Category Archives: Entrepreneurial Women

In 1986, Dennis Hunt started Hunt Construction Services in Argyle, N.Y., locally constructing residential and light commercial projects. When Hunt’s daughter, Amie, was old enough to get her work permit, she started working in the office with her mother, Cindy Hunt. She also spent evenings working alongside her father, watching and asking questions, learning how to read plans and skills needed in the building industry. Now, Amie Gonzales is President of Hunt Companies, Inc. (HCI) and has received several awards and recognition for her work leading that company.

After high school, Gonzales received an Associate’s Degree in Photographic Technology from Herkimer Community College. She returned to the family business. managing more minor projects. She was approached by an Army recruiter. After some thought, she enlisted in the Navy, where her father had served. She wanted the challenge that the service would bring. “I understood that they need to break you to build you up. I had always wondered if I could do it,” she says.

As a Mass Communications Specialist, Gonzales managed teams in the daily production of multimedia news stories. Her final deployment involved documenting counter illicit trafficking operations with 25 news stories and over 900 photographs. Her work then being published in more than 12 media outlets within the Department of Defense and external media outlets. While excelling at her position, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree through Excelsior University.

Early in her Naval career, she met and married Juan Gonzales. The couple spent much time apart, with each deployed at different times. After eight years of service, having achieved the rank of First Class Petty Officer, she left to create more stability for her family, which now included a young son, Ethan. They lived in Tampa, Florida, where Juan was stationed. Amie worked remotely for the family business while using the GI Bill to get an MBA in Project Management from Strayer University.

By Christine Graf

Local artist Sally Strasser has a collection of over 10,000 LP vinyl records and enjoys listening to music so much that she designed her own speakers. 

“I believe my speaker design is unique on the planet,” said Strasser. “It employs the Fibonacci number sequence in the internal configuration of the cabinet. Every single musical tone on planet earth falls on the Fibonacci number sequence. Because of that, I thought it made sense to design speaker so that it favored and emphasized and perfectly reproduced all of those numbers when you translated them into the sequences of musical tones. And it works.”

The Fibonacci number sequence is a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two that proceed it.

When designing the speakers, Strasser, made certain that “everything inside of the cabinet is designed to fall on that sequence—the area, height, width, length. It truly makes a difference,” she said. 

Strasser designs and builds all of her speaker cabinets herself. She developed a love for woodworking while in shop class at Lake George High School. 

By Susan Elise Campbell

A series of fortunate and unfortunate events culminated in an opportunity for Warrensburg native Stacey Webster to open the lunch and dinner restaurant she has always wanted to operate.

According to Webster, the newly opened Stace’s Place on 3897 Main St. is her way to give back to her community while honoring her family.

“My husband and I were always on the go to flea markets, camping and fishing as a family,” said Webster. “For 20 years there was no time nor opportunity to begin a business.”

Webster’s husband passed away in 2020. She said she took a full year to “get situated and then started to do something totally different. My mother and grandparents instilled in me that whatever I do, I should enjoy it and give back to the community,” she said. “My family goes back many generations in Warrensburg.”

“They would tell me to feed the customers with love and make sure the food is good,” said Webster. 

Webster knew she did not want to buy real estate.  As she started researching concepts and locations for her restaurant, she was talking to a friend whose uncle owned a building on Main Street. She contacted him and soon became the new tenant.

By Paul Post

While many people were at the beach or enjoying backyard barbecues, Rachel McDermott spent Fourth of July weekend harvesting barley for her new craft brewery.

Ninety percent of Dancing Grain Brewery’s ingredients are raised in fields surrounding the farm-based business, located at 180 Old West Road in Moreau, just south of Northway Exit 17.

“This is all hand-selected intentionally to give you something you can’t get somewhere else, from people who have painstakingly suffered all the trials and tribulations to make it possible,” McDermott said. “I want to grow really good crops. I want to share that story with people who come here to enjoy good beer. This is the first brewery I know of where a grain farm is taking on this production aspect of beer.”

Raised in Schaghticoke on her family’s West Wind Ag farm, McDermott studied applied economics and management at Cornell University en route to an exciting investment banker’s career with firms in Houston and New York City.

But upon turning 30, she took inventory of her life’s goals and gave it all up to come back home and help out on the farm.

By Christine Graf

After MT Returnables owner Bob Ball died in a motorcycle accident in August 2020, his oldest daughter, Jade Eddy, spent the next eight months working to reopen the business.

Because Ball had no will and operated his business as a sole proprietorship, the company’s bottle and can redemption centers in Corinth and Queensbury were forced to close.

Ball established MT Returnables in Corinth in 2005 after a 20-year career with International Paper. When the paper company closed, he began collecting bottles and cans to earn money. At the time, bottle redemption centers were a new concept.

“He had a difficult time finding a job,” said Eddy. “He started driving around town and collecting bottles and cans from people and sorting them in the garage. We started calling him a professional hobo. My senior year in high school, he got a building in Corinth, and I thought he had lost his mind.”

Eddy, a Lake Luzerne native, started working part-time for her father when he opened the business. After graduating from high school, she continued to work part-time while enrolled in the business program at Adirondack Community College. At the time, she dreamed of opening her own clothing store. After discovering that she didn’t enjoy working in retail, she decided to work full-time at MT Returnables. In 2012, after Ball became overwhelmed by the administrative side of operations, he put her in charge of the business.

By Christine Graf

Before owning her own company, Rose Miller worked in human resources for companies of all sizes. Around 2005, she began to seriously consider the idea of opening her own human resources consulting business.

“You have to do a scout model. Always be prepared and get as many facts as you can,” she said.

Her research revealed that the number-one failure point for HR professionals who went out on their own was loneliness and isolation. A self-described people person, Miller found that concerning.

“I saw myself quickly becoming dissatisfied with working out of my house,” she said. “I also knew that one of my strengths is building great teams. I knew I didn’t want to work all by myself. I wanted to build a company.”

Her first step was to create a business plan. According to Miller, it is essential for anyone who is thinking about starting their own business.

“So many entrepreneurs don’t write a business plan, but you really need to sit down and go through a professional business plan because it makes you formulize things and delve into areas that you may not be strong at. To put it in writing is an amazing exercise.”

By Christine Graf

While still a student at Galway High School Kylie (Curtis) Holland started working at the front counter at Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa. Today, the sixth-generation member of the Curtis family is preparing for the day when she will take the helm of the family business.

Her father, Jay Curtis, currently serves as CEO and president of the 131-year old company that has 23 locations and approximately 700 employees. He took over in 1991, the same year that Holland was born.

During the four years that Holland attended college at SUNY Cortland, she made a five-hour round trip each weekend in order to continue working at Curtis Lumber. After graduating with a degree in criminal justice in 2012, she considered attending law school.

“I was faced with a choice of either you go to law school or you work (at Curtis Lumber),” she said.  “Because of the intensity of law school, I knew I couldn’t do both. That was kind of my moment where I had to choose. I just couldn’t imagine what it would look like to walk away from Curtis Lumber.  I loved it, and I loved the people. That’s when I decided this was the path for me after all.”

Although her older brother, Christopher, also works for Curtis Lumber, he is not interested in taking over when their father retires.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Ever since she could remember, Danielle Kresge wanted to run a hair salon and spa.

Half her dream was realized when she started Elle Salon three years ago in South Glens Falls. Now in her new location at 113 Saratoga Ave., Kresge has the room to add staff and services to give clients the full spa experience.

“At the other location, I had a good starting point to get my feet wet,” she said. “I’m actually surprised at how quickly we grew, and proud of it.”

Once she determined to move and expand, Kresge knew she would put her clients first. The location she found on Facebook was a brand new building in which she could picture clients “relaxing and enjoying themselves,” she said.

“The space is like an open canvas with white walls and high ceilings,” she said. “It has a clean, breezy, airy feeling.”

Since the move the first week of August, there have been a few new hires, bringing the staff to 12.

Elle Salon and Spa now has four rooms for spa services, including facials, body waxing, eyelash extension, hand-tied hair extensions, brow lamination and make-up. There is also a dedicated room for full body massage.

By Lisa Balschunat
Six years ago, Cristina Hanchett took a chance on a small South Street storefront to open her business, the Juicin’ Jar.
The menu was packed with healthy blender and juice drinks, wraps, salad and what has become the establishment’s famous waffles.
“When we opened in Glens Falls we also had a place in Lake George,” Hanchett said. “Things were happening downtown and we wanted to be a part of it.”
In 2016, the Juicin’ Jar moved into the small café space within Milk and Honey, 16 Exchange St., and most recently absorbed the inventory and first floor of the previous gift shop that closed.
“We will continue to offer some items that Milk and Honey carried, like the local honey, teas, bath soaps, lotions and greeting cards,” she said.

By Christine Graf
Lake George native Leah Stein worked in the area as a park ranger and environmental educator. She then shifted gears and worked at a bakery in the area. In 2013, she decided to go out on her own.
“I grew up in a tourist town with tons of entrepreneurs around me,” she said. “A lot of people had their own businesses, and it was always something that was in the back of mind as an attainable goal.”
She opened Leah’s Cakery, located in the historic West Side General Store building at 3 Curry Street in Round Lake, in 2013.
When Stein made the decision to change professions, she enrolled in the culinary program at Schenectady County Community College (SCCC). She comes from what she describes as a “culinary inspired” family, and she fell in love with baking as a young girl. It was while making custom cakes as a side job while working in environmental science that she decided to pursue baking full time.
While still in culinary school, Stein worked part-time making custom cakes at the former Queen of Tarts bakery in Guilderland. After graduating from SCCC 2008, she taught baking courses at the college for six years.