Issue 146 oct nov 16 by Oswego County Business Magazine

Oswego Couple Making a Ton Selling Products on Etsy • How to Gear Up for Black Friday

OSWEGO COUNTY

BUSINESS $4.50

October / November 2016

OswegoCountyBusiness.com

SELLING YOUR BUSINESS? The buyers can be right there at the company: your employees

MYSTERY SHOPPING Experts: Practice can offer an unbiased look at how your customers experience your business

5 YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS CNY is rich in young business people who have the savvy and acumen to be successful in a challenging economic environment. We profile five of them

October / November 2016

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The team led by Robert Simpson, head of CenterState CEO, has ambitious plans for transforming CNY’s economy in the next five years. You bet — five years! Will these plans work? (A $500 million grant from NYS can only help)

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Business Guide 2017 REACH 20,000+ KEY DECISION MAKERS IN OSWEGO COUNTY, CENTRAL NEW YORK This is a short note to invite you to advertise in our 2017 Business Guide. This will be our 23rd annual guide. The colorful booklet has become the most comprehensive publication about business in the area. It’s widely available starting November and throughout next year. It brings detailed information on nearly 300 of the largest companies in Central New York.

Why Advertise in the Business Guide? ■ CONTENT: The

Business Guide is the only publication that ranks all the largest employers in Oswego County and Central New York, bringing a wealth of information about who they are, what they do and who is in charge.

Largest Emplo yers in Oswego County, Northern and Central New You rk

Business, professional people and plain folks in the community use the Business Guide as a reference material to consult names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. The material is current all year-long.

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NEW: EXPANDED PROFILES OF BUSINESS OWNERS OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Issue 146

PROFILE CAROLYN RUSH One of Central New York’s most influential women —first female county administrator in NYS, chairwoman of Oswego County IDA — she reflects on storied career, including 30 years in economic development.............12

SPECIAL FEATURES Where in the World is Sandra Scott? Don’t expect to see “old” China — Shanghai is an ultra-modern city ............................... 16

COVER STORY

Economic development officials have ambitious plans for transforming CNY’s economy — within the next five years. Will these plans work? Page 48

Economic Development • Growth spurt at Ogdensburg Airport — new runway, flights • One Million Cups brings business people together • Increase Your Web Traffic • SALT Makerspace, a home for CNY inventors, creators Page 54

Hannibal IGA Owner Jim Mirabito says the decision to sell his family-owned grocery store was a tough one ...................................... 18 Fundraiser-in-Chief SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley leads campaign that raises a record-breaking $40 million ................. 31 Spanning Tourism Thousand Islands Bridge: $1.2 billion in trade crosses the spans each month.................................................... 46 The Man at the Fish Hatchery Fran Verdoliva has devoted 20 years of his life to environmental conservation..................................... 74 Selling Your Business? Buyers could be your own employees. Find out how ESOP works .................................................. 76

SUCCESS STORY Step One Creative, a full-service public relations in Oswego, is celebrating 20 years. Founder and president Shane Stepien talks about what’s involved in the firm’s success. ...................84

Young Entrepreneurs Profiles of five entrepreneurs under Page 62 age 35

Small Business

• Gearing up for Black Friday. How to profit from it • Can mystery shopping help your company? Page 71

Larry Lombardo

Living with multiple for more than Page 81 50 years

Jamie Persse

There Are No Silver Bullets to Page 89 Success….But 4

DEPARTMENTS On the Job What do you like about being a business owner?. ...9 How I Got Started Lori Vashaw, Riverview Wellness Center... 10 Newsmakers, Business Updates.......................... 20 Dining Out Basil Thai Cuisine, Phoenix. ................... 28 My Turn “Hey, You Guys, Listen Up”. ..................... 44 Economic Trends Loan programs help development ........ 52 Last Page Deanna Michaels, Oswego-Fulton chamber .... 90 OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

1000 Duty Free......................27 Allanson-Glanville-Tappan Funeral Home....................70 ALPS Professional Services........25 Amdursky, Pelky, Fennell & Wallen...............................55 Amerigas................................25 Arise.......................................83 Berkshire Hathaway ..............43 Bond, Schoeneck & King, Attorneys at Law...............24 Branch Driving School.......... 11 Brookfield Renewable Power..............33 Bugow’s Driver Rehab.............9 Burke’s Home Center.............23 C & S Companies..................91 Canale’s Italian Cuisine.........30 Cancer Services Program.......83 Caster’s Sawmill Inc..............22 Century 21 Galloway Realty................22 Century 21 Leah Signature....25 Chase Enterprises...................51 Child Care Development Council.......83 Community Bank...................19

Advertisers Computer Accounting Services ........ 11 Crouse Hospital........................2 Disciplined Management Capital...........5 Dusting Divas.........................43 Eis House...............................30 Fastrac....................................15 Fitzgibbons Agency...............33 Foster Funeral Home..............61 Fulton Community Development Agency........25 Fulton Savings Bank..............15 Fulton Tool Co.......................53 Glider Oil...............................15 Haun Welding Supply, Inc.....23 Hillside Park Real Estate.........7 J P Jewelers............................27 Joe Bush Custom Collision....21 Johnston Gas..........................22 Lakeshore Hardwoods...........27 Laser Transit..........................55 Local 73, Plumbers & Steamfitters...53 Longley Brothers................... 11 MetLife Ins. Co........................9

Mimi’s Drive Inn....................30 Mr. Sub...................................30 NBT Bank................................6 Nelson Law Firm.....................8 Northern Ace Home Center.....9 NRG.......................................49 OBG.......................................49 Operation Oswego County.......2 Oswego County Community Foundation....45 Oswego County Federal Credit Union...........8 Oswego County Monuments........................22 Oswego County Mutual Insurance...............70 Oswego County Stop DWI....25 Oswego Health ........................7 Oswego Quality Carpet..........21 Oswego YMCA......................19 Over the Top Roofing.............23 OVIA.....................................11` Par-K Enterprises, Inc............51 Pathfinder Bank......................61 Peter Realty – Simeon DeWitt..................83

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Phoenix Press.........................25 Port City Copy Center............21 Pro-Build................................25 Riccelli Northern....................91 River Edge Mansion..............27 RiverHouse Restaurant..........30 Scriba Electric........................22 Servpro of Oswego County....23 Southern Graphic Systems.....49 Step One Creative....................5 Sunoco....................................92 SUNY Oswego, Office of Business and Community ... Development....................91 Sustainable Office Solutions....7 Tailwater Lodge.....................14 Uniforms Etc..........................21 United Wire Technology........49 Universal Metal Works..........53 Valley Locksmith...................21 Vernon Downs........................26 Volney Multiplex...................22 Watertown Industrial Center of Local Development.....................26 White’s Lumber & Building Supply............23 WRVO....................................88

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

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Attorneys at Law Allison J. Nelson, Esq. Rachael A. Flach, Esq.

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• Real Estate • Wills • Estates • Estate Planning • Municipal Law • Traffic Matters New Location: 209 W. Seventh St., Oswego, NY 13126 Tel: 315-312-0318 • Fax: 315-312-0322 • Web: anelsonlaw.net

COVERING CENTRAL NEW YORK OswegoCountyBusiness.com Editor and Publisher Wagner Dotto

Associate Editor Lou Sorendo

Columnists

L. Michael Treadwell Bruce Frassinelli Sandra Scott, Jacob Pucci

Writers & Contributing Writers

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant Matthew Liptak, Nicole Shue Carol Thompson, Jamieson Persee Aaron Gifford

Advertising

Peggy Kain Shelley Manley

Office Assistant Michelle Kingsley

Layout and Design

Eric Stevens, Jeff Adkins

Cover Photo

Charles Wainwright Oswego County Business is published by Local News, Inc., which also publishes CNY Summer Guide, Business Guide, CNY Winter Guide, College Life, In Good Health– The Healthcare Newspaper (four editions), CNY Healthcare Guide and 55PLUS, a Magazine for Active Adults (two editions) Published bi-monthly (6 issues a year) at 185 E. Seneca Street PO Box 276 Oswego, NY 13126. Subscription: $21.50 a year; $35 for two years © 2016 by Oswego County Business. All rights reserved. Third class postage paid at Syracuse, NY. Permit Number: 244

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

ON THE JOB “What do you like most about being a business owner?”

“Being a business owner allows me to follow my passion and meet new clients interested in what I have to offer. I also like the boss, who brings the positive attitude to work each day.” Jeffrey Grimshaw Jeffrey Grimshaw Consulting, Fulton “I enjoy my job immensely and appreciate the creative control to effect change in the community, and working with my team to develop and maintain the historic Oswego downtown. The daily challenges are wide in scope and it is a joy to work with family and managers who share a common passion. I like working hard and finding ways to meet the challenges.” Anthony Pauldine Contractor/developer, Oswego “What I like most about being a business owner is my ability to have the flexibility to spend quality time with my family as well as identifying trends in our industry and implementing them in a timely fashion.” Dr. Ed Galvin Port City Chiropractic, P.C., Oswego “Sounds like mom and apple pie but honestly for me it’s about being part of a diverse 60-plus person ownership/ leadership team who have common values, vision and business purpose and the privilege to guide the direction of a loyal, talented 400-person design and construction team.”

“It’s the freedom. It’s knowing you and you alone are the one that is the face of your brand “business.” It’s the feeling of connection with your customers who later turn into parts of a large extended family. It’s the stress that comes with the unknown, and yet the satisfaction when you have made that person’s day with your service.” Timothy Bonner PC Masters Tech Repair, Oswego “My business provides me the gratification of providing products that allow our customers to discover a quality lifestyle. The RV lifestyle creates opportunities to visit new places, meet new people and explore our great country. The smiles and stories are the best part of my job.” Bill Clark The Great Outdoors, Fulton “I enjoy the freedom of making my own decisions. Right or wrong, they are my decisions. Owning a bed and breakfast, I love all the different guests I meet. I also enjoy not being tied down to the schedule of a 9-to-5 job and am happy not to be participating in the rush hour commute twice a day.”

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How I Got

Started Lori Vashaw

Lori Vashaw is the owner of Riverview Wellness Center, 300 W. First St., Oswego. The business was established in 2002 as a comprehensive wellness facility that provides complementary health care services.

Q.: How did you develop the concept of the Riverview Wellness Center? A.: I was working out of my home office doing wellness and nutrition work. I developed a proposal for a local company to manage its wellness center. The company chose another vendor, so I decided to take the concepts proposed and open my own wellness center. Q.: What background did you have that supported the process of launching the business in 2002? A.: I have a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and a strong interest and background in health and wellness. Q.: What did it cost to create the business? What were some of your more significant overhead expenses? A.: I was able to work with Barb Bateman at NBT Bank and secured a loan for $11,000 and then worked with Mary Vanouse, former director of the city of Oswego Community Development Office, to attain a low-interest loan for another $11,000. The total start-up funding that I secured was $22,000. With that, I purchased everything from letterhead to chairs, computer equipment and supplies and was able to put some money away for the expenses that were needed as the business grew. Q.: What were some of your foremost challenges in launching the business? A.: Marketing was the biggest challenge. I spoke to every organization that would let me talk. I also had a big grand opening event that was very successful. Q.: How long did it take before the business began to sustain itself from a financial standpoint? A.: Within one year, the business was on track and doing well financially. I continued to market and promote it and we are now past the 14-year mark and still growing. Q.: How did gross annual revenues in 2002 compare to what you are earning now? A.: We have sustained annual revenues for the last several years that are very consistent and beyond what I originally projected. Q.: What are some of the more

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

gratifying aspects of launching a new business? A.: I have a great staff, great clients, and I love my office. I also enjoy working for myself.

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Q.: What are the keys to launching a business on a successful basis? What advice would you give a budding entrepreneur who is exploring the same career path that you have chosen? A.: Be prepared to work hard and give the business everything that you have in the startup years. Be prepared to budget and spend your money wisely. Don’t lose faith if you are having a lean year. Keep going, be positive and create your dream. Q.: Your father, John A. Vashaw, has been a successful businessman for many years in Oswego. What have you learned from him that has helped your own business career? A.: My father taught me that if you are honest, work hard and treat people like you would want to be treated, then you will be trusted and respected by your clients. I have watched him always do the honorable thing and earn loyalty and respect from his customers.

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Q.: What skill sets do you possess that have led to the success of your business? A.: My degree in business and my love and training for nutrition and wellness. I am doing for a living what I love most! Q.: What has led to the business’ longevity? What are the keys to its staying power? A.: Being happy with your life and the work that you are doing.

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Q.: Do you have any future plans in terms of expanding your business? What needs to happen in order for you to realize further growth and success? A.: The business as it is now is very good. In addition to the wellness center, I teach others in my field to do the work that I’m doing. This requires me to fly all over the country and conduct seminars on a monthly basis. I also mentor practitioners in my field. All of this, in addition to my family, keeps me very busy, happy and fulfilled.

By Lou Sorendo OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Profile By Lou Sorendo

CAROLYN RUSH

One of Oswego County’s most influential women reflects on storied career, including 30 years in economic development

or once, Carolyn Rush had a free Operation Oswego County, the coun- learned so much. I really learned about day. This is quite unusual for a ty’s designated economic development banking being on that board.” Rush said as an FSB board member, woman who has been going at agency. “I was on the IDA board more from the first goal is to stay viable by taking top-end speed for many years working care of and being mindful of in government, education and business a county perspective and then honestly really liked what I saw and liked the customers. circles. However, “FulWhile relaxing recently at her potential of what could happen,” ton Savings Bank New Haven waterfront property, Rush Rush said. “I was fortunate enough gives back,” she reflected on a career that features two to stay on through the rest of my said. common threads: leadership and eco- career.” Leading nomic development. that communi“My kids have always said over the Her heart is in Fulton ty charge is FSB last 10 years that I was in ‘fake’ retireRush serves on the FSB CEO Michael ment, which meant I wasn’t working full board and will end her career Pollock. “He is time but still working,” Rush said. “I’m there as chairwoman at the close one of the stronalmost at the end of fake retirement.” of this year. gest leaders that Rush is a trustee for Fulton Savings “This is an organization that I have ever worked Bank, a post she has held for 25 years, is near and dear to my heart,” she with,” said Rush, with her term ending in December. said. “I spent many years living in noting Pollock “When I finish that, I’ll probably be the Fulton community.” displays a into completely volunteering,” she said. The city of Fulton comWhen her husband of 17 years — tugs on Rush’s heart, retired Syracuse architect Joe Maryak particularly since it is — has a project going on, Rush enjoys where she raised her doing space planning. children. “I go in and look at the organization“The bank itself al issues in terms of what space works to me is one of the best for what people,” she said. “I still most rewarding do a little bit of that.” things I have ever However, Rush said she is winding done professiondown from that kind of work and mov- ally,” she said. ing more into full retirement. “It was outside Rush has been focusing recent ef- my realm of skill forts on working for the Oswego County sets, and I have Industrial Development Board, a role she has played for 30 years. She will step down Age: 70 as chairwoman of the Birthplace: Syracuse IDA at the end of this Current residence: New Haven year. Education: High school, St. John the Evangelist, Syracuse; Bachelor of Science The Syracuse native degree in education, SUNY Oswego; graduate work in business at SUNY Oswego became engaged with and labor relations at Cornell University the IDA while a county Affiliations: Oswego County Industrial Development Agency; Fulton Savings Bank; administrator. The county ap- SUNY Oswego Economic Development Council points members to the Personal: Husband Joe Maryak; four children; seven grandchildren IDA and also funds Hobbies: Gardening, reading, working around the house

Lifelines

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

mitment to both his employees and community. “He understands his employees are what makes the organization strong and he puts that front and center,” she said. “He understands our job, other than our main focus, which obviously is to stay viable, is to give back to the community.” Rush spent the first 18 years of her life in Syracuse, but has been in Oswego County ever since. “I have loved it here, stayed here and raised my family here,” she said. “Even though my kids are not here, they come back and they just love the community. They have strong feelings.” Carolyn and her husband have four children, six grandsons and one granddaughter. The couple has a small condo in Fort Lauderdale that allows them to break from winter’s grasp in Oswego. The couple relish their time together. “Joe is very easy to live with,” Rush said. She does not foresee herself becoming a full-time Florida person. “I think I’m living my perfect retirement,” she said. “If I can continue doing what I’m doing, I’m living my perfect retirement.” Maryak reflected on what drew him to his bride 17 years ago. “She was just an amazing person. She had a presence about her that I just couldn’t stop wanting to be a part of,” he said. “She just amazed me. Back then, she was so busy it was tough to make a dinner date with her,” he said. “It was just her aura. She just struck me as being this vibrant person I wanted to spend time with.”

Significant influences

Rush said influences on her life and career came in stages. When working for the county, it was former county administrator and state senator Jim Wright and former county administrator and legislator Art Ospelt who significantly influenced Rush. She served as Wright’s deputy county administrator, and characterized him as a strong leader. “I learned a lot about leadership from Jim,” she said. “From Art, I learned how to bring people together and make them feel good about what they were doing so they wanted to do more.” The late Ospelt is best known for the development of Oswego County’s comprehensive solid waste management system. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Thoughts from Carolyn Rush — On community perception

“So many people are so quick to put down everything in the community, but you see new things happening. There’s a lot of life here and more growth, but sometimes it’s hard to overcome the negativity.”

— On her personality

“What you see is what you get. I don’t have a lot of layers that you have to peel back. In all honesty, I am comfortable with that. When dealing with people, I am very happy if they are that way to me. I think you get somewhere quicker.”

— On semi-retirement

“I have to get up every morning and have a plan. For 70 years, I’ve had to have a plan. It doesn’t mean I have to follow it like a schedule, but I have to know I have something to do that is going to be meaningful.”

— On being the first female county administrator in NYS

“I don’t even know if I knew I was the only female doing it, to be honest. I really wanted the opportunity when Jim [Wright] left and was thrilled that I could do it.”

— On being ambitious and persistent in life

“I always see the glass half full. My mother always said I could be anything I wanted to be and I should reach to be anything I wanted to be. She was always proud if you kept on reaching.”

“It was controversial in many ways,” Rush said. “People understandably didn’t want the energy recovery facility and landfill. But that’s part of public service. You’ve got people who want something and people who don’t and you have to come up with what’s best overall,” she said. She said Ospelt developed the concept of what the solid waste system could be. “From him, I really learned to look at the big picture and what’s going to be good 20 years down the road,” she said. It was former SUNY Oswego President Stephen Weber who enticed Rush — who was serving on several boards at the college as an alumnus — to leave the county and work for the college. In her time at SUNY Oswego as an administrator, Rush said her greatest influence was President Deborah Stanley. “She is a fantastic leader. Like Jim and Art, she has vision. She looks out to see where the institution needs to be in the future and builds toward that,” Rush said. Rush said the transition back into academia was not difficult from a skill set standpoint. She said the skills she relied upon at the county — such as managing, OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

organizing and accomplishing tasks — were the same that worked for her at SUNY Oswego. “Most of the jobs I had involved formulating and starting new things, and I brought those same skill sets,” she said. However, adapting to a new culture at the academic institution was “a little difficult,” she said. “I really went back to my roots because I was trained as a teacher and taught school for two years before I got involved in county government,” she said. “It took some time to understand the culture and mission because it was different.” When Rush was with the county, she worked for 36 legislators. “We were still a big body then. That in and of itself teaches you because you really have 36 bosses,” she said. There are 25 today after the county slimmed down over the years. “It teaches you about the importance of understanding where people are coming from, what they want to accomplish and how they want to accomplish it,” she said. “Your job is to figure that out for the good of the whole.” When she re-entered the collegiate arena, she balanced many different inter-

continued on p. 72 13

Publisher’s note By Wagner Dotto

he value of the Business Guide to readers is obvious. At their fingertips they can find out who’s who in Central New York, what’s produced locally, what kinds of companies are located in the area and what’s new with them. For advertisers, it is also a great publication because they can showcase their products, acknowledge their progress and help get their names out to larger and attractive audience. That’s right, we talking about the 2017 Business Guide, which we’re in the process of developing. It’s our 23rd annual guide — and it doesn’t get any easier. Unlike this magazine, the guide doesn’t carry feature stories or the news of the day. Rather, it brings infor-

mation about the largest companies in Oswego, Onondaga, Cayuga and Jefferson counties. Presented in a list format, we include the largest companies in the region based on the number of employees. The Business Guide carries a description of the business, address, telephone, website address, name of the principals, a history of the business and the latest developments. It also contains profiles of business owners and CEOs, including their comments on the local economy and their industries. It has become reference material for many people and organizations

and we’re glad that Operation Oswego County, the county’s economic development agency, uses it as part of its marketing strategies to attract new businesses to the region. It takes a great deal of work to put it together as we contact each company to get the latest information. A series of graphics shows the largest employers by region, top public employers, manufacturers, auto dealers, home improvement establishments, healthcare providers and others. Paid subscribers to this magazine are the first to receive the publication.

Largest Employers in Oswego County, Northern and Central New Yourk

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

WAGNER DOTTO is the publisher of Oswego County Business Magazine.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Where in the World is Sandra Scott? By Sandra Scott

Shanghai Don’t expect to see much of the “old” China — Shanghai is ultramodern with a skyline that looks as if the designers grew up watching the ‘Jetsons’

oday getting “shanghaied” could be a good thing because it would mean you got a free round trip to Shanghai. Some people think the term “shanghaied” refers to people who were kidnaped from Shanghai. Actually, the opposite was true. During the 1800s, conditions on sailing ships around the globe were beyond terrible so crew members would often jump ship. To fill the needed number of crew needed, unscrupulous “agents” would go to bars, get sailors drunk and get them into various ships.

They would find themselves at sea with no recourse but to make the round trip. The longest trip was to Shanghai hence the term “shanghaied.” To visit Shanghai today Americans need a visa and a valid passport with two blank pages. The cost for a visa is $140 and unless you can take the needed materials to the Chinese embassy/ consulate personally it is necessary to use an agent, which adds to the cost. The simplest way is to make use of the 72-hour visa free visit. Obviously you can only stay 72 hours and you must be

continuing on to a country other than to the one you departed from. Seventy-two hours is usually enough to get a good overview of this pulsating city of 14-plus million. Don’t expect to see much of the “old” China. The city is ultra-modern with a skyline that looks as if the designers grew up watching the “Jetsons” TV series from the 1960s and the 1990s movie. The best way to see as much as possible in the shortest time is with a two-day Shanghai Sightseeing Tour ticket which also includes a river cruise and a trip to the

The best way to see the people of Shanghai is on the Bund, the famous riverfront walkway. 16

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

top of the Jin Mao Tower with access to the 88-floor glass walkway. The views are excellent and the look down into the atrium of the Hyatt hotel is surreal. Shanghai has two of the top-10 tallest buildings in the world. A fun way to get to across the river — or more precisely under the river — is via the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel on a maglev train. The half-mile, five-minute, $7 ride is surreal with garish lighting and what has been described by some as an attempt to simulate flight through an acid-induced version of a space flight. Not to miss are the Shanghai Museum and a walk down the crowded Nanjing shopping street. Glimpses of the old China can be experienced at the classical Yuyuan Gardens started in 1368 — over the years it has gone through many changes. During Mao’s Cultural Revolution, most of China’s cultural and historic buildings were destroyed but the 100-year old Jade Buddhist Temple survived. The best way to see the people of Shanghai is on the Bund, the famous riverfront walkway. Early in the morning it is where the local people gather to exercise. There are tai chi and dance classes. People also exercise alone by jogging and walking. Walking backwards is popular. One of the best ways to observe the people of Shanghai is to sit in one of the parks where they fly their kites, feed the birds or take pictures of the beautiful flowers and trees. The Bund is lined with many historic buildings, including the Waldorf Astoria, which was once the renowned Shanghai men’s-only club. Today men and women can enjoy their favorite libation at the 111-foot Long Bar where in 1910 gaining entry at the world’s longest bar was a social triumph. Seating was based on social status with the elite seated closest to the bar’s east end facing the Bund. It is a good place to end a visit to Shanghai, once called “The Paris of the East.”

Sandra Scott, a retired history teacher and the co-author of two local history books, has been traveling worldwide with her husband, John, since the 1980s. The Scotts live in the village of Mexico. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Glimpses of the old China can be experienced at the classical Yuyuan Gardens. It’s one of the few historic buildings not destroyed during Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

Not to miss is a walk down the crowded Nanjing shopping street. It is the main shopping street of Shanghai and is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets.

Today men and women can enjoy their favorite libation at the 111-foot Long Bar. OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT By Carol Thomson

Tops Friendly Markets now has a presence in Hannibal, after buying Hannibal Village Market IGH.

Decision to Sell, Not an Easy One

Jim Mirabito talks about his decision to sell his family-owned business, Hannibal Village Market IGA, to Tops Friendly Markets

im Mirabito, the former owner of Hannibal Village Market IGA, said he feels he’s been on vacation. He owned and operated the Hannibal grocery store for the last 24 years. He spent most days in the last two decades and an half going to the store nearly every day, dealing with all the daily routine, hiring and firing employees, looking for better bargains and making sure customers were always satisfied. He is the third generation of Mirabitos to operate the business, which has been in operation for the past 50 years. It closed Aug. 7 and reopened as Tops Friendly Markets right after it. “I miss the people, the employees, and I miss the daily interaction,” Mirabito said. “At this point, it feels like I’m on vacation.” The Mirabito family grocery business started in the living room of Ross and Frances Mirabito’s home on Erie Street in Fulton back in 1928, when they opened a location in Fulton. The early years were extremely difficult for the Italian immigrants. Frances 18

tended to 11 children and watched the store during the day while Ross worked a full time job at the old Arrowhead plant in Fulton. The company survived the Great Depression, a World War and all of the other strains and difficulties, which threatened the business over time. In 1968, The Village Market in Hannibal started as a small, two-aisle storefront in what is now the entrance to Hannibal’s Post Office. A local farmer, Bob Scott, suggested to Fran Mirabito that he come to Hannibal and provide folks there with the same quality foods and service that was available in the Fulton stores. After a fire, four moves and a lot of hard work, the present store location opened Oct. 13, 1990. The decision to sell to Tops didn’t come easily. “You make decisions your entire life. At my age, you’re a little more conservative. You don’t take the chances you do when you’re 30,” said Mirabito. And there are some regrets. OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Jim was the head of Hannibal Village Market IGA until Aug. 7. He sold the business to Tops Friendly Markets. “You can’t walk away from something you did for so many years and not miss it,” he says. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

“I always go through the whatifs,” Mirabito said. “There’s a fine line between what-ifs and regrets.” He added, “You can’t walk away from something you did for so many years and not miss it.” Mirabito said he has short-term plans, but nothing beyond that. “I have no specific plans. I didn’t have a five-year plan.” He will be taking a trip to Florida in early October. “After that, I don’t know,” he said. He also plans to spend more time with his family. Mirabito said that time is something that’s hard to keep track of now that he’s not spending 10-hour days at the store. “What day of the week is it?” he quipped, adding that his routine of working on the computer at home before going to the store until evening kept him on track timewise. Now, however, the days mesh. The community as a whole feels the loss of the Village Market, not just because of the loss of its independent grocer, but because of the contributions the Mirabito family has made to the community. One of the many ways the Village Market contributed to the community was through the store receipt program that benefited nearly 20 local nonprofit groups and organizations. Customers could save their register receipts and deposit them into bins at the front of the store labeled with the nonprofit of their choice. The organizations could then come in and collect all the receipts that were donated in their honor and the Village Market IGA would donate $1 for every $400 worth of purchases. Residents are slowly adapting to the changes. On the Village Market’s Facebook page there’s been a mixed reaction, but most miss the personalized service they received from the Mirabito family. Mirabito and his wife Cindy felt the love of the community when they exited the store for the last time. As resident Jessica Burger wrote on the market’s Facebook page, “You know you did something right when the community you served lines up at your door to say a final farewel!

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

NEWSMAKERS NEWS BRIEFS ON LOCAL BUSINESS & BUSINESS PEOPLE

Attorney Named as Upstate Super Lawyer Patrick V. Melfi, a member in the Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC's Syracuse office, has been recognized in the 2016 Upstate New York Super Lawyers list in the field of employment and labor. Melfi, an Oswego resident, is a labor and employment law attorney and chairman of the firm's occupational safety and Melfi health law practice. He represents employers nationwide in the full range of labor and employment issues that can arise out of the employment relationship. Super Lawyers magazine lists New York's top lawyers who have been chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics magazine. Law & Politics, which performs the polling, research and selection of attorneys to be included in Super Lawyers magazine, identifies lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC is a law firm with 270 lawyers serving individuals, companies and public sector entities in a broad range of practice areas. Bond has nine offices in New York state and offices in Naples, Fla., and Overland Park, Ks.

Brenda Slivinski Joins Marathon Financial Brenda Slivinski recently joined Marathon Financial Advisors as client relations assistant. In that position she will be responsible for client relations to include scheduling of appointments, receptionist duties as well as provide clerical support to the company financial advisers. 20

Slivinski attended Columbia College of Missouri earning her bachelor’s degree with concentrations in education, mathematics and business. Prior to joining Marathon Financial Advisors, she worked for Slivinski the Syracuse City School District for 15 years. Brenda lives with her son in East Syracuse. Marathon Financial Advisors, based in East Syracuse, offers retirement planning, investments, financial strategies and insurance.

Heinl Earns Landscape Architect License Beardsley Architects + Engineers based in Auburn recently announced that Jared R. Heinl has earned his landscape architect license in the state of New York. Heinl has been with Beardsley for nine years and is Heinl currently serving as secretary for Beardsley’s board of directors. In additional his to landscape architecture license, he is also a licensed civil engineer.

Carfi Joins Beardsley Architects + Engineers Beardsley Architects + Engineers announced that Nicole Carfi has joined the firm as intern civil engineer. Carfi is a recent graduate of Clarkson University. While at Clarkson, she was OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

an active member in numerous honor societies such as the Phalanx Leadership Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, Tau Chi Alpha Environmental Engineering Honor Society, and the Society of Women Carfi Engineers. At Beardsley, she is currently working on site improvement projects for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Zoo Hires New Finance Manager Amanda Liberati of Baldwinsville has been hired by Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo as finance manager. She will be responsible for accounting and management of all financial transactions for Friends of the Zoo, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit support organization to the Rosamond Gifford Liberati Zoo. “I am very pleased to welcome Amanda to the Friends staff. Her wealth of accounting experience and familiarity with not-for-profit organizations position her nicely to take on the department and to work with me during the next phase of our growth,” said Janet Agostini, Friends of the Zoo President & CEO. Liberati holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from SUNY Plattsburgh. She has more than 12 years of experience in nonprofit accounting. Her most recent position was finance manager for the Center for Community Alternatives. Prior to that, Liberati lived in the Glens Falls area and held financial officer positions with Warren County Head Start and the Warren, Washington and Albany Counties ARC.

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Canale Named Named Interim VP at SUNY SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley appointed 20-year development professional Mary Canale to the position of interim vice president of development and alumni relations. Canale succeeds Kerry Dorsey, who retired Oct. 13 after 13 years of exceptional service to her alma mater. “We are fortunate and excited to have someone with Mary’s expertise and outstanding record of service to step into this role,” Stanley said. “She has played an integral part in developing the major gifts program for the college and in cultivating philCanale anthropic relationships on behalf of the institution. Her success in securing private support has helped provide the margin of excellence that makes an Oswego education so valuable.” Canale came to Oswego in 1996 as the coordinator of the Oswego State Fall Classic. The following year, she became assistant director of development, and in 2002, she instituted the major gifts program at the college as director of major gifts. Since 2007, she has served as associate vice president for development. Canale and Kerry Dorsey, both alumnae from SUNY Oswego’s Class of 1981, worked closely together on the college’s first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign, Inspiring Horizons, which surpassed its five-year goal of $17 million by raising more than $23.8 million when it wrapped up in 2008. They also led the college’s second campaign, With Passion & Purpose, which just exceeded its $40 million fundraising goal and raised $43.48 million by the campaign’s end on June 30, 2016. In addition, they oversaw the college’s Possibility Scholarship program. Canale will serve as the college’s principal fundraiser and executive director of the Oswego College Foundation, and will oversee the Alumni and Parent Relations office. She will be a member of the president’s council, which is made up of senior campus leaders and advises the president on a range of college matters. Canale lives in Oswego with her OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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husband, Steven. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

SUNY Oswego Has New CCO SUNY Oswego recently appointed Wayne Westervelt as the new chief communication officer for the college. He replaces Julie Harrison Blissert, who retired earlier this summer after more than 30 years of exceptional service to the college. We s t e r v e l t brings 20 years of experience in the fields of marketing, communications, media and public relations, including the past 18 years in supervisory roles at Syracuse University, Cazenovia College and in the public Westervelt sector as a communications/public information manager for the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board. In his most recent role, as the director of communications and media for the Institute for Veteran and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, he reported to the vice chancellor as a member of the IVMF leadership team. His responsibilities included leading the national marketing and promotion efforts to tell the story of the institute and its mission to advance the post-service lives of America’s service members, veterans and their families. Prior to that position, Westervelt spent more than a decade at Cazenovia College, ending his tenure as the vice president for marketing and communications and as a member of the president’s leadership team. While at Cazenovia, he successfully implemented marketing and communications tactics that advanced the college. “I am very pleased to welcome Wayne’s leadership in this important position,” President Deborah F. Stanley stated in a press release. “He is often recognized by his colleagues as a strong team builder, seasoned communicator and innovative professional.” Westervelt earned his master’s in public administration from the Maxwell OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University and his bachelor’s in English/communications from Le Moyne College.

Srividya Revuru Joins Bond, Schoeneck

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Chemist Srividya Revuru has joined the Bond Schoeneck & King’s intellectual property and technology practice, residing in the firm’s Albany office. Srividya is a registered U.S. patent agent. Her experience includes patent drafting and prosecution with some experience in assisting with freedom-to-operate and due diligence analyses. In the preparation and prosecution of new patent applications, Revuru has particular Revuru experience in the areas of semiconductor design and fabrication, electrochemistry, material science and chemical arts. “Sri brings tremendous technical accomplishments as a scholar, scientist, and researcher, and adds further depth to Bond’s impressive bench of patent professionals. We are truly delighted that Sri has decided to join and help foster the continuing growth of our practice,“ said George McGuire, chairman of the firm’s intellectual property and technology practice. Revuru is an accomplished multidisciplinary chemist with experience in synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry, solid-phase chemistry, nucleic acid chemistry and semiconductor technology. She is the published author of thirteen peer-reviewed papers in journals such as JACS, Journal of Photopolymer Science and Technology, Organic Letters and Tetrahedron. Additionally, Revuru is the named inventor on one issued U.S. patent.

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Promotions at Dannible & McKee An Dannible & McKee, LLP recently announced the following promotions: • Alex Nitka, CPA, has been promoted to senior tax manager. He OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

joined the firm in 2008 and has 10 years of experience specializing in tax services as well as valuation and ownership transition services for clients in a variety of industries. Previously, he worked as an audit associate at BDO Seidman, Nitka LLP. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Union College in 2005 and his master’s degree from Syracuse University in 2007. Nitka is a member of both the AICPA and the NYSSCPA. • Brian J. Potter, CPA, has also been promoted to senior tax manager. He joined the firm in 2006 and has over 10 years of experience in taxation and planning for individuals and closely-held companies. Potter is responsible for overseeing tax engagements for a variety of the Potter firm’s clientele with a focus on manufacturing companies, construction firms, multi-state corporations and high net worth individuals. He has extensive experience in individual and corporate tax planning, financial planning, multi-state taxation, research and development, New York state income tax credits and ownership

transition issues. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Le Moyne College in 2004 and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from SUNY Oswego in 2006. • Jessica Pond, CPA, has been promoted Pond to audit manager. She joined the firm in 2010 and has specialized in working on audits, reviews and compilations in a variety of industries, including automotive, construction and manufacturing. She graduated from St. John Fisher College with a bachelor’s degree Carbacio in accounting in 2010. • Brittany Carbacio has been promoted to audit senior. She joined the firm in 2013. Carbacio is a graduate of SUNY Oswego, where she earned her M.B.A. in accounting. • Kaitlyn Hensler, CPA, has also been promoted to audit senior. She joined the firm in 2013. Hensler earned a bachelor’s degree in professional accounting from SUNY Oneonta.

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OOC Earns Award for Website, Video The Northeastern Economic Developers Association (NEDA) recently presented the Branding of Economic Development Organizations Award to Operation Oswego County (OOC) for its website. The OOC website — oswegocounty. org — was launched in April 2015. It is the hub of the agency’s marketing efforts. All of OOC’s marketing drives potential clients to the website, which provides them with a comprehensive overview of how OOC can help them establish or grow their business in Oswego County. OOC also received the Outstanding Marketing of Economic Development Topics Award for the Upstate Energy Jobs Video, which illustrates what closing a nuclear power plant looks like. The video was created during the initial formation of the Upstate Energy Jobs Coalition, a group of over 160 Upstate New York elected officials, business leaders, members of organized labor, economic development organizations and community leaders. “I want to commend the efforts of OOC’s marketing and development committee chaired by Barbara Bateman, on helping us stay in the forefront,” said L. Michael Treadwell, Executive Director of OOC. “Also, I want to thank our staff, and in particular, Evelyn LiVoti, marketing and development manager, for coordinating the development of our marketing strategies which are integral and essential to a county-wide comprehensive economic development program.”by way of their annual Best Practice and Marketing Awards.

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27 27

DiningOut By Jacob Pucci

Restaurant

Guide

Basil Thai occupies a corner spot in the Three Rivers Plaza in Phoenix

Basil Thai Cuisine Family-owned restaurant in Phoenix offers excellent Thai food

restaurant with eight mismatched tables at the end of a strip mall in rural Oswego County shouldn’t be packed with diners at 8 o’clock at night. But then again, most restaurants aren’t as good as Basil Thai Cuisine. Owners Pongthep and Khanuengnit Siripornsawan opened the restaurant in the Three Rivers Plaza in Phoenix in September 2006, admirably filling the need for a Thai restaurant between Oswego and Syracuse. We noticed hand-written notes from

elementary school children, thanking the restaurant for donating rice and chopsticks to their class, lining a bulletin board displayed near the front entrance when we arrived for dinner on a Friday night. The décor is spartan: Plain tables flank either side of a horseshoe-shaped center counter, where diners order food. A jade-colored Buddha statue sits on the counter next to cardboard boxes filled with Styrofoam takeout containers. After placing our orders and taking a seat, we overheard a woman behind OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

us be told that there’d be a 45-minute wait for her to-go order, which was understandable, considering the husband-and-wife team were the only ones working in the open kitchen, while their daughter mostly handled the orders. Her face showed skepticism, but a regular waiting for his order assured them that it’s worth the wait. Plus, reading a magazine and newspaper from the stack by the front door makes the wait whiz by in a flash. After about 20 minutes, our first courses arrived: Two pork and shrimp OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Pad priew wan with chicken (front) and red curry with squid (back) spring rolls ($1.79 each) and an order of roasted pork with cucumber and cilantro ($4.49). The spring rolls each features two plump shrimp, pork, lettuce, cilantro and rice noodles, all wrapped in rice paper. The texture of the translucent rolls was excellent, thanks to the crisp lettuce. A dip in a sweet and spicy vinegar dipping sauce completed the bite. The pork, thinly sliced and tender, paired well with the zip from the vinegar in the surrounding sauce and chopped cilantro that topped the dish. Finding balance between different flavors and textures is important in any cuisine, but Southeast Asian cuisinesin particular, tend to bring contrasting flavors to the forefront more than many other cuisines. Such was the case in our bowls of red curry with squid ($9.99) and pad priew wan with chicken ($8.99), both served with a side of jasmine rice. The curry was spicy, but creamy and, at the same time, brothy and rich with Thai basil. The green peppers kept a bit of their crunch and the squid, which can go from undercooked to overcooked quicker than you can turn off the heat, was perfectly tender. Pad priew wan, a stir fry of onions, pineapple, cucumbers and green peppers, was highlighted by the homemade sweet and sour sauce. This sweet and sour sauce has about as much in common with bottled, goopy bright-red sweet and sour sauce as a slice OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

An appetizer of oven-roasted spiced pork served with cucumber and cilantro.

of margarita pizza from Lombardi’s has in common with a doughy gas station slice spinning under a heat lamp. Pineapple was the dominant note, but the astounding depth of flavors and balance between sweetness, acidity and saltiness was proof that this was a recipe perfected over many years. We polished off our Thai iced coffee — sweetened with condensed milk and at $2.50 for a large Styrofoam cup, a bargain — and packed our leftovers into the containers stacked on the counter. Just as you’d offer to clear the table when Grandma invites you over for dinner, at a family joint like this, it only feels right to help.

Basil Thai Cuisine

Address: 219 County Route 57,

Phoenix, N.Y., 13135 Phone: 315-695-2545 Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Fri. and Sat.: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday Website: www.basilthaicny.com

Squid red curry: red curry with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, green peppers, Thai basil leaves and squid. OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SUNY Oswego Rises Sharply in U.S. News Rankings

UNY Oswego jumps to 44th place in U.S. News & World Report rankings — a 14-place rise — in the list of “2017 Top Regional Universities in the North.” “The latest U.S. News & World Report rankings reflect SUNY Oswego’s tireless commitment to build on our high standards and past success as an insightful, innovative and focused campus community,” said SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley. SUNY Oswego’s tie for 12th in the north region for participating public institutions shows the college is a great value with an outstanding academic reputation and track record of student success, said Stanley, who added the rankings recognize how SUNY Oswego is hitting performance marks the institution set for itself. Oswego tied for 44th in the north overall with other public and private schools that include Niagara University, Molloy College, Sacred Heart College (Connecticut) and SUNY Oneonta, according to U.S. News rankings released Sept. 13. Better outcomes in Oswego’s average first-year retention rate, actual and predicted graduation rates, percentage of classes under 20 students, student-faculty ratio and percentage of full-time faculty contributed to the rise in the rankings. U.S. News also selected Oswego for its “A-Plus Schools for B Students” list, as it has in recent years. This unranked A-plus list in regional universities also includes the likes of the College of New Jersey; Bentley, Quinnipiac and Towson universities; Emerson, Ithaca, Le Moyne, Manhattan and Marist colleges; and fellow SUNY comprehensive colleges Geneseo and New Paltz. 30

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Fundraiser-in-Chief SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley leads campaign that raises more than $40 million

ome leaders create impressive legacies while still on the job. SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley is one of them. The local college recently reached a major fundraising goal thanks to the passion and determination of Stanley, who has been president of the college since 1995. “With Passion & Purpose: The Campaign for SUNY Oswego” raised a total of $43.5 million. Stanley said the campaign wrapped up after considerably surpassing what she described as a “strenuous” $40 million goal. It was the largest ever announced goal among all SUNY comprehensive colleges outside of doctoral-granting institutions. “We put our best efforts to it,” she said. “We sun set the campaign on June 30 so we could tally all of our wonderful success.” Stanley said reaching the milestone is significant on several different levels. “It is heartening to know we have the support of donors, mainly alumni, but others as well who see the college as effective and meaningful in the lives of our students and alumni who are making a difference in the world.” When Stanley first became president, the college did not feature a fundraising arm. It had alumni and development groups, but no entity strictly designed to fundraise, Stanley said. In 2000, however, a vice presidency of development and alumni relations was created, and several years later, the college’s first fundraising campaign was conducted on a highly successful basis. The college’s first comprehensive OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

fundraising campaign saw its five-year $17 million goal surpassed eight months ahead of its original endpoint, leading the college to raise its sights en route to reaching $23 million by June 2008. “We learned a great deal about ourselves. We learned how to manage and populate an office, and learned about putting our story and stories together in compelling ways. This gave us confidence as well as instilled confidence in our donor base,” she said.

Stanley said it was a learning process and everything that transpired in that first campaign was assessed. The recent campaign enabled the endowment to grow 163 percent from $11.5 million in 2011 to $30.3 million as of August. “We really did want to push forward with a future-oriented campaign that would grow the endowment for future purposes of the institution and we were successful in doing that,” she said. Stanley said when enter-

Deborah Stanley

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

ing into the recently concluded campaign, “we knew we had established ourselves in the fundraising realm and that we had drawn volunteers, again mainly alumni-based, who were significantly accomplished people who helped us manage the endowment.” The College Foundation’s investment committee invests endowment monies into mutual funds to a large extent, although it uses other forms of investment as well. “We have a volunteer committee of mostly alumni who are at the pinnacle of their careers in the financial industry,” she said. Oswego’s 10year return rate is 8.5 percent—even given the 2008 crash of the financial markets. “Actually, they do so

well that I want to put my portfolio in their hands,” she added. Stanley said no one can “time” the stock market, but these investors have been prudent while displaying stewardship of the funds individuals have donated. “It is very important not only to steward it for donors, but you have to think of the fact that most of these funds go to scholarships. They support the ability of students to be here and to realize their dreams,” Stanley said. She said the first campaign placed more emphasis on supporting capital expenditures while the college explored ways to augment government grants it was receiving to renovate the campus. Besides establishing an unprecedented merit scholarship program, Stanley was instrumental in spearheading a capital improvement plan encompassing $800 million in completed and planned campus renewal projects over the years. “It’s really a building process,” said Stanley in regards to the keys to making a fundraising campaign successful. She said the college is helping people realize their goals as well, such as having a family’s name be continued at SUNY Oswego, memorializing someone in their lives, or really being a part of the educational aspects of the college by giving “time and treasures.” She said a feasibility study conducted shortly after the first campaign provided insight in terms of knowing there were people who would support the college. “So we chose a modest range of $40 million and hoped we would exceed it. We had a good inkling that we would exceed it and we did,” she said. Fundraising efforts are made even more crucial given that less than 20 percent of SUNY Oswego’s revenues come from OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

New York state appropriations, down significantly from decades past.

Challenges surmounted

The campaign’s success was not just a given. Stanley noted the nation was just coming off the recession at the time it was launched, and “people were a little nervous about it.” Nonetheless, “we really believed we had contacts in place, we had an understanding of the people we would be getting to know even for the first time, and we would put all significant efforts into it,” she said. Stanley said the college took an aggressive approach in outreach. “I guaranteed the development staff that I would be on the road as much as they could put me on the road, and boy was I,” said Stanley in regards to her cross-country jaunts across the nation. “It was a little tiring occasionally at the time, but it was also great and so rewarding. It’s so hard to be tired by that kind of travel because you are meeting people who care about the college and want to know more about it,” she said. Stanley said she was well armed with “fantastic” video experiences depicting stories of students, and also brought students to be ambassadors at times. “People just beam when they know so much more about the institution,” she said. Stanley said she brings a “heart and mind” to the table when it comes to supporting events that strengthen the college. “This place is so worthy of support and I’m willing to tell that story anywhere and everywhere,” she said. Stanley said the college features a “fabulous” faculty and staff that go out of their way to support students. She said as she interacts with alumni, even if they graduated in the distant past, they always refer to the college as a “caring place.” “And I say, ‘Maybe the physical plant has changed, but the place itself — or its essence — hasn’t changed,’” she said. “It’s still about talking with students, mentoring them and getting them out to do the things they want to do in their lives,” she said. “It’s very much concentrated on that, but also OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SUNY Oswego’s investment committee invests endowment monies into mutual funds to a large extent — the 10-year return rate is 8.5 percent even given the 2008 crash of the financial markets. concentrated on investigation, study and curiosity about the world and learning more about the world.”

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Life-changing donations

Two significant gifts proved instrumental in building the college’s endowment, Stanley said. These transforming gifts were $5 million from the Richard S. Shineman Foundation in 2012, which resulted in naming the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering the Innovation. The second was a $7.5 million gift from the estate of Lorraine E. and Nunzio “Nick” Marano. In turn, the college named its new campus center the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena. Over the five years of raising $43.5 million, the college awarded nearly $3.1 million in privately funded merit- and needs-based scholarships, including 76 newly established funds, to 1,819 students. “This is incredibly important for the demographics of students we have here,” Stanley said. She noted as SUNY Oswego recruits farther afield into the metro New York City and Long Island areas, it finds that many of those students are first generation students. “It’s always a struggle to pay for this residential experience far from home,” she said. “Those scholarships are incredibly meaningful and make a difference in being able to complete their education or not. It also cuts down on loans they would have to take out.” Stanley also noted endowment funds can be directed toward spurring research in regards to protecting Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes, which represents 21 percent of the world’s fresh water. “Just the beauty of Lake Ontario really enhances everyone’s life,” she said. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Oswego Entrepreneur

Sells Big on Etsy

Couple sells purses, bags, scarves and other handmade items. Revenue surpassed $100,000 last year

any people enjoy selling items on Etsy.com for pleasure and pin money. Melissa Elayne Beck of Oswego is one of them. However, she took a step further: he turned her little pastime into her family’s business, grossing $104,000 in revenue last year. Beck had been making purses and selling them online since April 2011 to augment her family’s income while she home schooled her three children, and her husband, Roger, worked in graphic design. Beck put the business into high gear when Roger was laid off in 2013. As orders poured in, Roger quit the part-time job he had taken to help his wife with her business. The couple hasn’t looked back since. Since then, the business has grown so large that they moved it into its own space at 330 W. First St. in 34

the Oswego Supply Building. Beck’s father, Ralph Pauldine, owns and operates Oswego Supply and Ralph Pauldine, Inc. He offered the couple one of the showrooms in his building and set it up as workshop space. The couple funded the rest of the business with cash. Many people sell handmade items on Etsy.com. Beck attributes her items’ success to their practicality. “Our designs are well thought out, and our products are carefully handmade with attention to detail,” she said. Beck makes purses and bags in various sizes; scarves and ear warmers for men and women; and custom

BUSINESS UPDATE

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

embroidery on aprons. She keeps her product line streamlined, yet personalized with monograms and names if desired. She’s also willing to adjust aspects of her designs for customers, such as longer or shorter straps. Her small purses come in four sizes to accommodate the many different sizes of smart phones. Building on the sewing skills her mother instilled in her as a sixth grader, Beck has learned more through online tutorials. She designs her own patterns and through trial and error tweaks them until she feel satisfied. “When I work this way, sometimes something unexpected will happen, like the lip-balm pocket in my purses, for example,” Beck said. “I knew I wanted credit card pockets, so I measured and designed the pockets OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

in such a way that up to three cards could fit in each pocket. I sewed up the wristlet/purse and found that the extra space beside the credit card pockets created a smaller pocket — just the right size for Chapstick!” She advertised the diminutive purses as including lip balm pockets and it quickly became a popular feature in her line of purses. The one item she doesn’t make is the apron. She purchases US-made apron blanks and embroiders them to order. Beck relies upon various social media platforms for advertising and word-of-mouth. The business has grown so much that she upgraded from her home sewing machine to purchase an industrial sewing machine and added a smaller commercial machine soon after. Customers help her decide what products to add next. “When I get the same request for an item from more than one customer, it usually ends up in our shop as a new item for sale,” she said. “And sometimes it even becomes a best seller.” Beck admitted that “fear, and a little self-doubt” represent her biggest obstacles in starting the business. “Pushing past that, the biggest challenge was pricing,” she added. “I needed to figure out a price that not only covered my costs and labor but was also enough to keep the business sustainable.” To keep prices reasonable, she purchases fabric and supplies at wholesale prices and employs no one

but Roger, who handles her graphic design, product finishing and shipping. These days, keeping up with Etsy’s changing search engine optimization and trying to stay visible in a sea of designers remains her biggest challenges. “Our main outlet for our business has been Etsy, but as Etsy is becoming oversaturated with sellers and they have had to make changes in the way search is done,” Beck said. “It is increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd and we are feeling it this year.” She hopes to expand the company’s embroidery business to serve the Oswego area’s custom embellishment needs. To build on her skills, she has participated in embroidery webinars and viewed videos on techniques. The entrepreneurial spirit runs deeply in her family, and Beck had always wanted to work alongside her husband, but “I am a little surprised that we are actually doing it, and even more surprised that it is from sewing that we are making our living,” she said. With many families, the wife joins the husband’s business, unlike the Becks. But the atypical development of their business hasn’t hampered the couple. “We both have our own roles and expertise and we try to respect that,” Beck said. “Roger is a graphic designer. I don’t give him pointers on graphic design, and he doesn’t tell me how to sew. Roger has been really supportive from the beginning, so it makes working together easy.” By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Products manufactured by Melissa Elayne Beck

• Scarves

• Accessories How to Find the Products Website: https://melissaelayne.com Etsy (purse shop): www.etsy.com/shop/melissaelayne Etsy (accessory shop) www.etsy.com/shop/melissaelayne2 Facebook: designsbymelissaelayne Instagram: melissaelayne.handmadebags

• Purses

& Much More

Melissa Elayne Beck at her shop in Oswego. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

hen can a problem turn profitable? When a "mompreneur" sees the opportunity. Heather White of King Ferry in Cayuga County began making goat's milk products when her daughter was an infant seven years ago. Psoriasis and eczema plagued the girl's skin. She also experienced stomach upset from drinking cow's milk based formula. A relative suggested trying goat's milk and natural skin care products. The tactic worked. Since goat's milk was hard to find, and White had wanted to keep goats anyway, she purchased dairy goats. With some trial and error, White began making her own soap and lotion. Eventually, she added lip balm and solid lotion bars. In time, White's daughter outgrew her skin issues, but by then, other moms wanted White's products, too. Heather's Goat Milk Products (www.heathersgoatmilkproducts.com) was born. White primarily sells online and in person at area fairs, festivals and events such as Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls. White also promotes her business by showing her goats at the New York State Fair. At one such event, a gentleman snatched up a cube of soap from her tray marked "Soap Samples." Before White could stop him, he popped it in his mouth, commenting on the "goat milk fudge" he thought he was eating. When he learned it was soap, he quipped that he shouldn't have cussed that morning. Both enjoyed a laugh, but the man admitted the soap actually tasted pretty good. Considering some of the soaps are edible — though not necessarily food grade — ingredients, that made sense. White developed her recipes by researching online and reading plenty of books on how to make the products. She also learned about what ingredients benefit different types of skin and help soothe different types of skin issues. She creates about 30 different products in her home kitchen, including soap for bathing dogs. White also had to learn about

BUSINESS UPDATE

Mom Finds Profits in Goat Milk Products

Cayuga County woman has created more than 30 different products in her home kitchen, including soap for bathing dogs — thanks for eight goats she keeps

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

FDA regulations, such as avoiding making health claims for her products. Words such as "cure" or "treat" aren't allowed in product descriptions or advertising unless products undergo rigorous analysis by the FDA. It took White a few years to become profitable, but using the equipment she had on hand in her own kitchen helped her keep start-up expenses low. She also uses simple packaging, but with a dual purpose of keeping costs down and emphasizing the back-to-basics nature of her products. "I feel like I don't want to put more money into it so I have to charge more for it," White said. "Products should stand for themselves." Clean, classic, uncluttered labels help reinforce her natural brand, she said. White enjoys keeping her eight goats, dabbling in gardening and making natural products. "I find it fun and it gives us something to do together as a family," White said. Her husband, David, sons Jonathan and Steven, and daughter, Brianna, help out with tending the goats on the family's two acres. They also raise other animals for their own consumption. White and her husband both work day jobs, but she is open to growing the business to a level where it could become her full-time job. "Handmade products support local people and help support the local economy," White said. "It helps people realize their dreams in a way." By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Morris Sorbello of Sorbello & Sons holds a few of his onions that are heartier than the tens of thousands that are small due to the summer’s drought.

Drought to Have Long Lasting Effect for Farmers’ Local farmers hurting due to severe drought

t’s been a long, hot, dry summer and local farmers are feeling the impact of the lack of rain. How bad is the situation? The federal government recently declared Oswego County and 23 other counties in New York state as a natural disaster area due to the dry conditions. “There’s definitely going to be a shortage of some sort,” said onion farmer Morris Sorbello. “The onions, like anything else, are hurting because we haven’t had any rain. The earlier plantings are a little better than our late plantings.” Sorbello said he no longer has his irrigation equipment, however, it would not be useful because the ponds are dry. The lack of rain has caused a weed problem because the herbicide doesn’t react as well with the dry soil. “When it rains too much it’s a problem, and when it doesn’t rain enough it’s a problem,” he said. “We are beholden to the weather.”

BUSINESS UPDATE

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

For Christmas tree farmer Jack Beckwith, the lack of rain has been more of an inconvenience. He does have a watering system that, although time consuming, prevented a large loss of trees. “I have a tank and I put it on a hill and gravity feed one tree at a time,” he said. He lost 50 to 60 trees thus far, which is average. Beckwith said the drought hasn’t impacted his trees nearly as much as it has in other areas of the state. Beckwith’s wife Faye is the president of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York. She said she is getting mixed reviews from around the state. “It’s a little too early to tell if there’s going to be a larger impact. It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen.” Faye Beckwith said she’ll know more when it’s time to harvest the trees. Hay farmers are not as lucky. “The lack of rain has stunted the growth of second cutting. There will be little if any this year,” Barry Leeman of Williamstown, who also raises cattle. “The grass in the pasture was burned up, and my cows wouldn’t even eat 37

the dried up, crispy grass. This is the earliest I have had to start feeding baled hay to keep the animals fit and healthy.” Leeman said that many farmers have had to send cattle to market because of the drought, which has lowered the price the farmer can get for his animals. “They were costly in the spring and the drought has forced the fall prices into the cellar,” Leeman said. Allen Manwaring of Mexico said the drought has greatly impacted his hay this season. “Second cutting has been very light this year, and it’s weeks behind schedule. Yields are probably down 50 to 60 percent as well.” Horse owners could see higher prices for second and third cuttings, which has more protein, or feed first cutting. Eric Behling of Behling Orchards located in Mexico said his apple crops could have been in serious trouble were not for his investment in irrigation. “It’s mostly drip irrigation,” Behling said. “It’s low water usage.” He added that the irrigation took place for 60 consecutive days. “This drought that New York state suffered was something my mother had never seen,” he said, adding that when it’s hot and dry the apples will be a little more intense in sweetness. In an effort to gauge the impact the summer drought has had on farmers, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball along with other state and local leaders recently toured farms throughout Jefferson and Oswego counties and heard firsthand from farmers suggestions for what can be done to help them recover from the recent lack of rainfall. “While we will eventually see rain in the future, the effects of the summer’s hot, dry weather are long lasting for our farmers,” said Assemblyman Will Barclay. “Farmers are responsible not only for growing and producing fresh foods, but also for supporting the growth of New York’s leading industry. As such, we have a responsibility to help them recover from this challenging time.” By Carol Thompson 38

Northern Welding and Fabrication in Central Square is about to move to this 4,000 square foot building at 905 US Route 11. The expansion will enable the company to diversify and increase the volume of sales.

NORTHERN WELDING AND FABRICATION

EXPANDING IN CENTRAL SQUARE The Waldrons have invested more than $300,000 in a new headquarters on Route 11; they expect revenues to more than double in the next couple of years.

orthern Welding and Fabrication in Central Square is moving into a new storefront and shop by Nov. 1. The company is going from its 2,800-square-foot facility to a brand new 4,000-square-foot building at 905 US Route 11. “It really is the talk of the town, believe it or not,” said the business's owner and founder, Rick Waldron. “The building looks really spectacular.” The new building will allow Northern Welding and Fabrication to expand more easily into steel sales as well as continue to do what has been the company's bread and butter: residential and commercial contract work for construction jobs and heavy equipment, along with dock and trailer repair and fabrication. “We want to get into more of Waldron the retail end and we want to sell the various steel products OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

— sheet steel, structural steel, aluminum, stainless, angles, bar, flats — all the miscellaneous metals,” Waldron said. “Right now our shop is not big enough to do that. With this new shop we'll be able to stock and load and sell in a much more efficient way.” Northern Welding and Fabrication has grossed between $300,000 and $400,000 in sales annually, Waldron said. With the new building, the sales volume is expected to more than double to between $750,000 and $900,000 in the next couple years. Waldron expects to gross $1 million within the next five years. “If we're not, then we're doing something wrong,” he said. Although Northern Welding and Fabrication looks to surge in the near future, the sudden growth has been in the works for some time. The business was started by Rick Waldron in 1995. By 2014 it was prospering enough so that he could leave his position at the town of Hastings and run the business full time. Waldron wanted to make sure that while his company grows, it is grounded

BUSINESS UPDATE

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

in the commitment to small jobs and local service that has sustained it. “We wanted to make sure that our customer base was what we were comfortable with,” he said. Although Northern Welding and Fabrication will bid on jobs all around the state, and even some outside it, the company will focus on jobs in Central New York. “Mainly we try to stay in the Syracuse, Watertown, Utica [areas],” he said. “We get a lot of work just in this area, 50 miles diameter.” Waldron, 53, was born and raised in Central Square. He got an associates degree in welding and drafting from SUNY Delhi in 1981 and immediately went to work in the Syracuse area as a welder. With Northern Welding and Fabrication, he found a niche that has been good to him. “The metal business is great,” he said. “It's been good to us. There's plenty of work out there if you are a reputable company. I would say 75 percent of our business is word of mouth and repeat customers. We got a niche on the small to medium miscellaneous metals work.” There is competition though and the company works hard to compete for jobs. Waldron said he keeps a close eye on the steel market to see where he can keep costs under control. Steel is a commodity and the price can fluctuate usually within 8 percent in any given month or two, Waldron said. Labor costs can also fluctuate. Right now Waldron has three to five employees and he expects that to go up to eight to 10 employees with the expansion. He plans to hire more draftsmen, fabricators and a sales force. The bulk of the expansion will be through expansion of steel sales. Waldron chose to grow through diversification, rather than through a robust expansion of his welding and fabrication service. He said the company's profit margin on steel sales is around 17 percent on a good day. “The only thing that we know for sure is that our retail end of it is going to be all types of sheet metal and structural steel including, but not limited to rebar and wire mesh,” Waldron said. “We make more or less depending on if it's stainless, aluminum, hot rolled, cold rolled. It's market-driven.” The company invested more than $300,000 in the new headquarters.

By Matthew Liptak OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Karen O’Neill, owner of Norma Jean’s Café in Fulton, and her daughter and waitress Christina Sawyer. She invested about $20,000 to get her business going

Café in Fulton, a Dream Come True for Former Waitress Karen O’Neill of Fulton always dreamed of opening her own café. She did just that

aren O’Neill, a Fulton resident, had an idea that was nagging at her for years. She wanted to open her own small café and coffee house. It wasn’t until her mother, Norma Jean, died in 2001 after a battle with cancer that she really started pursuing the idea of being in business for herself. With the support of her husband of 32 years, Bob O’Neill, she opened Norma Jean’s Café to the public in April. The café is located on 200 Hannibal St. in Fulton and is open seven days a week for breakfast. Norma Jean’s offers traditional American breakfast items, smoked bacon from Ives Farm Market, as well as healthier meals and gluten-free options. Owner Karen O’Neill employs her daughter, Christina Sawyer, and a friend of the family to help waitress on weekends. O’Neill is responsible for the ordering of food, baking and cooking, while Christina waitresses. It’s a mother-daughter arrangement that has been working well for them. “We’ve done more than okay,” said Christina. O’Neill rents the building, formerly occupied by Pies Guys Pizzeria, and chose the spot for its industrial sink, hood system for the grill and close proximity to her home. In the 1930s, the building was occuOSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

pied by Walters Inn, a well-known west side inn and tavern. It remained a bar/ restaurant until the 1970s. The facade is nearly unchanged. This past spring, the building was completely remodeled, down to the new hardwood floors. Every little purchase and detail needed to be thought out, from tables and chairs, to silverware and cups. “I’ve worked in restaurants since I was 14, and still I underestimated what I needed to have,” said Karen. Her startup costs were in the $16,000 to $20,000 range, which was paid for with savings. Renovations were relatively smooth, except for the need to put in a heat sensor system days before opening. Their one-year lease expires next May; after that O’Neill says she is looking to buy. Karen O’Neill is no stranger to working in the food industry. She began working in high school at a truck stop, where she learned how to use the grill. Locals may know her from Dad’s Diner in Hannibal, the Char Pit in Oswego or Dick’s Breakfast House, where she was employed for nearly 10 years. “When people stop, I get recognized a lot for places I’ve waitressed around town. I’ve worked my way up over the years, but got tired of working for everyone else.” By Nicole Shue 39

Interior of US Beer Brewers at The Cellar Door, located in the basement level of Woodruff Building at West First and Cayuga streets in Oswego.

Brewing up Business Oswego native Thomas Millar joins booming micro-brewing industry An Oswego native and entrepreneur has the hops to brew up success. Thomas Millar recently opened US Beer Brewers at The Cellar Door, located in the basement level of the renovated Woodruff Building at West First and Cayuga streets in Oswego. Millar is on the cusp of a craft beer brewing bonanza that is literally exploding across the state and nation. In 1979, there were 89 total breweries in the United States. At the end of 2013, there were 2,822 breweries in the U.S., including 2,768 craft breweries, according to The Beer Institute. Incidentally, The Guinness Book of World Records once gave Oswego the record for having the most bars per square mile of any city in the U.S., fortifying its status as a populace appreciative of an alcoholic beverage. Millar completely refurbished the historic Woodruff Building. When it comes to breweries, 40

Millar said Oswego is significantly underdeveloped. He said the time is now for the Port City to feature craft brewing. He noted Sacketts Harbor features three breweries, yet is considerably smaller in size to Oswego. “It’s not a college bar feel. Many people just want a place they can come to, relax and have a beer,” Millar said. Millar has structured the basement similar in style to popular brew pub chain Gordon Biersch and Syracuse’s Empire Brewing Company. He said the mechanics involved in the brewing process are intricate and interesting. The business features a mash tun, boil kettle, beer-brewing manifolds and electrical control panel secured behind glass for visitors to view.

BUSINESS UPDATE

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

The pub features a Prohibition-era setting common with speakeasies, complete with dim lighting, to give it a historic vibe. The Cellar Door features five beers — a blonde, red, an India Pale Ale, stout and brown ale. Gaining in popularity now are IPAs, which feature a higher-end, hoppy beer style. The Cellar Door recently sold out of its blonde and red versions, a testament to their popularity. Millar is also selling the blonde at Colloca Estates Winery, Sterling. The Cellar Door also features half-gallon “growlers” or glass jugs. MIllar uses a three-barrel system and brews six kegs in eight hours. The beer ferments for weeks before being transferred into kegs. Weekend hours are noon to 10 p.m. and brunch is offered on Sundays. Brewing is done on Saturdays and Sundays, led by brewer John Pupparo, who has a background in microbiology. “I’ve been learning but there is so much to it,” Millar said. Closing at 10 p.m. eliminates most of the college bar crowd, which usually doesn’t get revved up until after 11 p.m. The building is home to Berkshire-Hathaway CNY Realty, which takes up the entire first floor, as well as North Coast Yoga on the second floor. The building also features seven apartments. “The tenants are professional people who have to work the next morning,” he said. “I have to respect the tenants here. That’s why we’re not putting rock bands down here. It’s a different atmosphere,” he said. Millar is highly conscious of liability, and notes his beers’ alcohol content is around 5 percent, which is considered mid-range. The menu includes a beef and beer cheese sauce sandwich as well as tacos and burritos. Millar is familiar with high-end tasks such as creating a microbrewery. He formerly worked on oil tankers for ConocoPhillips, and as a merchant marine on rig-supply vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. His license provides him with the ability to create five locations. He plans his second location in Watertown. Millar also has plans to create a location at a restaurant in Brooklyn. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

A boost from Gov. Cuomo

Millar researched the craft-brewing concept and became inspired to create his own brewery once farm licenses were issued several years ago. “I just researched what it meant for the North Country and Upstate New York,” he said. The farm brewing law was passed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2012 and put into effect in 2013. Cuomo signed a bill that gives tax breaks to New York brewers and farmers and creates a new type of license allowing craft brewers to operate similar to wineries. The program is creating high demand for cash crops. Under the new program, brewers must purchase a certain amount of ingredients from New York state farms. “It’s spurred a lot of young entrepreneurs to do something they want to do,” Millar said. A psychology major at St. Lawrence University, Millar joined with fellow graduates from his alma mater and discovered they operate Pioneer Malting in Rochester and were growing wheat and barley on 90 acres of land. They are now Millar’s major suppliers, and will help him attain requirements mandated by his license. Until the end of 2018, at least 20 percent of the hops and 20 percent of all other ingredients must be grown in New York state. From Jan. 1, 2024, no less than 90 percent of hops and 90 percent of all other ingredients must be grown in the state. “I’m already there,” Millar said. The main ingredients in beer are wheat, barley and hops. Hops is used primarily as a flavoring and stabilizing agent in beer. Millar said hops takes up to four years to cultivate, much like vineyards for wine. “People are doing it now preparing for when we have to do 90 percent,” Millar said. Millar is also seeking $50,000 through the $3 million craft beverage marketing grant program being administered by Empire State Development. It was created to increase the profile, awareness and sales of New York state-produced wine, beer, spirits and hard cider. “That spurs more business and tax income,” he said.

By Lou Sorendo

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Amara Ercums is the owner of US Beer Bites, a new business in Oswego that makes dog treats.

Up-cycling to Success

US Beer Bites uses spent brewer’s mash to create all-natural dog treats

t requires ingenuity to take discarded material and create a product of higher quality. This is exactly what Amara Ercums is doing as owner of US Beer Bites, a new business located at 17 W. Cayuga St., Oswego. It operates within US Beer Brewers at The Cellar Door, a major tenant at the renovated Woodruff Building, one of the oldest commercial buildings in the Port City. Ercums, 27, has formed a symbiotic relationship with The Cellar Door owner Thomas Millar. Her business collects the mash or spent grain left over from producing craft beer at Millar’s brewery as well as others, and up-cycles it into all-natural dog treats. “It began as a concept, was built into a business plan, and we made it real,” Ercums said. Millar is the developer who has transformed the Woodruff Building into a viable commercial entity in the Port City. The treats consist of brewer’s barley spent grain, homemade barley spent grain flour, flour, peanut butter and eggs. The non-alcoholic treats come in

BUSINESS UPDATE

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

seven- and 12-ounce versions. Ercums is fresh off receiving a 3,000bag order by a New York City-based distributor that is quickly transforming the scope of her business. “It’s taken this to a different realm,” said Ercums in terms of the opportunity to wholesale her products. She said among her challenges is looking to bring her price point down by discovering ways to wholesale. Ercums is considering contracting with Oswego Industries to supply packing help for future orders. She developed a business plan late in 2015 and got her DBA in February. “It’s happening so quickly that it’s hard to wrap your head around it,” she said. “It’s humbling.” Originally from Minetto, Ercums formerly worked as a cook and supervisor at St. Luke Health Services in Oswego. “I love to cook and be in the kitchen,” she said. “I’ve always liked helping people and have gone from wanting to be a vet, teacher, nurse to chef to just anything that influenced somebody in a positive manner.” Ercums collects spent mash not only from The Cellar Door, but also from WT Brews in Baldwinsville and Stout Beard 41

Brewing Co. in Syracuse.

Rules to follow

Under the terms of New York state’s farm brewery license, a brewer can only dispose of spent mash in certain ways. “You just have to be conservative with it. There are so many farms and so many animals that you can give it to,” Ercums said. Spent mash is commonly used to feed livestock. Meanwhile, breweries are “popping up all over the place,” she said. “You can compost it, but can only compost so much and must find places to do that,” she said. A full-fledged brewery, however, generates significant amounts of spent mash that cannot simply be disposed of in a dumpster. To start the process, Ercums scoops spent mash left from the brewing process out of a mash tun and places it into buckets before cooling. She then puts it into an oven at a low temperature to dry it out. It’s then put through a grinder to make homemade spent grain flour. This helps dispose of spent grain in an efficient manner. “If you use spent grain flour, you still need a little bit of flour because gluten helps bind the dog treats,” she said. “By using the spent grain flour, you are eliminating a good amount of the wheat within the treat,” she said. “Many dogs have wheat sensitivity or allergies.” Ercums has yet to receive a complaint from customers, some whose dogs have digestive issues and wheat sensitivity. “It’s eliminating a lot of gluten that dogs would normally have,” she added. Ercums has a booth at the Thursday night farmers’ market in Oswego, and the treats are also featured at Taste the World in Canal Commons, downtown Oswego. They are also available at Green Planet Grocery in Oswego, as well as Evergreen Hills Golf Course and several convenience stores in the area. Ercums also offers them online at https://usbeer-bites.myshopify.com/. There are a wide variety of malts that come from barley, each featuring a different color and flavor. Ercums features eight different flavors: blonde, red, pale ale, amber, stout, porter and Kolsch, a German honey beer. They are human-grade treats. By Lou Sorendo

Malcolm Plummer is a private investigator in Syracuse. He especializes in voice stress analysis.

Private Investigator: 85 and Still Going Strong

Malcolm Plummer has logged more than 55 years as private investigator

yracuse’s Malcolm Plummer’s 56 years in private investigation has garnered him some memorable investigations and an intimate knowledge of how to detect the truth. Plummer, who is 85 years of age, became an investigator after getting out of the service and then trying a short stint as a barber. His father had been a barber at Syracuse’s old central train station. The younger Plummer decided cutting hair wasn’t for him. “I didn’t care for it and wasn’t making much money,” he said. “I always wanted to be an investigator so I got into Pinkerton National Detective Agency. I stayed there just long enough so I could get the experience to get my own license. That was 56 years ago.” Plummer continues to work regularly along side his seven employees at his office on Salina Street in Syracuse’s Little Italy. He said the business isn’t what it used to be. When he started there were just a few other private investigators in Syracuse. Today there are many he said, OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

and everyone is taking a piece of the pie. The key to success from his perspective is to specialize. “You can do it all, but specialize in one so they’ve got to come to you,” he said. For Plummer, one of his foremost specialties is voice stress analysis. It is a technology used to determine the truthfulness of what someone is saying. Voice stress analysis has similarities to the polygraph, but it is different in that it evaluates the characteristics of a person’s voice to determine if they are telling the truth. “ Vo i c e s t r e s s works on stress,” Plummer said. “There’s three types of stress in the average person. The first is nervousness. I’ve given over 15,000 exams in my career. If I took one tomorrow I’d be nervous. The secondis what they call outside-issue stress. People are worried you’re going to ask

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www.divasdusting.com Gift Certificates Available them about something other than what you’re talking about — do you cheat on your income tax? Do you cheat on your wife? They worry about that. The third major stress is deceptive stress. That’s what we look for and hope we don’t find. That kind of stress is caused by not telling the truth. There’s part of our brain that cannot lie.” Plummer’s journey to becoming a voice stress expert started in the Vietnam War-era when he went for investigation training. He met the two military men who invented voice stress analysis. They were looking for a less cumbersome method to interrogate captives in the field. Carrying polygraph equipment was too unwieldy. The hotel reservations for Plummer and the officers got mixed up and they ended up rooming together. “I stayed with them. It was great.” Since then he has conducted over 15,000 voice stress tests. The investigator said the golden era of voice stress analysis was in the 1980s, when he was able to make a considerable income doing pre-employment checks. Those OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

tests would involve questioning a job candidate to gauge their reliability before they were hired. That all came to an end, Plummer said, when the democrats in Congress passed a law outlawing the practice, he said. “That meant you could not use it in employment situations,” he said. Plummer has been involved with some dramatic cases over the decades. Valentino Dixon has been in jail for over two decades for a murder that Plummer says he didn’t do. For the last eight years Plummer has been working for free to set Dixon free. “I went to Attica and gave him an exam [voice stress analysis]. Everybody’s innocent there, right? How I know he didn’t do it — I talked to the guy that did it. He admitted to me that he did it. He admitted to the police he did it. I really thought we had him out a couple times. It’s so sad he’s in there all these years for something he didn’t do.” One of the his most memorable cases involved the mafia. “This family called me and they said OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

that their father was in the hospital,” Plummer said. “He owed a gambler some money. He was getting these calls from Utica, New York and New York City — the mafia type. When I walked in there they had $70,000 on the table they were going to pay off. I said ‘Wait!’ With the help of the FBI, Plummer said he put an end to the extortion. However, he said, the mob exacted revenge by burning the man’s car a year later. Today, Plummer ’s firm is well established in Syracuse. His business has diversified into many types of investigations. It now even includes auditing restaurants and bartenders for over-pouring or other dishonesty. Private investigation has taken Plummer on an interesting journey for the last six decades. He’s seen the industry evolve and get more competitive over the years. Now, even though he has dialysis a few days a week, he still says he’d rather be in the office than almost anywhere else. “I figure why stay home?” By Matthew Liptak 43

Bruce Frassinelli bfrassinelli@ptd.net

Hey, You Guys, Listen Up Term ‘you guys’ is now ingrained in our vernacular — but when should we use it?

O “Are we perpetuating gender-bias if we use the term ‘you guys’? We can turn this argument on its ear and ask how a group of men would feel about being addressed as ‘you gals’”

n a recent trip to Oswego to reconnect with old friends, I took three of my long-time and dearest friends to one of Oswego’s famous eateries. One is 99; the other two are in their mid-80s; I am 77. Our server arrived and greeted us with a jaunty, enthusiastic “Hi, guys.” Now, I must admit that, on occasion, I have greeted several of my students (a group of men and women) with this phrase, although when I greet them at the start My of class, I always say, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.” This may come off as officious and pretentious, but, so far, I have not gotten any complaints. Admittedly, the phrase “you guys” is super casual and, in some cases, offensive, especially in a business setting or when a server is addressing customers at least three times his or her age. Should there be an age limit on this phrase’s use — for example, never use it with anyone who is 50 or older, or 60, or 70? I am not offended when I am lumped into the amorphous “you guys,” but I know plenty of people, especially women, who are. At our high school class reunion two years ago, I did an unofficial survey among my then-75- and 76-year-old female classmates, and every one of them said they were annoyed or uncomfortable when they are in groups and addressed as

“you guys or, worse, “youse guys.” So, what would you like to be called, I asked. Almost all of them said by their first or last name or “ladies.” Last fall, when I asked six women in my community college classroom whether they had any problem in being included in “you guys,” five of the six said “no.” The sixth, who was in her mid-30s, said she didn’t get upset by it but would prefer to be addressed by something else. You’re probably Turn wondering by this time whether there are not way more important things to worry about, but those in business situations who use this phrase indiscriminately could run afoul of the political correctness police and their irritated customers. It could be hazardous to their financial health. One of my dinnermates said one of her friends withheld a tip from a server who used the phrase four times, including the greeting. “How is the food, guys?” “Is there anything else I can get you guys?” “Thanks very much, guys; have a good day.” Many people do not react one way or the other when someone uses the phrase. It has become an ingrained term in our modern vernacular, but as my 99-year-old friend said, “There is a time and a place for everything.” When I asked how she feels about being lumped into “you guys,” she said without hesitation, “I hate it. I prefer to be called ‘Mrs.’ — none of that ‘Ms.’ stuff either,” she said. A friend of mine runs a restaurant in Oswego. The day after our dinner, I asked him

‘Hey guys, how’s everything going?

BRUCE FRASSINELLI is the former publisher of The Palladium-Times and an adjunct online instructor at SUNY Oswego. 44

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

whether he instructs his servers about the use of the phrase. “Yes,” he said, “some of our customers despise it, so I instruct our servers to use ‘folks’ or nothing at all — just ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening, how are you ?’” In our politically correct society, where there is a keen focus on gender-neutral terms, “you guys” seems to be radically out of place. We are encouraged to use “firefighter” rather than “fireman,” “police officer” rather than “policeman” or “policewoman,” “carrier” instead of “mailman” and so on. So, are we perpetuating gender-bias if we use the term “you guys”? The curious thing about this phrase is that girls and women are as likely to use “you guys” among themselves as males are. We can turn this argument on its ear and ask how a group of men would feel about being addressed as “you gals.” Women who do object to the term are more likely to do so on the basis of its casualness rather than its gender bias. The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the modern-day term of “you guys” to Guy Fawkes, a conspirator in the ill-fated 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English House of Parliament. More than five centuries later, the English still burn Fawkes in effigy on the anniversary of the failed attack. Many top-level officials suggest that the term not be used in the workplace, because it comes off as presumptuous. In other words, you are seen as not knowing your place, which can be an impediment to your upward mobility in a company. When invoked by professional subordinates, “you guys” assumes a level of familiarity that may be viewed as impertinent by those up the chain of command. Those who use the term thinking it is a way of fitting in may find out in reality that it is putting off the very people they are trying to impress. Rather than creating the impression of a polished, self-aware professional, it projects an air of casualness that’s inappropriate in professional settings Use it during a job interview, and I assure you that in many instances it is an instant poison pill.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT By Lou Sorendo

Spanning Tourism I

Oswego County, Thousand Islands region huge draw for Central New Yorkers

t’s a bridge over promising waters. The Thousand Islands Bridge connects not only two historic allies, but also is part of a region which helps sustain a vibrant tourism industry. The structure is an international bridge system over the Saint Lawrence River connecting northern New York in the United States with southeastern Ontario in Canada. The bridge is about 86 miles from the city of Oswego and is reached by way of I-81 North. The Thousand Islands region consists of Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Oswego counties. It generates $500 million in tourism spending, according to Gary DeYoung, director of tourism of the 1000 Islands International Tourism Council. Of the total spending amount, the most is spent on food and beverages and second homes. Boldt Castle, a premier attraction in the 1000 Islands International 46

Region, generates nearly $40 million annually in regional economic activity. The historic site also generates over 600 jobs in the regional economy. The economic impact Boldt Castle and the Thousand Islands International Region has is dramatic from a regional and state tourism perspective. “Boldt Castle is certainly the best known attraction in the region,” DeYoung said. “The most common activity is boat tours.” Passenger traffic over the bridge averages 7,500 vehicles per day. DeYoung noted there are several types of tourists that frequent the region. One consists of transient tourists, or people who stay at campsites and hotel rooms. Meanwhile, vacation homes flourish in the region. There are approximately 10,000 vacation homes in Jefferson County alone. “That is a huge impact,” he said. OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

DeYoung said in previous research of vacation homeowners, there are three groups that are almost equal in size. There are residents who stay in the region for the entire summer, and are typically “snowbirds” that winter in Florida. Then there are the weekenders, or those from cities such as Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton and Utica who travel to the Thousand Islands on weekends. Another third are vacationers from all over the world who use their properties for several weeks or the entire summer and come and go over the course of the year. That set includes people who are in some instances traveling significant distances. “A lot of those people have generationally been coming here and have held onto that property and made it part of their lives,” DeYoung said. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Big-dollar impact

The state reports there was $242 million in vacation spending in Jefferson County in 2015, of which $75 million came from second homeowners. That number does not include revenue streams such as mortgage and tax payments. “If you look at it from a real estate perspective, it’s more significant,” DeYoung said. Traditionally, the No. 1 market for the Thousand Islands is the Syracuse area and Onondaga County, he noted. In terms of draw, he said regions located west of Syracuse — such as Rochester and Buffalo — are stronger than those east, such as Albany. Other strong markets are to the south, including Binghamton, and Scranton, Pa., and Harrisburg, Pa. In terms of transient tourists, DeYoung noted 25 percent of those are from the Greater Syracuse area. He noted the same holds true for the vacation home and weekender market, where better than 25 percent of the visitors are from the Central New York region.

Dollar plays role

The Thousand Islands Bridge handles about 6 percent of visitors coming into Canada by car. A set of inland lakes just north of the border draws a significant amount of visitors and sportsmen from Pennsylvania as well. “The Pennsylvania market for the Thousand Islands on the Canadian side is actually stronger than some of the Canadian places like Toronto,” DeYoung said. In speaking to Americans coming into Canada at the council’s welcome center, DeYoung noted many are targeting Ottawa and Toronto in particular as destination points. Visitors to Montreal, however, normally use the I-87 corridor, which is a more direct route. DeYoung said tourism advocates have seen a significant decline in Canadian crossings recently due to the devaluing of the Canadian dollar. The Canadian dollar dropped 16 percent against the U.S. dollar last year and earlier this year was hovering near 71 cents to the U.S. dollar. As a result, DeYoung noted that in OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

In 2015, there were 203,000 trucks that crossed the Thousand Islands Bridge for commercial purposes. Commercially, $1.2 billion in trade crosses the spans each month, or $40 million per day. 2014-2015, tourism growth in Jefferson County “was down just a tick,” as were destination points in Essex, Clinton and St. Lawrence counties. “A lot of us who are right on the border got beat up quite a bit with the decline in the Canadian dollar,” DeYoung said. In addition, shopping Meccas such as Destiny USA in Syracuse and Waterloo Premium Outlets in the Finger Lakes region experienced declines as well in Canadian shoppers. “Those shopping trips have really softened,” DeYoung said. However, Canadians continue to stream across the border heading south to such events as the recent Syracuse Nationals, a huge draw for Harley Owners Group members. “But we’re not hearing them saying, ‘Gee, I’m getting ready to do my school shopping’ or ‘my kid needs a new laptop’ and heading to Syracuse for a best buy, he added. While a half-billion dollars is a significant amount in terms of spending in the region, it represents only about 3 percent of tourism spending Upstate, DeYoung said. The Thousand Islands region is one of 11 tourism districts in the state, but only has about a population of 300,000. The Thousand Islands have tough competition in terms of tourism spending, especially considering the Fingers Lakes region features 14 counties. The Finger Lakes region — which OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

also encompasses Rochester and Syracuse — generates about 18 percent of tourism spending in the state.

Major commercial link

The bridge is also a major connector for commercial traffic. Trucks carried 60.4 percent of the value of freight to and from Canada from June 2015 to June of 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2015, there were 203,000 trucks that crossed the Thousand Islands Bridge for commercial purposes. Commercially, $1.2 billion in trade crosses the spans each month, or $40 million per day. “The flow really changes quite a bit based on the dollar,” DeYoung said. If Canadian currency becomes cheaper, Americans are more apt to purchase supplies from Canada and more trucks come south. As the American dollar gets closer to the Canadian dollar, Canadians in turn bring in American goods. As of Sept. 1, a $1 in U.S. currency equaled 76 cents. The average exchange rate during the first quarter of 2016 was 77 cents. Predictions call for a 75-cent exchange rate for the rest of 2016 and extending into the summer of 2017, according to Toronto-Dominion Bank. The 8.5-mile bridge structure, built in 1937, features five spans, two of which are suspension spans on the Canadian and U.S. sides. The actual structure is owned by the Federal Bridge Corp. of Canada, which has a contractual agreement with the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority to manage the entire system. The bridge itself is an attraction to visitors, who often walk along a sidewalk during warmer climes to access not only the dramatic peak at 150 feet above the St. Lawrence River, but also Wellesley Island about a mile from their starting point. Of course, that kind of height may be intimidating for some with height issues. Unlike an arch bridge that does not move, the suspension bridge is a machine on bearings and cables. It is designed to move and distributes its weight to deal with weather conditions. This can be a bit unnerving for pedestrians when a tractor-trailer whizzes by, DeYoung said. 47

COVER By Aaron Gifford

CNY Rising Economic development officials have ambitious plans for transforming CNY’s economy and returning it to prosperity within five years. Will them work?

Central New York economic development council has half a billion dollars and an ambitious plan for transforming the region’s economy and returning this area to prosperity within five years. Late last year, CenterState CEO was awarded $500 million of the $1.5 billion that was available in the state’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative. The plan, “CNY Rising,” includes a test facility for drones, a facility for expanding the shelf life of New York farm products, a resource center for military veterans, and an inland port that would encourage more products to come to and through Central New York. It also includes several smaller projects spread out among multiple counties, including Oswego. All told, the goal is to create more than 6,000 well-paying jobs by the end of 2020. A half-billion dollars is quite a bit of money to get the plan started, but CenterState still has its work cut out. It will take tremendous capital, resolve and cooperation among leaders to make things happen, CenterState officials say. The biggest obstacles for improving this area’s economy thus far have been poverty, continued loss of manufacturing jobs, painfully slow job and wage growth, high taxes and utility rates, and 48

a declining population base. “The financial resources are really critical,” CenterState CEO President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Simpson. “We have to have private sector partners. We can’t rely on our state. We have to have even more skin in the game than the state has.” Historically, there is no proof yet that economic development programs at the state level have been successful, according to a February 2015 report from the state comptroller’s office. The report indicated that in 2013, the Empire State Development Corporation assisted 19 companies in Central New York, retaining 1,574 jobs but creating only 323 new ones. By contrast, New York’s job growth in 2012 and 2013 was still behind the national average. The report also criticizes the ESDC for not detailing how benefiting companies and organizations have spent their grants. “New York has generally not matched national rates of growth in jobs and population for most of the postWorld War II period,” the report said. “The creation of the ESDC and other economic development agencies was intended to address this by fostering economic growth and job creation, but it’s unclear whether ESDC’s program OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

significantly influences overall conditions in the state.” Tax breaks, utility cost breaks and other concessions from state and local governments haven’t been the key to prosperity. The Empire Zone program, for example, has been heavily criticized for having loopholes that allow companies small and large to receive concessions without adding a significant number of employees. One of the biggest economic development initiatives of the millennium in this region, the expansion of the Carousel Center Mall (now Destiny USA), was delayed for several years as leaders fought over tax breaks while developers incrementally scaled back plans that originally called for tripling the size of the mall to include an indoor water park and hotel rooms. While the expansion that did occur has boosted sales tax revenues to the county, most of the added jobs have been in the areas of retail and food service, which are generally low paying.

ESDC out of picture

The Upstate Revitalization Initiative allows local economic development councils and not the ESDC to oversee the projects. Leaders say Central New York has the tools to make this plan work: a OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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trained and educated workforce, low cost of living, proximity to several colleges and universities, a central location that makes this area a hub for new types of industries, an abundance of existing manufacturing space, and a strong sense of community pride. CenterState and its counterparts from the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier beat out the Capital Region, the Mid-Hudson region, the Mohawk Valley and the North Country for the $1.5 billion pie. Now, CenterState is communicating its plans to various groups that have an interest in economic development and forging additional private and public sector partnerships. “The plan the region put forth to the state — CNY rising — is as bold and ambitious as any strategy Central New York has ever seen,” said Ben Sio, CenterState CEO’s chief of staff. “This is not a timid plan. This is an audacious plan that is fundamentally rooted in our region’s core strengths but that challenges the very status quo that has kept this region mired in mediocrity.” One of those challenges has been to diversify the area’s economy into something that doesn’t mostly rely on manufacturing. That’s a difficult task considering that so many communities in Upstate New York were established as factory towns and have always been known as such. Under the CNY plan,

many of the funded projects are not related to the production or assembly of industrial goods. The initiative for an agribusiness sector, for example, would include construction of a “Center for Sustainable Agriculture” aseptic daily plant in Central New York that would expand the shelf life of locally produced dairy goods long enough to be sold in emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East and South America. This would be a huge boon to local farmers. “Central New York is also one of the strongest dairy-producing regions in the country, yet it currently cannot meet this demand without an aseptic processing facility,” CenterState’s proposal said. In addition, the creation of a “Grown in New York” certification would result in a global name recognition that lets consumers in other countries know that the farm products from this area are not only safe to eat, but they are also of the highest quality, according to CenterState’s proposal.

High-powered relationships

The partnerships CenterState officials speak of include an arrangement with NASA to help develop the next generation of drone technology and unlock the economic benefit of unmanned systems. That, said Sio, would “leverage our region’s expertise in sensors and

cyber-security to position us on the ground floor of a trillion-dollar global market opportunity.” According to the proposal, Central New York and the Mohawk Valley could become the leading community in the nation for testing, innovation, and manufacturing of unmanned aerial systems. This could be done by building a network and supply chain of businesses, institutions, and start-ups around the unmanned industries. The network would include both leading researchers and regulators from NASA as well as the Federal Aviation Agency, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Meanwhile, improvements to the information technology systems that are required to establish this area as a hub for drone testing could be spun off into the medical field. According to the proposal, these advances in data analytics, artificial intelligence, sensing and instrumentation could be used to create massive data systems that could be used in medical research and the development of new medical industries here. The inland transportation port would occupy 200 acres of land containing warehouses and massive shipping containers. It would sit between Route I-81 and the state Thruway, making it a key stop to or from the ports in New

Meet Rob Simpson, President and CEO of CenterState CEO Family: Wife, Corinne; son, Ben.

Hometown: New Hartford Education: 1997 graduate of Colgate University; Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (master’s degree in public administration) 50

Previous employers: Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C.; Wisconsin State Environmental Resource Center (policy director); assistant legislative director to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV. In 2011, Simpson was appointed to serve as co-chairman as the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council. In this role, he has helped to secure more than $844 million thus far for Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties – more than any other region in the state.

Q&A

Q.: Why did you return to Central New York instead of pursuing a career in the nation’s capital? OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

A.: “We liked D.C., but I’m from this area and my wife is from the Finger Lakes. We love Central New York and we really like being near the Adirondacks. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.” Q.: Upon returning to this area after having grown your career outside of New York state for much of your adult life, how do you think this area has changed the most since when you were a kid? A.: “Yes, the economy has been changing and not always for the better. But there is this sense of optimism that is stronger than before. I truly feel that there is a belief that we can rebuild. We can honor our history, but also invite new ideas.” OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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JEEP CONNECTION York City and New Jersey. Sio calls it a “modern day Silk Road.” A component of this project would be to increase the number of flights to and from Syracuse Hancock International Airport. With the increased traffic of people and goods into Syracuse, attempts would be made to market several shovel-ready sites, including the Oswego County Industrial Park, according to the proposal.

For the veterans

The CNY Rising plan also calls for a national veteran’s resources complex where career placement services, including entrepreneur training, would take place. A building on Waverly Avenue at Syracuse University will be renovated to host this multi-use facility. “We build on our region’s long-standing reputation as a community that is welcoming to veterans and their military families by investing in a National Veteran’s Resource complex — a first-of-its-kind facility that can serve as many as 50,000 veterans during the next five years, bringing their expertise, intellect, patriotism and spending power OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

to Central New York,” Sio said. About $25 million will be spent on modernizing and restructuring local government services in the region. This will cover research on how to make public safety, public works/highway, and town, city or village administrative services more efficient. “The impetus and urgency for modernization,” the CNY Rising proposal says, “is most powerfully illustrated by the fiscal un-sustainability of the current structure. Municipal governments face increasing pressure to sustain essential services in an environment characterized by slow growth in population, high taxes, recurring cost growth and a property tax cap constraining their ability to generate additional revenues.” In addition, the plan outlines an “Alliance for Economic Inclusion,” which would work to expand demand for workforce training programs, strengthen the job and talent pipeline in poor communities, remove neighborhood blight and promote home ownership, and target industrial development to areas that desperately need jobs. A good chunk of the $500 million OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

will also be applied to several smaller projects, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s previous announcement of the awards: • Expansion of the Inns of Aurora (Cayuga County) to include a new spa and events center • A silicone coating production line will be added to the Felix Schoeller North America, Inc. plant in Pulaski to shift manufacturing of that product from a foreign country to Central New York. • Construction of a 100,000 squarefoot research, development and training center for advanced manufacturing of semiconductors at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Marcy All told, the CNY Rising initiative is a “bottom up community development vision to build and grow the economy in the next five years,” Simpson said. “I think this plan is very reflective of what our economy is, and what it could be,” he said. “We have unique and creative partnerships. Not every region is bringing this to the table. Our vision is a good balance of manufacturing, hightech and rural character.” 51

L. Michael Treadwell ooc@oswegocounty.org

Federal Loan Programs Facilitate Local Business Development

O Borrowers are strongly encouraged to provide opportunities for employment to lower income residents of the County of Oswego.

L. MICHAEL TREADWELL, CEcD, is executive director of Operation Oswego County based in Oswego.

ne of the tools in the County of make real property renovations or cover soft Oswego Industrial Development costs, start-up costs and working capital. The Agency’s (COIDA) toolbox of financ- use of loan proceeds to refinance existing debt ing programs is the USDA Intermediary is prohibited. Projects eligible for financing under the Relending Program (IRP). Loans from this program are targeted to enhance the county’s IDA IRP loan program are limited to the overall economic well-being and to foster the following types: (1) manufacturing facilities; creation and retention of job opportunities (2) warehousing and distribution facilities; for the county’s citizens, while helping area (3) research and development facilities; (4) service and support facilities deemed essential businesses develop and grow. IRP loans are designed to be used for (1), (2), and (3); (5) tourism-related service in conjunction with other funding from businesses that are essential to the county’s non-IDA sources, such as banks and other overall tourism development programs; and economic development lenders, to serve as (6) other economic development related projeither “gap” or “subsidy” financing. “Gap” ects deemed essential and necessary for the loans are those which provide funds need- county’s economic well-being. To further economed to complete a total ic development in the project which would not Economic Trends county, IRP borrowers be available from other are strongly encouraged sources. “Subsidy” financing becomes necessary to provide opportunities for employment when sufficient funds are available from to lower income residents of the County of other sources but the cost of these funds is Oswego and award contracts for work to be at a level that renders the project financially performed with loan proceeds to businesses unfeasible. Therefore, the IDA IRP Program or persons which are located in the county. Operation Oswego County (OOC) is a funds are required for a lower total project Small Business Administration (SBA) certified funding rate. Loans are offered on a first come-first development company and is authorized to served basis. To qualify for an IDA IRP loan, finance projects using the SBA 504 loan proapplicants must prove credit worthiness, gram, which is designed to promote economic project feasibility, job opportunities and development growth and job creation in small environmental compliance. If the applicant businesses. The program can make the overall needs help in developing a business plan to financing structure for a new business or projsupport the project, they will be referred to ect more attractive and affordable. The program offers accessible, fixed-rate, and assisted by the Small Business Devellong-term financing for land, buildings and opment Center at SUNY Oswego. The program offers fixed rate loans, equipment. Businesses eligible for SBA 504 ranging from 3-6 percent, with terms of loans are independently-owned, for-profit 3-10 years, depending on the use of the pro- businesses that are ready to expand and create ceeds. Funding participation is capped at 50 jobs. They must have a net worth less than percent of the total project cost or $100,000, $15 million and an average net income of less whichever is less. However, in general the than $5 million for the two years prior to SBA participation level is 25 percent or less. One 504 application. An SBA certified development company, of the primary objectives of the program is to leverage financing. All IDA IRP loans will such as Operation Oswego County), finances be secured with real property and assets 40 percent of the project with a SBA 504 loan, of the business and/or business owners a bank lends 50 percent and the small business or corporate officers. Loans may also be provide 10 percent equity. Key program points include: secured by the equipment purchased with • For every $65,000 of a regular SBA 504 the loan proceeds. The IDA can subordinate loan, the project must create or retain at least its loan to a bank. IRP loan proceeds may be used to pur- one job. • For every $100,000 of a manufacturing chase machinery and equipment, inventory, OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SBA 504 loan, the project must create or retain one job. • Machinery and equipment financed must have a useful life of at least 10 years. • For construction of a new building, the small business borrower must plan to occupy at least 60 percent of the space. • For purchase or remodeling of an existing facility, the small business borrower must plan to occupy at least 51 percent of the space. • The borrower must qualify as a small business. According to the SBA, about 98 percent of all US companies meet the agency’s definition of a small business. • The maximum size of a regular SBA loan is $5 million, while the maximum for a manufacturing 504 project is $5.5 million. The interest rate is fixed for the entire 10 or 20 year term of the loan. These two federal loan programs help provide the means for Oswego County businesses to get the financing they need to expand and grow. If you have a project that could benefit from a County of Oswego IDA IRP Loan or a US Small Business Administration 504 Loan, contact Operation Oswego County at 343-1545 or visit ooc@ oswegocountyida.org, to download application forms.

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Oswego County Ranked in Top 10 for Logistics by National Publication Business Facilities magazine recently ranked Oswego County 10th in the top 10 logistics leaders across the U.S. in its 12th Annual Rankings Report. The rankings were based on “the locations which have tremendous assets serving all modes of transportation: air, land, water and rail.” Business Facilities is a national site selection magazine which provides monthly news and resource information for more than 40,000 corporate executives responsible for the expansion or relocation of their companies. Business Facilities is based in Tinton Falls, N.J. “To be included in this group of the highest caliber locations for logistics in the country is an honor and truly speaks to the viability of Oswego County as an exceptional place to locate a business,” said L. Michael Treadwell, executive director of Operation Oswego County. “This recognition would not have been possible without the vast network of transportation and logistic capabilities that we have here. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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SPECIAL REPORT By Matthew Liptak

Growth Spurt at Ogdensburg Airport With a new runaway and larger planes, Ogdensburg International Airport is now offering flights to Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, in addition to daily flights to Boston. Number of passengers is expected to skyrocket.

9 Patrick Sharrow Questions to

Manager at Ogdensburg International Airport

1. What are your duties now?

As the airport manager I’m overseeing construction, development, making sure all our certification manuals are in order, our training programs are in order — basically I’m making sure everything is safe and legal. We’re moving toward what an actual passenger service airport should be.

2. What exciting stuff is happening at the airport?

There’s lots of exciting stuff. This is a smaller airport with a 54

central air service with Cessna 402s providing daily service flights to Boston. We wanted to expand this airport. The Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority had a vision to get larger aircraft in here and get better service for the surrounding community and the North Country, including Canada. In order to do that the agency went with a bunch of different airlines and found Allegiant Airlines to be interested. They wanted to bring A320 aircraft into this airport. We need to extend the runway, widen OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

the taxiways, build a new terminal with a new ramp that can accommodate that size aircraft. That’s what we’ve done. The Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority basically did about 10 years worth of planning and construction in three years. It was a lot of work. We’ve finished up the runway project. We’re finishing up the taxiways now. The terminal recently reopened for Cape Air to start service again. We’re planning for our first Allegiant flight to go out Oct. 25. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

3. How many flights will you have?

They’re flying A320 aircraft. It’s a 177-passenger aircraft. They’re flying four flights a week out of Ogdensburg to two different destinations. One is Orlando and the other is Fort Lauderdale. It just seems like those are the hot destinations where people are interested in going.

4. What are your biggest challenges?

Everything’s a challenge. A lot of the challenge is just balancing the growth of the airport with providing quality service. And balancing the airlines needs with our local needs. The needs of the community are that we are going to strive to promote low-cost carriers to as many destinations as we can find. It’s about choices for our community and providing quality air service at the same time. It’s a balance of providing these services, meeting with airlines and also having the facility to be able to handle the airline. As we continue to grow, it’s going to be a challenge to keep the infrastructure of the airport up with our continued growth. You’ve got to continue building buildings. You’ve got to continue having storage facilities, holding areas large enough to accommodate two A320s — 354 people. That’s are really big holding area. That’s the challenge—having all this growth and having it all happen at the same time.

5. How many passengers do you get and do you expect to get?

Probably with this service we’re expecting an additional 30,000 enplanements [number of passenger boarding planes] a year. We had about 5,200 previously. We went basically from a six to nine passenger aircraft to a 177 passenger aircraft. A Cessna 402 is a small, twin engine, piston-driven plane and an A320 is a very large, jet-powered aircraft. It’s really completely night and day with the steps that we’re taking here.”

6. How does the airport make a profit?

We’re really here to provide a

service. We’re not here making a lot of money right now. We’re just making sure we provide a good service for the community of the North Country. And making sure we’re providing the quality service that brings people to where they need to go so that this brings access. We can get people in which brings jobs into the community. It brings money into the community. You’ve got the Canadian market right across the area. [We want to] pull them down and give them another option to fly out of here instead of just Ottawa.

7. Do you hope it keeps growing?

Yes. That’s the plan—to continue growing. This is just the beginning of our vision here in Ogdensburg. Everybody needs a place to start and this is it. We’re going to continue growing and doing the best we can as we do it. Your work’s never done at an airport.

8. Are you excited about what’s happening?

Very. I think everyone is very, very excited about it. It’s fun to be part of a project like this.

What’s your background?

Basically I grew up in Charlotte, Vt. That’s about a half-hour south of Burlington. I grew up in a maintenance shop changing tires and started hanging out in the local airport, which is a little grass strip. I started restoring all the old hangar aircraft, restoring with all the old hangar monkeys up there. I even worked on a lot of planes. One of the local pilots said, I started flying when I was in high school, got my license when I got out of high school, went to an Emory Riddle Aeronautical University down in Daytona Beach, Fla., where I originally started studying aerospace engineering. I went back up to Vermont and took a job with Jet Blue Airways. I did that from 2003 to 2006. In 2006 I took a job with Burlington International Airport as an airport operations specialist. I did that for 10 years. I left Burlington and came here. I took the job here as a new challenge.

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Manufacturing/Economic Development SPECIAL REPORT

One Million Cups organizers Dan Taylor, left, and Amy Wyant enjoy running the business networking group. Wyant called One Million Cups “group therapy for your business.” Several hundred presenters and audience members have attended the program since it started just over a year ago in Syracuse.

One Million Cups Brings Business People Together Group works as a sounding board for business owners looking for best solutions for their issues. Organizers say weekly sessions are ‘group therapy for business owners’

he Syracuse chapter of One Million Cups was the first of its kind to be formed Upstate. The combination business network, free education source and sounding board for business owners has entered its second year at Syracuse CoWorks. “When you’re trying to grow something organically you sometimes need help,” said Amy Wyant one of the volunteer organizers for Syracuse’s One Million Cups. I recently sat down with four of the group’s organizers. One Million Cups is a national network started in 2012. It currently has 77 chapters around the country. It was formed by the Kauffman

Foundation, a pro-entrepreneur group. The format is the same for One Million Cups at all its chapters. A local business person gives a short presentation, free to the public each Wednesday morning. From 15 to 50 people may be in the audience depending on who is presenting. The presenter then answers questions and can also ask his own of the audience. In this way those attending can network with other local business people, learn about subjects of interest to them and bounce ideas off an audience with a variety of expertise. “It helped my business tremendously,” said Wyant, who is the founder of OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Tech Geekery, a local tech support firm. “I was trying something new and banging my head against a wall. We realized that whether you work from home or work in the coworking space there’s things and questions that you have that you may not always feel comfortable being completely vulnerable [about] in a group. In the business world in general we’re taught to wall it off.” The organizers gave several examples of how the audience-led brainstorming at One Million Cups helped local business people. “Recently we had the Rescue Mission to come and talk to our group,” said organizer Glenn Allen, a freelance OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

software developer. The nonprofit was trying to figure out how to get more volunteers to sign up on off-seasons rather than just the holidays. Allen spoke up with the idea of incentivizing prospective volunteers to work off-seasons by guaranteeing them a spot to volunteer during holidays if they committed to working a certain number of hours off-season. Allen wasn’t sure if the Rescue Mission was going to implement his suggestion, but it is just one example of the ideas that can come out of One Million Cups, he said Organizer Dan Taylor, owner of Expressive Consulting, gave another example. The owner of a winery came to a presentation and he expressed to the network his problem of how to personalize wine bottles for customers. A member of the Salt Makerspace, a nonprofit inventors space in Syracuse, was on hand and offered the idea of having bottles laser engraved. “The CEO of the winery had never heard of laser engraving [and] didn’t know that this was something that could be done in a small batch,” Taylor said.

“He was really excited just to have this new option.” And another example was the story of an inventor who came to One Million Cups and didn’t know how to start producing his product. He struck paydirt with his visit to the presentation. “In the audience was somebody who specialized in large manufacturing molds,” Wyant said. “He had really great insight to help that inventor. Another person in the audience was one of the salt makers who specialized in the smaller scale molds and dyes. That inventor had an awesome breadth of knowledge right there in the audience.” Organizers have noted common challenges between the owners of Upstate companies too. “Talent—having their workforce think innovatively or [being] entrepreneurial when it comes to problem solving across the board,” said organizer Braden Croy, a consultant to universities. “How do you spur that across organization structures? It’s something that’s very interesting to watch everyone grapple with.”

Another common problem they found organizations have is awareness. Owners and organization heads want to know how to get the word out about what they have to offer. That is also a challenge One Million Cups is facing moving forward. “We’re hoping to continue to grow our audience,” Wyant said. “What I’d really love is for people to just know that we’re out here and for people to come and present. What I’d [also] really like to do is bring people back in. Maybe once every six months or so see how One Million Cups has helped you so we can have that full cycle.” “It’s not a Shark Tank pitch where people are looking to rip you apart,” Allen said. “It’s a supportive group.” One Million Cups Syracuse takes place at 9 a.m. every Wednesday at the Syracuse CoWorks space on the second floor of 201 E. Jefferson St. Parking is available on the street or at a garage on adjacent Warren Street. For more information, visit www1millioncups.com/syracuse.

By Matthew Liptak

Daniel Rickman from the Small Business Administration in Syracuse presents to about 15 people at One Million Cups in Syracuse on May 25. The audience both asked questions and gave feedback to Rickman on his agency’s needs. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Increase Your Web Traffic Local experts talk about ways your site can get more hits

ou have a website. You want more traffic. You know content — the images, videos and text — can help draw traffic to your site. But how can you make it happen? It’s not as difficult as it may first seem. People searching for what your company sells enter terms related to their search: keywords. Your site must contain keywords commonly used by people searching online in its pages and header links. This “maximizes search engine potential,” said Shane R. Stepien, president of Step One Creative in Oswego. “One of the biggest misconceptions is that if a website is up that people will find it, or know about it. “Your website is part of your brand, and it needs to be promoted in every aspect of your operation.” Include the Web address on all paperwork, signs, correspondence and advertising. Start with a mobile-friendly website, so that the growing number of mobile users can easily access

your site. If you exclude them, you’re losing business and will continue to lose more business as more people use smartphones and tablets for Internet searches. Keep your site up-to-date by posting something new at least once weekly. Adding content only for the sake of content doesn’t drive traffic to your site. Rick Purdy, digital and media strategist with ABC Creative Group, Inc. in Syracuse, said that understanding what your audience wants to know, what problems they want to solve and what interest them, can help you provide content that keeps people returning to your site. “When distributed and shared socially, the right content will attract more traffic, mentions, and shares,” Purdy said. “Over time, this has a tendency to snowball.” You don’t have to write a tome or post dozens of pictures or videos to keep your site fresh and closer to the top of search engine results. But Steve OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Chirello, owner of Chirello Advertising in Fulton, said that consistently adding new content is essential. “One way is to maintain a blog on your website and promote it through your social media accounts,” he said. Don’t let the blog go stale, or it allows your ranking to slip and may make visitors wonder if you’re no longer in business. Anything you post on your website should appeal to your potential customers and clients and also be free of anything offensive to them. Post carefully. Some aspects of your business may seem old hat to you, but they pique the interest of people unfamiliar with your industry. If you write poorly, consider hiring a freelance writer to at least polish up your writing or to tackle the job altogether. Postings riddled with errors of grammar, punctuation, spelling and diction make your site look less professional. Photos may include scenic photos of your business, close-ups of products or finished jobs, and head shots of new employees. Keep photos free of “junk” (such as clutter and unappealing elements) and tight. Too many focal points in one photo make it hard for people to see what’s important. Videos could include how-to’s or an insider’s view of your industry. It’s also vital to keep up with comments from people who visit your site and social media. “Consumers today have the attention span of sugared-up 10-year-olds at a sleepover,” Stepien said. “They want answers immediately.” Chirello also encourages business owners to post milestones for the business on its social media pages and link that to the website. Hire a new staff member? Expand your products or services? Let everyone know. Build links between your business and other websites, such as those of businesses and organizations that complement yours, civic groups, and the media. The more people who share your content, the more free exposure your company receives. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Manufacturing/Economic Development SPECIAL REPORT By Matthew Liptak Daniel Rickman from the Small Business Administration in Syracuse presents to about 15 people at One Million Cups in Syracuse on May 25. The audience both asked questions and gave feedback to Rickman on his agency’s needs.

A Home for CNY Inventors, Creators A

SALT Makerspace in Syracuse offers access to sophisticated design equipment, 3-D printers

California transplant who fell in love with Syracuse is working hard to make his brainchild an indispensable asset to the Central New York business community. The SALT Makerspace, a nonprofit organization, was opened in Syracuse two summers ago by 33-year-old Michael Giannattasio, a former SU grad student and current adjunct professor at the university. The Syracuse Arts Learning & Technology (SALT) Makerspace allows inventors and artistic and business creators access to sophisticated design equipment and software at a reasonable price. “We’ve got four 3-D printers,” Giannattasio said. “We’ve got our laser cutter. We can cut through quarter inch OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

acrylic and quarter inch plywood. We can laser etch in glass. We can laser etch on steel when it’s properly treated. We have six copies of Solidworks 3-D modeling software. We have Rhinoceros, which is another 3-D modeling software on the computers.” The equipment is priced at $20,000 to $40,000 for each piece. It’s not an expense most inventors or even many established businesses may be able to afford when they’re looking to prototype a product or refine a design. The opportunity the makerspace provides is made possible through an agreement with Cadd Edge, a company that sells 3-D printing equipment. People can access all makerspace’s equipment for only $60 a month. “We have a great relationship with this company called Cadd Edge,” OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

Giannattasio said. “They are a rep for Solidworks and Stratus equipment — a printer manufacturer. What they’ve done is essentially brokered a relationship with the manufacturer of the machines to give them to us essentially as [a way to] show people how to use these.” The makerspace started in 2014 with $30,000 from the Syracuse Tech Garden along with donations of $15,000 from two benefactors. Giannattasio already had $25,000 in equipment in storage. Giannattasio, who is also a public artist, worked with friend Melisa Montgomery to find support for their idea and a place SALT Makerspace could call home. “We scoured Syracuse trying to find any kind of location that would take us,” Giannattasio said. 59

It took them many months and when they finally came close to a lease agreement it fell through. Montgomery had had enough, so Giannattasio took on the challenge alone. In 2014, Makerspace finally went into 2,300 square feet in the Delavan Center in Syracuse. “We had a full wood shop, a full metal shop,” Giannattasio said. “That was 1,600 square feet. Then down the hall was approximately 700 square feet that was a digital fabrication studio similar to what you see here.” It became clear a year later that demand for access to the Delevan shop and studio at the $100 per month required to get access wasn’t working. Giannattasio was faced with a grim decision — downsize or go belly up. “We went from 2,300 square feet to 400,” he said. “It sucked. It really sucked. The biggest hurdle that we had to jump was the fact that it wasn’t feasible for the business to operate in the capacity that it was. We were looking at around $4,000 in overhead monthly including insurance, rent and consumables. That’s really, really tough.” Today SALT Makerspace gets by with a little help from its friends. Giannattasio found a much smaller space that could house the 3-D printers and laser printer and also provide computer access to the six copies of CAD software for members. It is in the Syracuse Coworks space, a place he had worked with before. With overhead now down to $900 a month Makerspace now charges members $60 a month for access Tuesday through Friday 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. and Saturdays by appointment. If the member was willing to pay $100 a month they could get 24-hour access to the Makerspace. “With that [$100 a month] access we also ask that there’s a volunteer aspect so that either you’re coming up with events, helping with the Facebook page, sitting in the space and watching the shop while it’s open — somehow giving back to the space for the extra access,” Giannattasio said. SALT Makerspace is incorporated as a type B educational facility, he said. It receives its nonprofit funding through the Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse. Giannattasio’s facility now has 12 members. Giannattasio is growing the facility 60

Inventor and artist Colleen Woolpert recently developed her stereoscopic TwinScope Viewer at SAL Makerspace, which is patent pending. The scope is an update on the old stereoscope device used to view 3-D images. It not only allows one to more easily view 3-D images, it gives the user the chance to observe the image while it’s in a frame.

How to Contact

The nonprofit SALT Makerspace is located on the second floor of 201 E. Jefferson St. in downtown Syracuse. For more information, call 650-703-1925 or email SaltSyr@gmail.com. and ultimately wants to have it back in a larger space. But even as is the makerspace could be considered a success. It has helped several local inventors and artists access to technology that otherwise might have been denied them. Inventor and artist Colleen Woolpert uses the SALT Makerspace. She developed her stereoscopic TwinScope Viewer there, which is patent pending. The scope is an update on the old stereoscope device used to view 3-D images. It not only allows one to more easily view 3-D images, it gives the user the chance to observe the image while it’s in a frame. “The Makerspace is more than machinery and tools,” Woolpert said. OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

“Mike is an excellent teacher, patient and generous, so I look at the Makerspace as an educational center as much as a place to fabricate. The Makerspace has been critical to my production as an interdisciplinary artist and specifically allowed me to develop and make my TwinScope Viewer.” Ron Golembieski is making “The Pocket Shelf” through SALT Makerspace. The pocket-sized, portable adhesive-based shelf allows consumers to put the small shelf up almost anywhere in a moment to store their cell phone, drink cup or other item on. “Mike from SALT is currently making a prototype mold so I can actually produce product in a limited quantity,” Golembieski said. “This will allow me to test, approach market buyers and actually get it in to people’s hands.” The potential for the SALT Makerspace is only limited by the imagination of the inventors and designers who use it. Their creations can lead to limited run goods that are valued by a few or ground-breaking inventions that could inspire an industry. It is really up to the ingenuity of the makers who use the space. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT

Young Entrepreneurs Central New York is rich in young business people who have the savvy and acumen to be successful in a challenging economic environment. However, it takes a special breed to be an entrepreneur, willing to develop and manage a business venture along with many of the inherent risks to make a profit. In this issue of Oswego County Business, we feature five of these entrepreneurs. They share their fascinating stories on how they decided to start a business to how they turned that dream into reality

Stories By Matthew Liptak 62

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SPECIAL REPORT

Megan Pecora, 25 Goes from managing the copy center at Staples as a 20-year-old to running her own business at age 25

wenty-five-year-old Megan Pecora always knew she wanted to run a business. When her position at the Staples copy center ended with the closure of the store in Oswego, she was unemployed. Pecora saw through the downturn though and made it into an opportunity. “Everything just kind of clicked,” Pecora said. “I said, ‘This is what I want to do!’ A couple of years later here I am.” Pecora invested her small savings, between $5,000 and $7,000, into her new undertaking. The SUNY Oswego business graduate also got help from the Small Business Development Center at SUNY Oswego. She said a program through the organization helped round out her business knowledge, but it was at the Staples copy center where most of her know-how and business acumen was honed. “I learned everything there of what the people of Oswego want in a copy center and what they don’t,” she said. “I took what I learned from working at Staples and put my own spin on it.” Port City Copy Center offers more than copying alone. Services include binding, laminating, paper cutting, faxing, blue prints, mounting and some signage printing. Pecora is looking into providing shipping services to the public too. She started her business with two machines and now has a half dozen. “With the fancier ones, the technology is so obsolete just like with computers,” she said. “You buy one thing one year and the next year they’ve got something fancier out. It makes more sense with the bigger stuff to lease it and get something else at the end of the lease period.” OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Port City Copy Center moved its storefront to 52 West Bridge St. in May. The business has been open for over two years now and is going strong.

Internet business booming

The Internet side of her business is growing. She started a new website, but shut it down. Now she takes orders via email, orders@portcitycopycenter.com and that accounts for about 30 to 40 percent of her jobs. She said she tries to stay competitive price-wise with large

online printing services like Vistaprint. About half the business to the center comes from walk-ins and half from commercial clients. So far, her profits have not been remarkable, she said. She pays herself a small stipend to cut down on the amount of money she takes away from the copy center. “It was my first time opening a business, so I just started very small,” Pecora said. “Then I just continued to grow by pumping the money back into the business. I got a very small microloan

Pecora

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT

through the city.” Being a contributing part of her community is important to Pecora. She also strives to be a better-than-average employer when it comes to employee wages. “I want to be able to pay them even more than the minimum wage,” she said. “It’s very important to me that my employees have a good quality of life. No one should have to work ‘X’ amount of hours and still struggle to get by.” Pecora employs two part-time workers, both above the current minimum wage. She hopes to make her employees full time as she grows the business. But she needs Oswego’s help to do that. “It’s still kind of tough to get the word out sometimes so I advertise in the paper,” she said. “Advertising’s very expensive but I find a lot of people are stuck in their ways. They know Staples and they know that there’s one on Route 31. I just want to save them the trip. I’m right here. You don’t have to go 30 miles to Route 31.” Like many entrepreneurs, Pecora is putting in long hours to give Port City Copy Center a chance to succeed, but she said she loves Oswego and running her business. “Every day is a challenge, but it’s very satisfying being able to help people,” she said. “Every day’s so different. We’re a copy and print center, but that doesn’t mean every day is going to be the same. It’s fun trying to figure out what the customer needs and how to fulfill it.”

had an opportunity to pick it up,” Raymond said. “All the guys from the shop wanted to stay with me too. It worked out well that it all stayed together and formed a revised version of the first shop.” As The Good Guys Barbershop in Canal Commons, the business is booming. It has grown from a three-barber operation to seven men, doubling its revenue. Raymond, the business’ sole proprietor, attributes much of that to a business model more focused on catering to the

desires of the customer base. “Customer service is first,” Raymond said. “We want guys to feel like they are being pampered and being taken care of to the highest level.” But at the same time, The Good Guys prides itself on being an old-school barbershop with modern-day amenities. For the enjoyment of the customer, there are several wall-mounted TVs, a pool table, video game and even a complimentary beverage. “It’s a man-cave away from home,” Raymond said.

Raymond

Keith Raymond, 31 Leader at The Good Guys Barbershop goes from barber to salon owner

hen the Downtown Barber & Shave Co. in Oswego went through a downturn a few years ago, master barber Keith Raymond saw an opportunity. “The shop kind of went under so I 64

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SPECIAL REPORT

“It’s a sanctuary for men; not that women aren’t allowed in. But I think it’s pretty clearly stated that this is a guys’ place,” he said. “You feel like you’re going to hang out with friends when you get a haircut.” The Good Guys barbershop almost immediately went into the black upon opening. Raymond said $15,000 was invested to update the shop and monthly overhead is low — less than $2,000. Today, he said the shop makes between $10,000 and $12,000 a month. He estimated they do about 1,500 haircuts a month at $16 each, which is a pretty good percentage of Oswego’s 8,000 or so residents. About 25 percent of The Good Guys’ customers come from SUNY Oswego. The shop hasn’t had to spend much to market to them. “They market themselves,” Raymond said. “We’ve been really fortunate with that. We haven’t had to spend the time marketing. You give a group of college guys a good haircut and they all want to know where to go to get a good haircut. It takes not very long at all for word to spread.”

Looking to expand market

The Good Guys is hoping recent television advertising will allow the business to expand to new locations, perhaps Fulton or Baldwinsville, where Raymond sees a need. The 31-year-old Mexico High School graduate said barbering is a growing industry once again as men have been indulging in caring about their hairstyles and enjoying the whole barbershop experience. It takes a Good Guy’s barber about a half hour to do a cut. The training for a master barber is a two-year apprenticeship. Raymond said he has noticed apprenticed barbers who go through on-the-job training seem to offer a better product than those who have gone to a barber school. That is perhaps the biggest challenge to The Good Guys’ growth — the lag time in training barbers who can provide high-quality haircuts. The entrepreneur is trying to be careful about expanding too quickly and risking the reputation of his brand. “We want to maintain the integrity of the business first and foremost,” OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Raymond said. “If we can’t find a way to do that, we’ll just make this spot as nice as possible.” The Good Guys Barbershop is prospering and the entrepreneur wants to see it expand. On some Fridays, there can be a two-hour wait for a haircut. The barbers have considered starting their own barber school locally to feed the industry, including The Good Guys, but they haven’t looked into that possibility too deeply yet. As a busy father of a newborn and also a businessman, Raymond can get stretched pretty thin, but in the end he believes that it is the quality of service that The Good Guys barbershop provides which is its golden goose. Every haircut is a bit of art and the business will rise or fall on each snip of the scissors. “Every haircut’s a billboard,” he said.

Glenn Zansitis, 31

Zink Screenprinting and Design Glenn Zansitis’ Zink Screenprinting and Design fits Port City ‘to a T’

n 2011, Glenn Zansitis made $6,400 by making screenprinting shirts by hand in a spare room of his Westvale home. This year, he is projecting to gross about $560,000 out of his Zink Screenprinting and Design facility on East Cayuga Street in Oswego. “It’s been expanding everyday,” Zansititis said. “Operation Oswego County dubbed the company a ‘gazelle company.’ Since we started, we’ve doubled our gross profits for three years in a row.” Zink Screenprinting and Design did plateau a bit with $299,000 in gross sales in 2015. But the 31-year-old entrepreneur attributes that to maxing out his equipment and labor. He’s acquired newer printing machinery that will increase Zink’s production. A new website — www.zinkshirts.com — should increase sales too. “I closed on a loan for new equipment which is going to allow us to OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

double in size again,” Zansitis said. “We’re working with Pathfinder Bank, Operation Oswego County, and the Small Business Development Center to draft out a plan.” Success at the printing business has a lot to do with efficiencies Zansitis has learned. With the new equipment, he is able to produce more in a shorter period of time, driving down labor costs and increasing sales. Right now, he employs seven people. They work hard, but enjoy a casual, friendly atmosphere at the facility that serves as a front office, design center and printing factory. “This system really just streamlines the process so what used to take two to three hours now takes us 15 to 30 minutes,” Zansitis said. “With the new equipment, we’ll be able to go from 860 to probably max 5,000 shirts a week. “We have a new website and we’re going to ramp up our online presence. We’re going to do pay-per-click campaigns and start boosting our organic search engine optimization with a more aggressive online strategy.” The equipment is important, but the employees are what make Zink Shirts hum. Zansitis is community-minded when it comes to his business. Working with the Workforce Development Institute, he received a grant to help reimburse him for some equipment because he hired employees from below the poverty line.

Assessing minimum wage hike

He believes in paying a good wage to those who work for him and supports the $15 state minimum wage hike. “I like the idea,” Zansitis said. “It would hurt me initially, but it would pay off in the long run. I think if people have extra money, they will be putting it back into the economy. It would in effect have a positive impact in the area.” The initial impact of a wage increase would be negative, the owner believes. Right now, his expenses are half of his gross income over the course of a year. That includes materials, labor and equipment expenses. And it’s not like Zansitis is getting rich quick either. Right now he only pays himself a $17 an hour wage, he said. He puts in long hours to his business, up to 80 hours a week. He said there’s no 65

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way around that level of effort for an entrepreneur. “You can’t put half effort into it and expect full returns,” he said. “You got to put 150 percent into it to get 80 percent back.” That’s not always easy for the 30-something who recently got married and hopes to start a family. Time management is critical for Zansitis, but also for his family life, he said. But he fell in

love with Oswego when his now-wife Elizabeth came here to pursue a psychology degree at SUNY Oswego. And when you love something all that effort is worth it. He said he hopes to take the business to $1 million in sales within the next five years. “If you are passionate about it, then that’s OK,” Zansitis said. “If you love what you’re doing, then it’s not really a job.”

Second shot at the eatery business has proven successful

helsea Wahrendorf reopened The Cutting Board, 325 W. Bridge St., Oswego, about two years ago. She has transformed the eatery into an upbeat sandwich, salad and soup shop that satisfies customers with unique tastes and great presentation while offering a hip atmosphere. Wahrendorf has found being able to reinvent her offerings is one key to staying happy both financially and personally. In January, she redid her menu. “It was worth it because now I get excited when people order things off the new menu and they love them,” she said. “It feels good that people are excited about my food again. You just have to never let it lose that excitement.” Success on the menu has led to success at the cash register. She estimates her sales have gone up at least 30 percent since she changed the menu. The Cutting Board itself was inspired by Wahrendorf’s desire to bring healthier and fresher options to Oswego’s breakfast and lunch crowd. “I’ve tried to branch out of just the sandwich stigma,” she said. “I’m trying to do different things. I just wanted to bring more eclectic food options into town.” Wahrendorf opened The Cutting Board at the same location with a partner in 2012, but the partner fell out of the picture and Wahrendorf had to take on two jobs to raise enough money to reopen in 2014. The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. five days a week and on Saturday, it opens at 8 a.m. She was excited and relieved when The Cutting Board reopened. It was the culmination of a lot of hard work and preparation and provides a new take on eating lunch in Oswego, she said. “I wanted to do funkier, cooler flavor combinations,” Wahrendorf said.

Zansitis

Chelsea Wahrendorf, 26

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SPECIAL REPORT

“I got more of that and it worked better. People were more receptive to having something different.” The 26-year-old entrepreneur said she invested between $5,000 and $10,000 to start up. She has been profitable since she first opened. Wahrendorf said she tries to keep her profits on what she makes at 66 percent. At least 33 percent is eaten up by the cost of food supplies and other expenses like rent, utilities and insurance, she added. Much of what she makes goes back into her own pocket, she said, because The Cutting Board is her main source of income. She also works as a dance instructor at Studio C Dance Academy in Oswego. Dance is her first love, she said. She graduated from SUNY Brockport with a performing arts degree. But food is important too. She first started experimenting with it outside of college.

Fueling up

“Food is important to me,” she said. “I love food. I think it’s important as a dancer to fuel your body properly. They kind of go hand in hand.” Innovation is the theme that seems to fit the little shop. The Cutting Board has something for most palettes and if it doesn’t, wait a little bit: The owner is always creating something new. “People love that I am offering something different,” Wahrendorf said. “They love that there’s a lot of healthy options, but they also love that if they want something cheesy and meaty, they can get that here too.” Some of the alternative entrees The Cutting Board offers are grain bowls. Wahrendorf described them as “power bowls” with a grain like quinoa with separate components topping it. She also offers innovative sandwiches. “My sandwiches are different,” she said. “I have one that has turkey and apple on it. I have one that has sharp cheddar cheese and raspberry preserves.” The Cutting Board’s salad selection is diverse, too, and the eatery also offers some unique soups. While Wahrendorf did say business was good, she does find her heavy schedule challenging. She started The Cutting Board without restaurant or business OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

experience and has been learning as she goes. Because she is a solo show, she has had to wear many hats. “I’ve been doing all of the inventory tracking, all of the sales tracking, all of the cleaning, all of the prep work, all of the ordering, all of the food-making, all of the advertising, all of the everything,” she said. “I am just getting to the point where I am exhausted.” Enactus, a SUNY Oswego business organization, is helping her become more efficient so she can free up some time. She is also looking for good help, but has found getting the right person can be difficult. Not everybody has daytime availability and the owner wants to make sure the quality of her product doesn’t

decline if she does hire. “I want people to crave the food and build a strong customer base,” she said. The entrepreneur is enjoying what she does though and expects to continue on, at least for the near term. She may even open in a larger location in a year if things align for her, she said. Until then, she continues to innovate and serve the public at her current location, always looking for the next great taste. “If you’re excited about it, then that’s contagious,” she said of her venture. “I feel like other people will be excited and people will come and business will flourish. If you’re not excited about it, who else will be?”

Wahrendorf

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT

Amanda Hughes, 35 North Syracuse entrepreneur follows on the footsteps of her family and opens The Ice Cream Stand

ou could say ice cream runs through the veins of Amanda Hughes. The 35-year-old entrepreneur has a Master of Business Administration degree and her own marketing firm, but her family’s connections to selling ice cream go back at least three quarters of a century. Her new company, The Ice Cream Stand, is the latest expression of the Hafner-Gelsomin family’s love of sharing

the sweet treat. ”I’ve learned a lot from my family,” she said. “Everybody in my family has had their own business. Sometimes it’s been a blessing, but there have definitely been some obstacles and struggles.” George Gelsomin, Hughes’ grandfather, got involved in the business during a time of strife. He gave his sugar rations to his wife’s family, the Spinellis, who ran a custard stand during World War II so they could make their custard. “It was the biggest custard stand in Onondaga County,” Hughes said. “This was from about ‘46 to maybe ‘52.” Gelsomin went on to create Sweetheart Market at the corner of Route 11 and Taft Road in North Syracuse. The market closed in 2003, but the corner in North Syracuse is still called Sweetheart Corners. The Ice Cream Stand is located at 7265 Buckley Road in North Syracuse, sandwiched between her uncle Chuck Hafner’s farmers’ market and garden

center and CORE, a specialty restaurant. There has been a stand selling ice cream at the location for the last eight years, but Hughes has given her new business her own twist. “I’d like to do more interesting flavor profiles,” she said. “I want to make most of the ice cream that I’m going to sell. I’d like to do a lot of small-batch, seasonal things and really incorporate a lot of the fresh local ingredients so I can have hopefully a healthier take.” That may fit well with the health-conscious foot traffic that already comes to CORE and the farmer’s market.

Surge in summer

Hughes estimated that in summer months, the other businesses bring in 30,000 to 40,000 potential customers per month. Some of them have stopped at The Ice Cream Stand. Hughes has also created a website, theicecreamstand.com, and a Facebook page for the business. She said she has invested $50,000 to $100,000 in new

Hughes

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SPECIAL REPORT By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant equipment. She wants to create at least 90 percent of the ice cream onsite eventually, but she recognizes that in starting it was more economical to contract out her recipes to other manufacturers. The batch machine and flash freezer would be big investments that she may want to delay for now. Hughes has not delayed in hiring labor though. They help set the tone for The Ice Cream Stand. “I think that’s really important in any work environment to have positive people because there are going to be tough days and we’re going to make loads of mistakes,” she said. “If we can be realistic and be supportive and help each other through that I think the customers will ultimately have a better experience.” The entrepreneur wants her business to have a fun, friendly atmosphere. As a marketer, she is cognizant of how important branding can be to a business and wants to get it right. Her motto for her stand is “Indulge.” But it is an indulgence in high quality, perhaps even organic ingredients. As Hughes called it: “farm to cone.” Because of the many variables in starting up, she has kept a close eye on how things have played out. She is looking forward to crunching numbers in the off season. “To be able to work and go through the numbers...and being able to see the inventory and what items really moved, and how quickly, and when they were moving all that stuff-- I’m excited to have time to do that.” In the spring, she said she hoped to do between $150,000-$200,000 in business the first year and most of the profit will go back into the company. By the end of August, she wouldn’t give out specifics, but still had a positive attitude. “We’ve been on pace to reach goals which is good,” she said. “At the end of the season, when we close, we should be OK.” Hughes is excited to be carrying on her family’s legacy of ice cream. The entrepreneur said her grandparents have been very supportive to her throughout her life and the rest of the family is helping her too. She didn’t hold back when she talked about the first season. “It’s been amazing!” OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Gear Up for

Experts advise how small businesses can profit if they join together in offering specials

etail analyst firm ShopperTrak estimates retail sales for the day after Thanksgiving in 2015 topped $10 billion. The day is called "Black Friday" because the shopping extravaganza puts retailers "in the black." Several websites that follow the retail industry, such as thebalance. com, estimate that about 30 percent of annual retail sales occur between Black Friday and Christmas. For some retailers, such as jewelers, it's even higher —- nearly 40 percent. Think Black Friday helps only big box stores and large chain? Local experts think differently. Considered the kick-off to the holiday shopping season and the most profitable day in retail, Black Friday can benefit your small store if you plan ahead. Monica Johns, CEO with Clarity Management Consulting, Inc. in Syracuse, said that the key to improvOSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

ing business on Black Friday lies in partnering with other stores through social media, along with holiday-related events. "Coupon placement within the store can help them, too," she added. Steve Chirello, owner of Chirello Advertising in Fulton, advises small retail business owners to define and publicize their niche. "They can Chirello give great deals without the mayhem," Chirello said. Instead of deep discounts you can't afford to offer, try bundling associated items at a small discount to move more merchandise. Since competing on the basis of price may 69

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not be possible for small retailers, "selling" the experience can draw crowds. Mary Manning, marketing manager for Armory5 in Syracuse, advises small businesses to make Black Friday a community event, not a bargain fest. Manning "Make sure you have the right sales equipment set up," she said, "like the bags, and receipt tapes. Prepare staff to know any and all promotions." Bounce-back discounts and offers can help you garner more sales during the typically sluggish month of January. Advertise the deal as ways to spend Christmas money or to buy what Santa forgot. You could also wait until "Small Business Saturday" which is the Saturday immediately following Black Friday. If your business sells online, don't forget Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving. Although not as well known as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday provide a means of specially promoting your business that doesn't directly compete with the big box stores on Black Friday. Manning said that business owners should start promoting their holiday sales about two weeks in advance. Starting too soon can turn off customers. Consistently advertise across social media platforms and your website so that customers receive a uniform message. "Done effectively, it can result in a lot of nice sales and returning customers," Manning said. Compiling an internal promotion calendar for November and December can help keep you better organized as to when you need to post, update and email. Tara Lynn, executive director of the Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce, agrees that "getting the word out through social media is important." The Dickens Christmas event, held throughout Skaneateles, offers more than shopping deals, but a OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

The day is called “Black Friday” because the shopping extravaganza puts retailers “in the black.” holiday event that Lynn said draws visitors annually, as part of their family traditions. "People are looking for unique experiences," Lynn said. "People want to create experiences. Getting them into the Christmas spirit is what it's about." With scheduled events, costumed carolers, free refreshments and live music, Dickens Christmas provides a nostalgic break from frantic holiday shopping. Plus, people who want to find unique gifts will likely find them among the mom-and-pop shops lining Skaneateles' streets instead of shopping malls. Honore Stockley, small business adviser at SUNY Oswego Small Business Development Center, said that such co-promotion works well. On a smaller scale, two businesses that aren't direct competitors could cross-promote, such as a toy store and a bookstore. Beyond free doughnuts and cider, offer incentives for shopping small and local. Stockley suggested hiring a masseuse to offer free, 10-minute chair massages. If your store sells items appealing to children, offer a story time corner where an employee can read holiday books as children gather — and as their parents shop nearby. Many people buying for nieces, nephews and grandchildren don't know what's popular or age appropriate. Helpful sales staff can make all the difference between browsers and buyers. Train staff to offer assistance. Some customers take "shop 'til you drop" seriously. Provide seating so shoppers can rest and nibble some free refreshments. (Don't forget snacks for the children. Hungry children get crabby and curtail shopping expeditions.) "Try anything to make the buying experience easier or more special," Stockley said. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

SPECIAL REPORT By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Can Mystery Shopping Help Your Company?

Experts: Practice can offer an unbiased look at how your customers experience your business

hould your company hire a mystery shopping firm? Mystery shopping companies hire independent contractors to covertly critique their employees, products and services. But what can they do for your company? "It can help business be accountable and see how employees are treating customers," said Tara Lynn, executive director of the Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce. "It can really benefit business." Mystery shopping companies, also known as secret shopping companies, can offer an unbiased look at how your customer experience your business. Sandy Baker, senior director of corporate strategy for Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. in Baldwinsville, said that companies hire her evaluation firm because "they really want to know the experience of their customer."

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Companies like Baker's typically work with their client companies to decide what three areas they wish to evaluate in their survey, such as cleanliness, customer service and brand consistency. Among those categories, the survey may contain around 30 to 50 more detailed questions, such as, "Was the glass display case free of fingerprints and smudgBaker es?" "Did the team member greet you in a friendly fashion?" and "Did the team member wear a company-issued blue polo shirt or button-down shirt with khaki pants or skirt?" The survey can include timing the OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

wait in line, whether or not an employee suggested an upgrade or add-on, and how employees handle returns. "We've done some mystery shops at health care facilities that involved the wait time and temperature of the room," Baker said. "All these things make it a positive or negative experience." Some companies space a set of secret shops a few months apart so that they can benchmark their company's service and products, review the data, train employees and then reevaluate later through another secret shop. "They get a sense of where they need to make improvements and where they need to grow," Baker said. Baker advises employers to keep their employees in the loop by telling them that some "customers" will really be secret shoppers and sharing the 71

results with them. Honore Stockley, small business advisor with SUNY Oswego Small Business Development Center, formerly worked with a marketing consulting firm. She believes that this kind os evaluation can help business owners improve brand consistency and customer service. "We got extremely great feedback from the clients that had done this," Stockley said. Although hiring a mystery shopper evaluation company may be outside of your budget, "a small to medium business owner can directly hire someone to do it or send in a friend to do some evaluation," Stockley said. "That can be very helpful if you develop a consistent evaluation method." Instead of asking the evaluators a few vague questions, developing a standard survey will ensure you fairly compare their experiences. It's also important to gather several surveys on different days during different shifts since everyone has an "off" day occasionally. But consistently negative feedback could indicate a problem with the process, such as a bottleneck because of a lack of equipment or an outdated procedure. Surveys could also reveal an individual needs more training. Always address any specific personnel issues in private, because how you use the information is just as important as how you gather it. "Look at it as objectively as you can," Stockley said. "Don't hold it over their heads. You can offer rewards for doing it right with something like a $5 Dunkin’ Donuts card. You don't have to have a penalty built in. You do better rewarding good behavior than punishing bad." Sharing the results with staff and addressing general issues as a team helps make surveying a more positive experience. Employees may offer great ideas for improving your business. "I'm a big proponent of brand consistency and experience consistency," Stockley said. "Take it seriously, but don't micro-manage your employees." Sometimes, a response on a survey may reflect negatively on your business, but employees may have a reason for the scenario. For example, some companies prohibit hand-written signs. If the ATM malfunctions, employees should warn customers, but if they have no printer available, hand-writing the sign is their only option. 72

CAROLYN RUSH First female county administrator in NYS, celebrating 30 years of economic development from page 13 ests, whether they came from students, faculty or administration, much like she did in the legislature. While at the college, Rush also successfully ran for legislator despite facing stiff adversity. “It was the ability to persevere and look at the positive,” she said. “I don’t ever give up,” she said. “My nature isn’t to give up. If something needs to be done, my nature is to pursue.”

Ascends to the top

While Rush was teaching high school, she became involved in running Oswego County’s Neighborhood Youth Corps program. It was a summer program for a large contingent of high school dropouts. “I literally found a niche I didn’t know I had,” she said. After another year of teaching, she ran the program again, and it quickly grew to encompass public employment programs, such as the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

“It just went sky high in terms of dollars and grants coming in,” said Rush, noting it transformed into a yearlong initiative. Rush was hired on a full-time basis at a time when the program was expanding its scope beyond just youth. An opening then occurred in personnel, known as human resources now, and Rush used her graduate work experience in personnel and labor relations to take on the job. She then proceeded to become deputy county administrator under Wright before being the first female county administrator in New York state. “It was not a traditional ladder for me, but just very good opportunities that I was anxious to try,” she said. Rush said if becoming the first female county administrator in New York state inspired other women to try to match those types of achievements, she would consider it a career milestone. However, on a personal level, she was just thrilled she had the opportunity to do the job. She was also the first female board of

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

trustees’ member at Fulton Savings Bank. “If doing any of those things opened the door for other women, then I would be thrilled to death,” she said. “But I don’t believe you do it because you’re a woman.” “She grew up in a man’s world,” Maryak said. “In those days, she had to outperform the men she worked for. She was driven to make sure she not only succeeded, but she did in the correct way and she did the right things to make it work.” He said during Rush’s tenure, the days of job equality were eons away. “Back then, it was tougher. Her coming up through the county and being able to do that I think was just exceptional on her part,” he added. “She was driven. If she has something on her mind, she is going to do it.” Rush sees her career highlights through the lens of accomplishments she had as a county and college administrator. She took pride in her ability tor organize and set up policies at a time when government was getting bigger. “The need to have consistency and policies with departments and governments was really important,” she said. “Up until then, you did have some of that but it could be done on a more informal basis because you weren’t dealing with a large number of employees or departments. “Organizationally, I felt like I was able to give order to what we were trying to do, so we did it most efficiently for the taxpayers who were paying the bill.” It was also a time when more responsibility was placed on local elected officials. “That was an exciting time to get things together and make it work,” she said. One of her foremost accomplishments was allying with Ospelt to make waste energy recovery a reality in Oswego County. “Again, that wasn’t something I had any background in. I think I have always had organizational skills to figure out, ‘If we’re going here, what do we got to do to get there?’ but as far as having a background in engineering, I didn’t have that. I learned and I benefitted, and we all did in the end,” she added. Rush characterizes herself as a good listener and adept at consensus building. “Part of that is because I learned to listen,” she said.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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SPECIAL REPORT By Nicole Shue

The Man at the Fish Hatchery F

ran Verdoliva has spent his career advocating for conservation and ethical fishing on the Salmon River. He is the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s special assistant for the Salmon River. Verdoliva has spent 20 years of his career with the NYSDEC. He was hired in the summer of 1996. At the Salmon River Fish Hatchery in Altmar, he is the watershed coordinator. His role is to educate the public on ethical fishing and conservation through seminars, workshops and videos. He oversees that resources will continue on the Salmon River. The state developed plans to revitalize the lake and river, and in 1980, the Salmon River Fish Hatchery was built. The hatchery offers visitors a close look at salmon and trout. Various life stages of fish are present at the hatchery throughout the year. Visitors can watch the spawning process; eggs are 74

present from mid-October to November. Visitors in October can also see salmon jumping the fish ladder. The hatchery closes for the year Nov. 30 and reopens in the spring. Each year, 10 million to 35 million salmon are born out of the Salmon River. The hatchery itself produces 1.8 million Chinook salmon a year. The facility provides most of the fish for the now multi-million-dollar Lake Ontario salmonid fishery. “We live in an area with wonderful natural resources, relatively pristine with little development,” said Verdoliva. “It’s the good water quality that supports the hatchery.” The Salmon River is an interesting area historically. The Salmon River, named for Atlantic salmon, stretches 17 miles from the Lighthouse Hill Reservoir in Altmar to where it empties into Lake Ontario at Port Ontario. It is a world-class fishery, with OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

over 40 miles of public fishing rights, which attracts fishermen all over the country and state. “One hundred and fifty thousand people come here a year to fish, which puts a lot of stress on a resource, and wear and tear on the shoreline.” From September 2015 to May 2016, 1.5 million angler hours were recorded across all tributaries. Of that 1.5 million, 77 percent of it was done on the Salmon River. Verdoliva was one of those anglers. At 8 years of age, Verdoliva caught his first brook trout at Rice Creek and was hooked. At 64, he’s lived through losses of fish in his time. A half-century ago, steelhead and Atlantic salmon were two tremendous game fish found in the Salmon River. Atlantic Salmon are now considered extinct from Lake Ontario, and wiped out in the rest of the continental United States. “It is an injustice to not try restorOCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

A long-time angler and fishing guide, Fran Verdoliva was inducted into the New York Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame in 2014.

Fran Verdoliva has been at the helm at Salmon River Fish Hatchery for 20 years. His job, to educate the public about fishing

ing native fish to the Salmon River,” said Verdoliva. He does know of some natural reproduction of Atlantic salmon in river, which he says are reproducing on their own at some level. Verdoliva says that protection of the Salmon River has vastly improved over the years. One of the many goals of local conservationists was to retain public ownership of the river, but also manage to be sustainable. One of Verdoliva’s proudest career achievements has been his involvement in the banning of snagging on the Salmon and other tributaries of Lake Ontario. New York was the last of the Great Lake states to put a ban on snagging, defined as taking fish (not attracted by bait or a lure) and snatching with hooks. As a private citizen in the 1980s, Verdoliva became involved in the opposition of snagging, and by 1996 snagging was ended. “To me [the practice] was very unsporting. I knew that you could catch these fish with traditional methods,” said Verdoliva. While some still continue to snag fish illegally, Verdoliva says that most steelhead caught on the Salmon River are released. Which is a vast improvement from conditions 30 years ago. A long-time angler and fishing guide, Verdoliva was inducted into the New York Outdoorsmen Hall of Fame in 2014. He fancies himself a fly fisherman, and has fished from Alaska all the way to Russia. Verdoliva grew up in Oswego and studied outdoor recreation, education and natural resource management at Syracuse University. His graduate coursework was out of the SUNY-ESF. “I’ve always had the desire to give something back, and [over the years] made efforts to improve the environment, and leave it better.” OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT By Lou Sorendo

Selling Your Business? Buyers Could Be Your Own Employees Study: Companies grow 2.3 to 2.4 percent faster after setting up their employee stock ownership plans or ESOP

ith ownership comes pride. That certainly holds true for employee stock ownership

plans. Pride in ownership results in increased productivity, one of several benefits realized through the use of an ESOP — or employee stock ownership plan. That’s according to Robert E. Brown, an ESOP and business transition attorney at ESOP Plus: Schatz Brown Glassman LLP in Rochester. Brown and his team specialize in helping business owners decide on the best business sale and transition options, particularly ESOPs. In essence, an ESOP is formed when companies set up a trust fund for employees and contribute either cash to buy company stock, contribute shares directly to the plan or have the plan borrow money to buy shares. If the plan borrows money, the company makes contributions to the plan to enable it to 76

repay the loan. Contributions to the plan are tax-deductible. Employees pay no tax on the contributions until they receive the stock when they leave or retire. About two-thirds of ESOPs are used to provide a market for the shares of a departing owner of a profitable, closely held company, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership. As of 2015, the NCEO estimated there were roughly 7,000 ESOPs covering about 13.5 million employees nationwide. Brown said they have established ESOPs “across the board,” from manufacturers to “softer service” businesses like advertising agencies and trade show promoters. He said professional corporations including high-tech companies are also using ESOPs. A Rutgers study found ESOP companies grow 2.3 to 2.4 percent faster after setting up their ESOP than would have OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

been expected without it. “There are a lot of people who do that, and once they understand it, it gets to be like the classic ’57 Chevy that you rebuilt. You know you own that. You go out and polish it and have the wheels balanced, and if you hear a little sound in the engine, you take it off the road and figure out what’s wrong with it,” he said. “With that level of ownership, performance improves across the board,” Brown said. “We had a company in Solvay that became an ESOP-owned company. Within a year, floor employees had developed a way to make $100,000 more a year on recycling” because they were owners, he said.

Future bright for ESOPs

Brown said he sees the use of ESOPs growing in the future. “There is a fairly long gestation period on any sale of an entrepreneurial or OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

family business, because it takes people a long time to make that decision,” Brown said. “Usually your entrepreneurial or family business is an integral part of the owner’s persona. It gives them status in the community and is connected to their wealth, family and friends at the business. Brown said entrepreneurs typically stay in their business longer than normal retirement age. “It’s hard to convince people who started the business — since they feel more or less invincible anyway — that they eventually need to exit their business. The only question is whose terms it’s on, their terms or somebody else’s,” he said. “When they go to their fitness club, they are known as the owner of the business that employs 100 people. That is an incredibly important thing for people,” he added. “If they sell to ‘Big China Inc.’ for example, as some people do, they are going to the club as the guy who sold out all those employees,” he said. “So they have a status problem connected with it.” Brown said it takes business owners a long time to make any of these decisions. “But what you are seeing now is that effective about two years ago, the baby boomers started to hit retirement age,” he said. Brown said to expect a glut of sellers, and buyers can be “extraordinarily” selective and pick only those companies that meet either their strategic plans or promise a lucrative return on investment. “That leaves a whole lot of folks who don’t necessarily have a way to sell out easily,” he said. “What happens is they come to the realization they have to sell later rather than sooner.” Brown said that in about three years, many baby boomers will be 70 to 75 years old. “You’re going to see 14 years of a glut of sellers. There are going to be two things you can do: You can have a consolidator roll everybody up in an industry, or you can have people sell to their employees,” Brown said. In terms of the latter choice, Brown said it’s the best way for selling shareholders to continue their legacy, take care of employees they think are important, and to retain control longer than if they made an outright sale. Brown said the “classic” ESOP seller is used to control and wants to continue OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

“We had a company in Solvay that became an ESOP-owned company. Within a year, floor employees had developed a way to make $100,000 more a year on recycling,” said Robert E. Brown, an ESOP and business transition attorney. his or her legacy in terms of being associated with the business. “They usually will feel that at least some of their employees helped them get where they are and they would rather protect those people,” he said. “Some people climb business mountains, and then they sell and try to climb higher mountains,” Brown said. “Those serial entrepreneurs are totally finance driven and are not the people who typically use ESOPs,” he said.

Decisions, decisions

Brown said there are several reasons why business owners do not opt for ESOPs. ESOPs could pay fair market value in financial buyer’s terms, he said. A financial buyer is a person who pays fair market value based solely on return of investment. “According to the IRS definition of fair market value, it is an estimate of the market value of the property based on what a willing buyer would probably pay to a willing seller, neither of whom is under any kind of compulsion to buy or sell and who have reasonable access to all relevant information,” he said. “So essentially what they are doing in the financial buyer world is saying, ‘I can get a return of X dollars at X percent on my investment if I buy this asset,” he said. “It’s a question of purchasing that OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

would be the same question that you have when you purchase a bond, stock or purchase a piece of real property for commercial purposes,” he said. The other kind of purchase, Brown said, is what’s called a strategic or synergistic purchase. Brown used the example of a well known charcoal company that purchased logs impregnated with recycled products such as newspapers that can be used in a fireplace. The reason they bought it was not because the company had interest in selling the logs at a profit. By maintaining shelf space with retailers for 12 months, they could get a better positioning on shelves than if they were just there during charcoal season, Brown noted. “That’s a non-economic reason and it’s something that we call either strategic or synergistic value that may be in addition to fair market value from a financial standpoint,” he said. Brown said many sellers of businesses believe that their company can be sold for a strategic value, which is mostly untrue. “They think they are going to be able to get more money if they don’t sell to an ESOP,” he said. Another reason why ESOPs are not used is not many investment bankers are sophisticated about ESOPs, Brown said. In addition, ESOPs are not commonly used because they are relatively complex transactions. “People don’t understand the complexity of any sale of their business, really,” Brown said. “They may have sold a car or a house a couple times in their lives, or may have used Craigslist. Those are really simple transactions by comparison with any corporate acquisition or sale.” “So when they look at an ESOP, not only is it as complex as another corporate transaction, but is has the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service and independent trustees involved. It looks complex, particularly to advisers, so a lot of lawyers and CPAs don’t really understand the ESOP well enough to be passionate about it,” Brown said. ESOPs are governed by both the Department of Labor and IRS, which both conduct audits. “Everybody has horror stories about audits. In fact, we’ve probably had 15 audits in the last two years. You are going to get audited for income tax, sales tax and your 401K plan. You are also going to get audited ultimately on your ESOP,” Brown said. 77

SPECIAL REPORT By Lou Sorendo

Eastern Shore Associates: 100 Percent Owned by its Employees Insurance company one of the few in the region owned by employees

n 1991 Eastern Shore Associates in Fulton adopted an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). In 2009, the agency became 100 percent owned by its employees. ESA offers a full range of business and personal insurance, as well as financial planning and risk management services. Robert K. Wallace is the CEO and chairman of the board of ESA. Wallace said most people go into ESOPs for several reasons, including its value as a company perpetuation plan. There are also tax incentives with the plan, particuWallace larly for those selling the stock, and is also used as a means to incentivize employees. Wallace was one of six original partners at ESA when it was created 29 years ago. He is the only partner left of the original six. “Instead of the company buying stock and having it go to existing shareholders, what would happen is the ESOP itself would buy the stock each time,” Wallace said. A key reason ESA decided to go the ESOP route is the team always valued its employees highly. “I thought this was a way to reward long-term employees.” When ESA did its first stock sale, the tax considerations were different. “We were in a period of time when capital gains were considered ordinary income. That was terrible for someone 78

trying to sell stock and retire,” he said. Wallace said once the ESOP owns at least 30 percent of shares, a shareholder can do a tax-free rollover into some other type of investment and is not required to pay capital gains on it until it is sold. “That made it attractive to partners who wanted to sell their stock,” he said. Because ESA had a group of partners who were going to retire, it was able to fund the ESOP itself. “There was quite a bit of a spread between each one of the partners in terms of when they were going to retire. This allowed us to actually take profits of the company and donate them to the ESOP and to actually buy stock as it became available,” Wallace said. Wallace said a company must have a fairly low employee turnover in order for the ESOP to be effective. “In most cases, ESOPs work better with growing companies. Eastern Shore has grown immensely since we were formed. We’re 10 times larger than when we were formed 30 years ago. Originally, we had about 15 employees. Now, there are more than 80 employees. That lends itself a lot to ESOPs because you really do need to have some numbers in order to have it work. The larger the numbers in many cases, the better it works,” he said. ESOPs have costs There are ongoing costs associated with having an ESOP, Wallace said. At the outset, having money to buy stock is critical, he said. “You must have people who are willing to forego individual profits in order to fund it,” he said. “Or, you must have employees that want to go out and OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

borrow money, which is tougher to do.” Wallace said tax benefits are associated with an ESOP, which is tax deductible. That’s because the ESOP itself is considered a nonprofit entity. While ESA itself is for-profit, a significant portion of earnings flows into the ESOP, much like a subchapter S corporation. “We actually run more like a public company in some respects. Employees themselves have rights under the ESOP itself. They have pass through voting rights in certain situations,” he said. Wallace said it is similar to owning stock in companies such as Microsoft. Wallace said an ESA employee who works a year, or 1,000 hours, automatically becomes part of the ESOP. However, when the ESOP itself owns more than 50 percent of the company, the state Labor Department steps in as a “silent partner,” he noted. With the labor department’s involvement comes restrictions, Wallace said. “That’s why a lot of people don’t want to do it. They don’t want the labor department involved at all,” he said. “For instance, if someone came along and offered us twice what the company is worth, if I own 100 percent, I can make that decision without any thought about how it’s going to affect anyone but myself,” he said. “We can’t do that. In order to do that, it must be presented to our ESOP committee and you have to have an outside individual take a look to see if this is good for the company. “Everyone gets to vote on whether it is good for them. It does restrict things like the sale of the company,” he said. Because they are qualified retirement plans, the IRS is also involved. ESOP companies need to be appraised every year by an outside firm that specializes in working with ESOP companies, Wallace said. He said in most instances, companies need a third-party administrator such as an attorney group to handle ESOPs. An administrator also keeps the plan up to date, vital being the IRS OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

changes regulations on a frequent basis. “You really need an outside firm that really understands the law in order to make it work,” Wallace said. According to www.esoppartners. com, setting up an ESOP is considerably cheaper than selling a business almost any other way. An ESOP will probably cost $50,000 to $100,000 to set up and run the first year and, for most companies with under a few hundred people, $15,000 to $30,000 annually, the site said. ESA has created an ESOP communication committee that serves as a liaison between employees and the company’s board of directors. It communicates to the board what employees desire and would like to see in terms of the company’s direction. “One of our core values is community service,” Wallace said. “[As one of our goals,] we have basically a year to do up to 5,000 hours of community service. That arose out of the ESOP communications committee. The naysayers Many companies do not choose to go the ESOP route because of the funding aspects and restrictions set by the IRS. For instance, a closely held company with two owners may want to pass the business onto their children to get achieve tax-deferred status. “They can’t do that because you are limited in how much ‘synthetic equity’ relatives can have within the company,” Wallace said. “There’s rules set up by the IRS to prevent someone from just using this as a tax shelter.” Wallace said the ESOP has led to more growth and stability at ESA. “We have a very low turnover of employees. A lot of that is because they are part of the ownership team. When highly talented people come in, they want to know how they can get ownership of the company. In many cases, they can’t. They get a paycheck and maybe some incentives, but don’t get ownership of the company. “In our case, it’s automatic after a year that employees start to get ownership. It helps attract talented people,” he said. According to Wallace, an ESOP company is fairly unique in Oswego County.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Succeeding at Succession Succession planning critical in today’s ever-changing business environment By Lou Sorendo

ne really doesn’t know about the realities of a situation until he or she has experienced it themselves. Take Jim Joseph for instance, dean of the Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College in Syracuse. While Joseph is widely known as the academic dean of the business school, he is also a former president and CEO of a global company — Oneida Ltd. That gives him a leg up when it comes to talking about the benefits of effective succession planning. Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company. It increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become Joseph available. Joseph went through six transitions as he climbed the corporate ladder on a global scale before eventually becoming president and CEO of Oneida Ltd. “I have personally participated in my own succession plan, so am coming at it from the academic and business world standpoints,” he said. “Nobody likes disruption nor uncertainty,” Joseph said. “Everybody wants smooth leadership transition.” “Whether it’s a corporation, division, school or small department, the OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

smoother any transition of leadership that can take place is highly appreciated by employees, customers and suppliers,” he added. Joseph said it is critical to any organization to have a succession plan, even if there is no apparent succession in the offing. “You never know what’s going to happen. You can lose a leader for a whole host of reasons,” he said. Joseph said any organizations should have a succession plan regardless of what stage their leader is at in terms of his or her career or life.

The only constant

Joseph said every succession plan should start with the premise that the only constant is change. On a macro level, “There are a number of moving parts that you need to pay attention to,” he said. “Is the world different or is the world going to be different in five to 10 years? Is the industry different or is the industry going to be different in the next five to 10 years? Joseph said a leader who was effective over a span of his or her career may not be the leader of the future. “A whole new skill set is required. “Many companies face this,” he noted. On a micro level is the organization itself and the makeup of its leadership team. “A leader is chosen and selects people to complement their skill sets. A lot of times those teams change over the years. Whereas a company may have needed someone with finance expertise during a given period, you may now find yourself with a need for someone with marketing expertise,” he added. 79

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Change is inevitable, change is the only constant and the succession plan has to address those realities” he said. “You can’t say, ‘OK, CEO Jane Doe has this skill set and operates in this industry and world, so we want to find another Jane Doe. That’s the wrong approach,” he said. Joseph said succession planning goes hand-in- hand with strategic planning. “A good strategic plan looks out into the future and anticipates as well as one can — and there will be disruptors out there — where the industry and world is heading and what is needed for the company,” he said. By looking inward, the team then determines whether is has the “right horsepower or right horses” in place to lead the corporation in the perceived world that is going to exist five to 10 years from now, Joseph said. “A lot of times, especially in the 21st Century with tumultuous and continual change, you may not have the right horses in place, so you have to start to find who you want and it all becomes part of the succession plan,” he said.

The boomer effect

The ongoing retirement of baby boomers is expected to have a major impact on workforce capacity and does place even more importance of having a reliable succession plan in place. “It’s not just about a succession plan of the leader, it’s about a pipeline of talent,” Joseph said. “Maybe it’s because the Madden School is hot right now and on a trajectory that is pretty incredible, but every week I’m meeting with no less than two companies in the Greater Central New York area,” he said. “The No. 1 issue and reason for meeting is because baby boomers are retiring at a rapid pace, and we’re seeing a number of 50- and 60-year-olds leaving in the next five to 10 years.” Joseph said these companies are searching to source much-needed talent. “They are coming to make partnerships with the Madden School and don’t want to just stand at an internship fair or job booth fair,” he said. “They are becoming much more sophisticated.” Joseph said interested parties OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

want to know the dean of the business school as well as department chairmenof majors such as accounting and finance. “They want the help to identify the talent to put in their companies,” said Joseph, dean of the business school for the past two years. Joseph said the pace and volume of these meetings “has just increased geometrically.” He has been meeting with representatives from various economic sectors, including insurance companies, accounting firms, banks, major companies or hospitals, interested in recruiting Madden students to their organizations.

HR plays key role

Joseph said the more progressive companies are looking at their human resources departments as something other than just entities responsible for hiring, firing and payroll. “They are now using their HR departments as a strategic weapon,” he said. In many instances, the HR chief reports to the CEO, and is also part of the senior team. “They have a seat at the table because they are strategic. They monitor the front end of the succession plan as well as its implementation,” he said. “You need to use your HR department as a strategic weapon in monitoring and implementing the plan,” he said. Meanwhile, “members of the HR team can get feedback from the rank and file on how the transition to new leadership is taking place,” Joseph added. “Maybe there are some things that people liked about their former boss that the new boss does not do. Employees are not going to say this to the new boss. It’s just human nature,” he said. An astute strategic HR chief, however, will gently suggest to the new leader about his or her employees’ sentiments. “Your HR department is critical in succession planning. It needs to be right there from the beginning until everybody says he or she is no longer the new person, they are the leader and the succession has been completed successfully,” he said. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Larry Lombardo, the owner of Bridie Manor Restaurant in Oswego. Lombardo works at the restaurant seven days a week despite his health condition.

Larry Lombardo Recognized by Multiple Sclerosis Group Restaurateur has lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 50 years

arry Lombardo was sitting in his fourth-grade classroom when suddenly he couldn’t see. His teacher led the 9-year-old to the school clinic, and his parents were called. He was brought to a local optometrist, who found nothing wrong but noted that the young boy’s eyes just didn’t seem right. By the time the doctor had examined the lad, Lombardo’s eyesight had returned. The temporary blindness would signal the beginning of a long journey OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

By Carol Thompson to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, more commonly referred to as MS. After his temporary vision loss, Lombardo said it would be another year before the next incident. That time, he lost his balance, fell and broke his nose —something not unusual for a young boy, so it wasn’t cause for alarm. The next year, Lombardo ran into a car. He said he didn’t see it coming. He suffered bruises, but no one connected the three incidents. The vision loss was attributed to optic neuritis, inflammation OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

of the optic nerve. For the next six years, Lombardo would have sporadic bouts of loss of balance and vision problems that sent him to doctors; however, he’d leave with the same diagnosis — inner ear infections and vision problems. In his early 20s, Lombardo went for his draft physical and failed. “I was refused entry into the United States Army,” he said. “The reasons were bad eyesight, bad feet and a bad back.” The following year, he lost the 81

strength in his right arm. That lasted for two weeks. He would go through his 20s with periods of falling down and running into things. “My bowling and golf scores went sour, and I became sensitive to light,” Lombardo noted. Every doctor trip resulted in the same diagnosis: tendinitis, inner ear problems, flat feet and bad back — all symptoms that pointed to MS. Despite the reoccurring incidents, no one suspected anything neurological. MS, a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord, is difficult to diagnose, even today. In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Eventually, the disease can cause the nerves themselves to deteriorate or become permanently damaged, according to the Mayo Clinic. Signs and symptoms of MS vary widely and depend on the amount of nerve damage and which nerves are affected. Some people with severe MS may lose the ability to walk independently or at all, while others may experience long periods of remission without any new symptoms. Optic neuritis is highly associated with MS. At the time of Lombardo’s first incident, there was no suspicion of MS because there wasn’t a documented history of the disease. Both then and now, there is no one specific test to diagnose MS. However, Lombardo’s failed draft physical pointed to the disease — spine, eyes and nerve endings. The sporadic symptoms continued every six to nine months, and sometimes it would be a year or even two before the next incident occurred.

Continues to battle

It wasn’t until 1987 that Lombardo had a turning point. He had suffered from double vision and a loss of balance that resulted in a bad fall. He was laid up in a semi-sitting position for two weeks. After the fall, he began experiencing tingling in his feet, arms and spine that grew worse. He went to a doctor who told him he had a misaligned back. With worsening symptoms, Lombardo didn’t give up his search for an answer. He went to a chiropractic neurologist who believed the problem was in his brain and not his back. Lombardo was then sent to a medical neurologist and on Sept. 3, 1987, at age 36, Lombardo finally received a diagnosis. The diagnosis came just seven days following the opening of the family 82

Larry Lombardo at Bride Manor’s lounge. “Be humble, compassionate and respectful,” he said. “Those are the three things to live by.” restaurant, Lombardo’s Bridie Manor. While relieved there was a name for his ailment, he had no idea what MS was. “I thought I was going to be handed pills and I’d be all better,” Lombardo said. “Then the doctor told me there was no cure for it.” In denial, Lombardo went from doctor to doctor hoping to dispel the diagnosis. Six doctors later, Lombardo faced reality. He had an incurable disease. After trial and error with medications, he takes one that is believed to halt progression of the disease and Lombardo refuses to let the disease halt him. As the owner of Lombardo’s Bridie Manor, he can be found at the restaurant seven days a week, often for 100-plus hours each week. Lombardo has been living with MS for 56 years and working at the restaurant with it for 29 years. He recently hosted the Multiple Sclerosis Resources of Central New York poker run in conjunction with his many years of being in business and living with MS. His advice to anyone living with OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

MS or any debilitating disease: “Nobody walks backward; everybody walks forward.” Lombardo said he views his disease not as one that is crippling, but one that is a minor affliction. He lives his life by three main principles. “Be humble, compassionate and respectful,” he said. “Those are the three things to live by.” Lombardo’s Bridie Manor is open seven days a week, serving lunch and dinner. It also accommodates banquets and parties. Oswego’s only surviving flour mill, Bridie Manor was originally known as “Ontario Mills.” Abraham Varick built it in 1833. The building was sold to Thomas Galloway in 1983 and leased to several restaurants. Galloway named the area “Bridie Square” after his wife, Bridgit. In 1987, the restaurant was leased to the Lombardo family and purchased by them in 1988. Adopting the name “Bridie,” they named it “Bridie Manor.” Lombardo said he has no plans on slowing down. “It’s what keeps me going,” he said. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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Success Story

Step One Creative As it Turns 20, Oswego-based PR Firm Sets Pace in Highly Challenging Environment

is team has done it one creative step at a time. While Port City native Shane Stepien owns Step One Creative, a highly touted marketing communications firm in Oswego, it is his talented team approach that gives it a distinctive feel and flavor. Established in 1996, Step One Creative offers full-service advertising design, brand development, public relations, copywriting, media planning/

placement, and web development for organizations and businesses throughout Upstate New York. It’s celebrating 20 years in business this year. Mark Proud, who once operated his own design shop, joined forces as a freelancer initially before developing into Stepien’s valuable full-time colleague and creative director 10 years ago. The team also includes Stepien’s OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

By Lou Sorendo sister, Shelby Stepien, who is a design and planning specialist. Also helping to anchor the team is art director Mallory Marshall. “I would put our team up against anybody creatively anywhere,” he said. “Our product is always something we take a ton of pride in.” The team continuously pumps out new projects on a daily basis, whether it is developing a new website, conceptualizing a new logo design, coordinating an event, developing a news release or producing television commercials. Stepien, drawing from his previous banking and advertising background, handles all account relationships, media, PR and business aspects of Step One Creative, while supporting his creative team. He said while it is gratifying to see clients succeed, giving back to the community and paying it forward is paramount. “There are more things that have come out of this office that people probably don’t recognize or appreciate that we’ve either donated or done for the sake of building this community,” Stepien said. “That’s one of the things I take the greatest pride in, especially over the last 20 years. I can look back and say we truly have made a difference, not only because there is a new brand on a particular building outside and that business is thriving, but because there is a nonprofit that is going to be able to thrive here for generations to come. “We’re part of the fabric of this community. All four of us grew up here. This is our hometown and we want to see it prosper.”

Historic lodgings

Step One Creative is located at 317 W. First St., Suite 101 on the first floor of the Stevedore Lofts building in Oswego. Much of the history of what was once a yarn factory in the 19th century is retained, such as wooden beams OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

and brick walls. The open environment is conducive for creating banter, creativity and “always throwing ideas around,” Stepien said. The Minetto resident strives to create a loose, easy-going atmosphere conducive to creativity where employees can dress from business casual to shorts and flip-flops. “I don’t see any reason to leave this space. We love it here. This will be our last stop,” Stepien said. The business went through a complete rebrand four years ago when it located in the Stevedore Lofts building. It introduced a new logo along with featuring a more progressive look and feel to its website that was representative of the office climate itself. Stepien is from a family that has entrepreneurism in its blood. His mom ran a hair salon for over 20 years, while other family members operated different restaurants and taverns. “Being independent is exciting, but also nerve wracking at times,” said Stepien, noting that business taxes and healthcare costs are always challenging variables.

Life-changing decision

In 1997, Stepien was hired as a business development specialist at Oswego City Savings Bank, now Pathfinder Bank. That same day, he was also hired as an account executive with Latorra, Paul & McCann, an advertising agency in Syracuse. “I had just purchased my first home in Oswego, and knew I was going to be doing renovations at the house,” Stepien said. “I needed any spare time I had during the day, so I chose to take the position locally at the bank, over the daily commute to LPM.” Stepien, 47, a member of Oswego High School’s Class of 1987, said it was a great opportunity at the bank, but it differed from his college education and previous advertising-marketing experience. Stepien earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications/journalism at St. John Fisher College, graduating in 1991. He gained experience in public relations and marketing while working OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Step One has changed its logo twice after its inception 20 years ago. The bottom one is the current one. at Ed Vayner & Associates in Fulton before his tenure at the bank. “While I loved the idea of the new business development position, I had made the decision late in 1996 to setup a dba as Step One Creative, just as a back up plan,” he said. “Well, as luck would have it, the bank made a decision to internalize its advertising and marketing, and I was provided an opportunity to manage that process and provide my previous experience now in the banking industry.” When Stepien was asked what it cost to launch Step One 20 years ago, his response was “sweat equity.” “I was basically working full-time at Pathfinder Bank, and then building Step One Creative on my lunch hour and in the evenings,” he said. “My overhead costs were maybe a new laptop, direct mailers, and business cards at the time. There was very minimal overhead because I worked out of my

“We truly love what we do at the agency and it’s so rewarding to see the teamwork that comes into play between Step One Creative and our clients as we work through the planning and creative process. It’s so important to ensure a great final product!”

Shelby Stepien Design/planning specialist Step One Creative

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

home office.” In 2006, after nearly 10 years with Pathfinder Bank, Stepien chose to embark on an independent business path and leave his vice president position. He then proceeded to build the agency on a full-time basis — growing annual billings and clients, adding staff and moving into a new office location. Due to the proprietary nature of his business, Stepien did not disclose specific numbers when discussing how annual revenues have grown through the years. “We have grown tremendously in clients and gross revenues since we first started,” he said.

Whirlwind of change

During his 20 years in business, Stepien has seen tremendous change occur in the public relations and marketing industry. Leading that change is the evolution of social media and the far-reaching impact that medium has provided individuals and businesses. The emergence of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, Snapchat and other social media companies has set the new standard for public relations, brand development, advertising-marketing to targeted, mass audiences, Stepien noted. “While traditional media dissemination still exists such as newspapers, TV and radio, the impact and speed that is provided via social media has become extremely effective,” he said. Like any other industry, public relations and marketing has experienced revolutionary change thanks to technology. Besides the evolution of social media, the continued growth of smart phones and mobile device advertising has become a viable new source for market reach, Stepien said. “Computers and their software applications, in general, have provided far greater opportunities from a design and communication perspective,” he noted. The services and products that are in demand at Step One Creative vary from year-to-year based on clients’ marketing initiatives and strategies, Stepien said. “We primarily focus on new advertising campaigns and product launches for our existing client base, which might include a blend of both 85

“Our agency’s size is really its strength. It gives us the unique flexibility to adapt to every unique situation. Each client and project can be given the attention of the full agency’s resources as well as an individual plan to meet their goals. At Step One, I have the opportunity to see projects from inception to completion. It brings me pride to see our work followed through, as our clients aren’t just numbers but neighbors and members of our community.” Mallory Marshall Art director Step One Creative

Attending to business at Step One Creative in Oswego are Mark Proud, creative director, and Mallory Marshall, art director. traditional and new social media efforts,” he said. “We do a lot of great brand-logo design projects for new clients, as well as TV/video production, PR, websites and collateral materials. Honestly, every day is a new day with regard to what services we are providing.” Stepien said his staff is also very focused on the customer experience. “Our rules of ‘C’ have always governed the approach we take with existing and new clients. The ‘Rules of C’ include commitment, cost-effectiveness, communication, collaboration, customer service and creativity,” he said. “Having worked in other agencies of varying sizes, one of the things that makes us strong is our size,” Proud said. “Larger agencies have levels of hierarchy that they need to follow. We just get stuff done. With no egos attached.”

Staying power

Stepien spoke to some of the keys to his business’ longevity. “We have always loved what we do. We’ve worked hard and put the hours in. We’ve built the right team and partners and always maintained a strong customer-centric approach to our clients,” he said. “Our creative 86

and service offerings have always been tremendous and impactful.” Stepien gains his gratification knowing that over the past 20 years, Step One Creative has made a significant impact on his hometown as well as other communities it serves. “We have supported numerous nonprofits, small businesses and government agencies for the right reason — to allow them to thrive,” Stepien said. “We love the fact we can provide long-standing clients and new clients with a great product and service. We love to see businesses thrive as a result of a new brand, website or advertising campaign,” he said. “We take pride in watching an established business reinvigorate its company because of focusing on their marketing budgets.” In terms of the future, Stepien said he will continue to do what has defined Step One Creative for the past 20 years: design and develop competitive end products and services for his clients. “We build brands and we will continue to take great pride in that creative process. We’re looking forward to the next 20 years and how it all unfolds,” he said.

Shane Stepien OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Jamie Persse jamie@jcpersseconsulting.com

There Are No Silver Bullets to Success….BUT

I ‘As a corporate trainer, executive coach and thinking partner, I work with organizations to help them get “unstuck,” to help them achieve their full potential.’

JAMIESON C. PERSSE is the founder and CEO of JC Persse Consulting. For more information, visit www. jcpersseconsulting.com and send an email to jamie@ jcpersseconsulting.com.

’m sure you’ve probably heard it someyear, we would dedicate a percentage of where along the way that there are no our budget for that sole purpose. It wasn’t silver bullets, or quick fixes, to achieving happenstance. Our multi-media approach success in your business. was strategically planned for the purpose Merriam Webster defines silver bullet of creating top of mind awareness of the as “something that acts as a magical weapproduct and service we offered. And I’ll tell on; especially one that instantly solves a you first hand, it worked! So, whether you long-standing problem.” have the internal staff, or need to seek out Is there a maga professional in the field, ical weapon you don’t cut yourself short. Guest Columnist have in your arsenal Let people consistently toward achieving know you’re there, ready, success, or greater productivity? Do you willing and able to serve them. possess the instant cure? If you’re like most, the answer is no. As it pertains to business • Continue your Leadership growth and success, often, it simply comes Development down to mastering some basics. As a leadership, personal and profesLikewise, it involves more than just sional development consultant, coach and “hard work” to get from where you are trainer, I’m an avid student of leadership to where you want to be. Likely, it’s more principles. about working smarter, not just harder. So My mentor and business partner, John how do you differentiate yourself, your C. Maxwell, states in his book — “The 21 product, or your service? How do you avoid Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” (chapter 3 on being caught in the “commodity trap”? The Law of Process), that “leadership deHere are some practical, yet perhaps velops daily, not in a day.” So why increase underutilized ideas that you may want to your leadership ability? The answer is consider to create and maintain a competivery simple: because leadership is influence, tive edge. nothing more, nothing less (this is also a Maxwellism). • Create TOMA: (Top of Mind Think for a moment about how increasAwareness) ing your influence could positively affect Regardless of the product or service your bottom line. Aren’t you an influencer you offer, I’m sure that not all of your perof your peers, your subordinates and your spective customers need your product all customers? Of course you are. And suffice of the time. If you are blessed to be one of it to say, not all leaders and influencers are those business types that does have a high born with that particular skill. Leadership frequency offering, great! For others, the and influence skill can (and should) be dequestion then becomes: how do I reach the veloped continually. In the work I do with right people at the right time? The solution organizations, we work to develop people’s today is significantly different than several leadership skills, influence skills, culture, years ago. With social media as a prevacommunication and connecting skills. What lent mainstay in society today, many have is the ultimate result? Increased productivactually hired staff solely for the purpose of ity! Couldn’t we all stand to increase our managing their social media persona. Othproductivity? ers engage contract companies to help them achieve that end. • Continue to Develop Your In my past life, I had the pleasure of working with an advertising agency that Industry- Specific Skill produced and placed a significant amount of TV, radio, and print media for us. Each The law of process I referred to formerly

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

continued on p. 89

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

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OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Silver Bullets to Success from p. 87 also applies in the realm of staying up to date and current in your industry. The world is forever changing, and at a rapid pace. Customer needs change, products change, technology advances, etc, etc. Staying current and ahead of your competition will differentiate you from the pack. Your customers can and will sense that you’re the subject matter expert. Knowing your product inside and out, and knowing how it will satisfy your customers’ needs is absolutely critical today. Unless you’re in a business where you hold a monopoly, chances are you have a significant number of competitors competing for the same customer. I take that law to heart and continue to study and learn so I’m providing the best possible service to my clients. Perhaps you’ve been in your industry for quite some time and have fallen behind on some of the latest technologies, or maybe the products or services you once offered no longer are contributing to the success you seek today. A commitment to continued learning can provide stellar results. I’m a huge fan of Marcus Lemonis from “The Profit,” which in my neck of the woods airs on CNBC. This investor invests in companies and helps turn them around, and ultimately more profitable. Marcus says, “It’s all about the people, the product, and the process”! I know that resonates with me. I hope it does with you as well. If you want to grow your business, ask yourself a few simple questions: • What can I do to increase my visibility, and create TOMA for my perspective customers? • What could I do to increase my leadership/influence level? • How can I sharpen my skill within my industry to better serve my customers? As I mentioned in the beginning, there are no silver bullets to success. If you answer, and ACT on these few questions, I’m confident you’ll be pleased with the results. Knowing is simply not enough. Doing creates results. I truly hope this serves you well. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

Best Business Directory

AUCTION & REAL ESTATE

LAND SURVEYOR

Dean D. Cummins over 35 years experience. All types of auctions & real estate. Route 370 Cato. Call 246-5407.

Robert M. Burleigh, licensed land surveyor. Quality land surveying. Residential, subdivision, commercial, boundary surveying. 593-2231.

AUTO COLLISION Northside Collision, Baldwinsville. Upstate’s largest collision/repair center. Lifetime warranty, loaners or rentals. We assist with the insurance claims. 75 E. Genesee St., Baldwinsville. More information, call 638-4444.

AUTO SALES & SERVICE Bellinger Auto Sales & Service — Third generation business. Towing, auto repair & accessories, Truck repair. Oil, lube & filter service. 2746 County Route 57 Fulton, NY 13069. Call 593-1332 or fax 598-5286.

AUTO SERVICE & TIRES Northstar Tire & Auto Service. Major/minor repairs. Foreign & domestic. Alignments. Tire sales. Call Jim at 598-8200. 1860 state Route 3 W. in Fulton.

BUILDING SUPPLIES Burke’s Home Center. The complete building and supply center. Two locations for your convenience: 38 E. Second St. in Oswego (343-6147); and 65 N. Second St. in Fulton (592-2244). Free deliveries.

COPY + PRINT Port City Copy Center. Your one-stop for all of your copy + print needs. 184 Water St. Oswego (back of Canal Commons). 216-6163.

CUSTOM PICTURE FRAMING Picture Connection. 169 W. First St. Oswego. Quality conservation matting & framing for your photos, prints, original artwork & objects. 343-2908.

DEMOLITION Fisher Companies. Commercial & residential demolition. Great prices. Fully insured. Free estimates. 46 years of experience. Call Fisher Companies at 315-652-3773 or visit www.johnefisherconstruction.com.

EXCAVATING Gilbert Excavating. Septic systems. Gravel & top soil. Septic and tank pumping. 691 county Route 3, Fulton, 13069. Call 593-2472.

GLASS Fulton Glass — Oswego County’s only full service glass shop. Residential. Commercial. Shower enclosures. Auto glass. Window and picture glass. Screen Repair. Window Repair. Beveled Mirrors and Glass. Hrs:M-Th 8-4, Fri 8-noon. FultonGlass.net, 840 Hannibal Street Fulton, NY 13069, 593-7913.

HOME IMPROVEMENT Wet Paint Company. Paint, flooring, blinds & drapes. Free estimates. Call 343-1924, www.wetpaintcompany.com.

KILN-DRIED HARDWOODS Lakeshore Hardwoods. We stock kiln-dried cherry, walnut, maple, butternut, ash, oak, basswood, mahogany, cedar figured woods, and exotics. Also hardwood flooring, moldings, stair parts & woodworking supplies. 266 Manwaring Rd. Pulaski. 298-6407 or visit www.lakeshorehardwoods.com.

OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

LANDSCAPING D & S Landscaping office. Servicing Oswego & surrounding areas. Quality work, prompt & dependable service. Free estimates. Fully Insured. Backhoe services, Lawn mowing, Snow plowing, Top soil, Tree work. Hydro-seeding & asphalt seal coating. 315-598-6025 (cell 315-591-4303).

LUMBER White’s Lumber. Four locations to serve you. Pulaski: state Route 13, 298-6575; Watertown: N. Rutland Street, 788-6200; Clayton: James Street, 686-1892; Gouverneur: Depot Street, 287-1892. D & D Logging and Lumber. Hardwood lumber sales. Buyer of logs and standing timber. Very competitive pricing. Call 315-593-2474. Located at 1409 county Route 4, Central Square, NY 13036.

OUTBOARD MOTORS Arney’s Marina. Route 14 Sodus Point, NY. Honda fourstroke motors, 2 hp to 250 hp. Repower your boat with the best! Call 483-9111 for more information.

OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT BJ’s Outdoor Power Equipment/ Sales & Service. 3649 state Route 3, Fulton, NY. www.bjsoutdoorpower.com. We sell Ferris, Echo, Central Boiler, and Simplicity products. Call 598-5636.

PAWN BROKER Pawn Boss. We buy everything from game systems to gold & silver. Coin collections, guitars and flat screen TVs too! Check us out on www.newyorkpawnboss.com or call 415-9127.

QUILT SHOP Quality fabrics, Notions, Classes for everyone. Explore a new hobby. The Robins Nest, 116 W. Broadway, Fulton, NY 315598-1170

ROOFING/GUTTERS Over The Top Roofing. Mike Majeski. Commercial & residential roofing. Quality craftsmanship. 50-year manufacturer’s warranty for residential roofs. Best price on seamless gutters. Call 882-5255. 400 Co. Rt. 7 Hannibal, NY 13074.

LISTING! $159 for 1 Year call 315-342-8020

Oswego County Business P.O. Box 276 Oswego, NY 13126 89

Last Page

By Lou Sorendo

Deana Michaels

Deana Michaels, assistant vice president/branch manager at Pathfinder Bank’s Fulton office, is now the new president of the Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. She shares her views on the latest developments at the chamber. Q.: After a year of changes, what direction is the chamber taking in regards to establishing its identity within the Oswego County community? A.: The Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce is committed to being an organization that supports and catalyzes the growth of Oswego County for the benefit of our members and our community. We look forward to sharing our more detailed plans to accomplish these goals in the months ahead. Q.: What will be the keys to stabilizing the organization and furthering its role as a business advocate in Oswego County? A.: The board has undertaken some facilitated strategic planning sessions to focus on the chamber’s value proposition, its role within the community and financial sustainability. Our goal is to ensure businesses and residents of Oswego County have a chamber that is easily accessible, is a strong advocate for local issues, and provides a link to broader regional and state resources for continued growth. With the recent departure of our executive director, Greg Mills, there is an opportunity to reevaluate the leadership role at the chamber. With the assistance of CenterState CEO, the goal is to have an executive assistant in place by mid to late December. Q.: What challenges do you face as the board president during this time of transition? A.: While there are still challenges to be overcome and issues to be addressed, we believe Oswego County is moving in the right direction. That being said, my role as board president is about opportunities. There are opportunities to reevaluate our role within the community, 90

build new relationships and strengthen existing opportunities. We intend to learn from our business partners and members to ensure the chamber is a strong advocate, voice and support for our members and communities. Q.: What is the most gratifying aspect of being involved in restructuring and stabilizing the chamber? A.: The most gratifying aspect is the collaboration, idea sharing and ongoing conversations that I am involved with. This is an exciting time for Oswego County and I am privileged to be a part of the discussions.

that make the chamber and my role as president a success. Q.: How vital has CenterState CEO been in offering guidance and support during this time of transition? What resources does it offer that are most significant to the Oswego-Fulton chamber? A.: CenterState CEO’s Jane Amico, vice president of member services, and Andrew Fish, senior vice president of business development, will be helping to oversee the day-to-day activities of the organization and to reach out to stakeholders in the community. CenterState CEO has been such a strong business partner and advocate f o r Oswego County and the chamber. We are so fortunate to continue to strengthen our relationship during this transition period.

Q.: What skill sets do you bring to the table that will forward the chamber’s mission and cause? A.: Success is a team effort and I surround myself with individuals whose strengths and knowledge encourage my growth. It is these experiences and efforts that help to make the role of board president a success and help to move the chamber forward. The board is comprised of a diverse and knowledgeable team of local businessmen and women. Each team member brings his or her own unique expertise. Additionally, we have a strong partnership with CenterState CEO. This partnership brings added value and support to the day-to-day operations and mission of the chamber. Our board and partners at CenterState CEO are strong, engaged and work together to make the chamber a success. It is their efforts and commitment OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016

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