area.

The Pandemic

The last two years have been filled with guidelines, restrictions, which were all necessary during the pandemic. Hopefully we'll be moving past all of that. It hasn’t been easy for anyone. Staffing is always an issue for us, as it is for so many; finding good staff to deliver great service to our patrons. It's an ongoing issue. We work to hold high standards in our business. Now, with costs going up, it's hard to pass those costs on to customers because we're continuing to try and keep our prices low.

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S H A R K E Y S S P O R T S B A R . C O M

Cultivating our customer service as well as a friendly, family environment here at the restaurant is always part of our future. When you have a bar and grill, people think that's not good for families. I'm very proud that on Friday nights we have about two hundred high school kids that come here to play volleyball. The parents hang out, have a salad and a beer or a glass of wine and watch their kids play. The young kids that have grown up playing on our courts are now going to college and having a good experience as a teammate in their college environment. I'm proud that we're able to be a part in helping create that.

Sharkey's has had several national touring artists as well as regional and local well-known musicians at the venue for people from near and far to enjoy.

Always There

Changing the game

As a community bank, unlike some of the bigger banks, Joe and his staff get to meet the person behind the business. They want to make sure that that endeavor is going to make sense. And it's something that's needed in our area. The bigger banks just look at the numbers. Numbers sometimes are not as important as the person behind the numbers.

I’d like to think we'll continue to raise the bar and change the game of entertainment and

Makea Difference

Opening up a new business isn’t always easy at the beginning, and when things weren't going well at first, Joe Vitale was there to support us and make sure he did everything he could to help us. Because of my relationship with Joe, we took all of our business to Seneca Savings. Remember when I said a lot of your success will depend on relationships? Even as the president of the bank, if I called Joe right now on his cell phone, he’d answer the phone and answer any questions I have. Every time. I trust him. I consider him my friend. Too much now in the banking industry is online. You need the online stuff, but it's nice to be able to talk to a person and know they're going to be there for you.

"Cultivating our customer service as well as a family-friendly environment is always part of our game plan. "

hospitality in Central NY. And I’d say the team that Joe Vitale leads at Seneca is doing the very same thing for small business banking.

For anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, or maybe even looking to refinance their existing business… look at Seneca Savings. Because I know they want to meet you.

They'll take a look at you and your business and be there to support you throughout the years. Like they've done for me.

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