Category Archives: Entrepreneurs

By Jill Nagy

If someone needs a nurse, Lisa Murphy can be there without the patient leaving home. Her Glens Falls-based ADK Mobile Nurse Services provides services in patients’ homes—or wherever else they are—in communities within 60 miles of Glens Falls, including Queensbury, Lake George, Saratoga, Albany, and surrounding locations.

Murphy is a registered nurse with 15 years of hospital experience, including case management, and 10 years as a director of clinical services in long term care and rehabilitation facilities. Her office, at 35 Evergreen Lane, Queensbury, is in a senior living facility.

With hospitals discharging patients earlier and providing less outpatient care, there is a growing need for the kind of care Murphy can provide. She can step in to provide follow-up care after hospital discharge, whether managing medications, changing dressings, helping patients adjust to a new lifestyle, or just looking in to be sure someone is getting along well. 

In addition, she administers intravenous vitamin and mineral treatments (on orders from a physician). 

By Christine Graf

For the past 20 years, Adirondacks & Beyond Motorcycle Safety LLC, has been offering a variety of motorcycle courses for both beginners and experienced riders. 

Owner Jeanne Dion purchased the business from Marc and Margie Connelly when they retired in 2021. Before that, she worked for the Connellys as a Motorcycle Safety Foundation certified RiderCoach. 

Dion has been riding for about 20 years, and after learning the basics from her husband, she enrolled in a motorcycle course for beginners. 

“I took the class within six months of him teaching me to ride,” she said. “I learned so many skills, and it just made riding much more enjoyable.”

A few years later, Dion was working as a civilian at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh when she became a RiderCoach for the motorcycle safety course that was offered there. After she and her husband relocated to the North Country, she continued to work for the military and became a RiderCoach at Adirondacks & Beyond Motorcycle Safety. 

By Susan Elise Campbell

Flour Child Bakery opened in February at 128 Glen St., two years after proprietor and Fort Edward native Taylor Suprenant started her in-home baking business.

“People saw the baked goods I posted online and asked for orders,” she said. “I outgrew my home kitchen and started looking for someplace to do the baking, not necessarily for a storefront.”

She said she was “a little young” at that time, but as it happened, her friend Ashley Kopf, who also had gone from home baker to shop proprietor, was selling Abby’s Cookie Jar after running it for three years. 

Suprenant once worked at Abby’s over a summer. Kopf and her husband, who was Suprenant’s high school band teacher, asked if she wanted to take over the business.

She purchased the equipment and display cases and brought over her decorating materials and cookie cutters used to create specialty cookies, macarons and custom cakes and cupcakes.

By Jennifer Farnsworth

It might be that Yvonne Manso has the ability to ensure confidence in her customers when it comes to the quality of the product, because quite simply Manso believes in herself.

As a sales director for D.A. Collins, Manso has spent the past 14 years earning a solid reputation in a historically male dominated industry. Her work ethic and spirit brought her to the forefront of the construction materials industry.

She is originally from Michigan. After high school, Manso served two years in the military and four years in the reserves. She later moved to Las Vegas, working in the hotel  industry for 14 years. After meeting her husband, a native of Saratoga County, she found herself moving to the area and in need of a job. She landed a position at D.A. Collins as a sales coordinator.

“The hotel industry is so different and I had no experience in the construction field, but I was lucky enough to find a company that trusted I could learn the business. And I did,” said Manso.

When she first began, she could sometimes sense apprehension when contractors would see a woman show up on a job site. She said she did not let that deter her. In fact, It motivated her to learn the ins and outs of the business. Now, contractors know they are dealing with a seasoned pro.

“It has gotten so much better over the years, but I really had to prove myself, which I wanted to do. I wanted to learn all that I could so that I would feel confident in what I was doing. I knew I had to spend time at the plants and really work hard to gain enough experience to have the confidence I needed,” said Manso.

By Jill NAgy

A hobby became a full-time business three years ago when Brad LaCross gave up a career in IT to devote himself to automobile detailing.

His Legendary Auto Salon in Queensbury specializes in protective finishes for automobiles.

LaCross recently signed a 10-year lease on a facility at 75 Carey Road, near Exit 18 of the Northway. It is a brand new facility. In fact,  “there are a few things to fix” before his certificate of occupancy becomes permanent.

The shop has 3,800 square feet of work space and includes a custom-built clean room and a training facility. The first training session was in October and attracted auto detailers from across the country. He hopes to help build credibility for a new industry, working with colleagues to develop standards and a certification process.

As an information technology person, LaCross worked as a systems administrator and operated data centers. His experience in running a business carried over into the current enterprise. It also helps in his effort to develop standard operating procedures for everything.

At the same time, he was preparing cars for auto shows and doing other detailing work, using space in the back of an automobile service shop.