Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

By Staff Writer

In 1996, as most businesses were only starting to consider websites, Sara Mannix was already asking how to get found online. The uncertainty of the digital world gave Mannix a unique chance.

Now in its 30th year, Mannix Marketing is known as one of the Capital Region’s top digital marketing firms. The company stands out by offering full-service digital marketing and owning popular regional media sites. This approach gives Mannix Marketing an edge and helps it stay relevant serving 1,500 clients and a staff of about 30 employees.

Sara Mannix built her foundation for entrepreneurship before the internet became widespread. She graduated summa cum laude from the University at Albany with a double major and spent two years studying in Spain and Italy.

After graduating, she moved to New York City and had to choose between two very different career paths.

“I had two job offers: to work in the stock market or at a fashion house as their marketing and PR person,” Mannix said. “Knowing I couldn’t work in the stock exchange upstate, I took the marketing job and fell in love with marketing.”

When she returned to the area, Mannix worked at West Mountain Ski Area and later at Fort William Henry Corp. in Lake George. It was during this time in the mid-1990s that she first discovered the internet.

“In 1995, the internet was just becoming a thing, and I worked with an agency to build my first website,” she said. “I asked them, ‘How do you get us found in the search engines AltaVista, Excite, and WebCrawler?’ They said, ‘Nobody knows how to do that; that’s up to you.’”

By Ann Donnelly

In an industry that often clings to older, traditional methods, REALIZE Brokers co-founders Nic Ketter and Spencer Bray are rewriting the rules of real estate in the Glens Falls region. By integrating advanced technology and prioritizing a highly customized, client-centric model, the duo is shifting how local properties and businesses are bought and sold.

Bray, a Glens Falls native with a background in aviation, and Ketter, a Queensbury native who previously worked on emerging technology at General Electric, did not take the standard path into real estate. After meeting at a local cigar bar and bonding over a common interest in cryptocurrency, the two launched a side business flipping computers and electronics. That entrepreneurial drive led them to launch REALIZE Brokers five and a half years ago.

While they embrace digital innovation, their foundation rests heavily on traditional relationship-building. They continue to grow their network organically through face-to-face interactions, from local lunches to networking on the golf course.

By Jill Nagy

Finders Keepers, Kyleen Wade’s second hand shop, sells clothing and “anything that a woman surrounds herself with to look beautiful,” she says.  

After 19 years in Glens Falls, she opened a second store in mid-March in the Queensbury Plaza on Upper Glen Street.

Wade sells clothing, jewelry, mirrors, purses, shoes, and other objects, most of it on consignment. She also offers “a little bit of furniture, but it’s hard to keep in the store.” 

Recently, she added men’s clothing to her stock. From time to time, she gets antiques to sell.

She said “people are finding me and re-finding me,” as old customers return and new ones arrive. Business “is great. It’s wonderful. It’s everything I could have dreamed of.”

The new store is about 4,500 square feet, considerably bigger than the tiny shop she began with in Glens Falls. At the time, she was living in Vermont and she learned of the availability of a turnkey business on Glen Street in Glens Falls selling “used stuff.” She bought the business, added a lot of product and “it was all gone in a week.”

Later, she moved to the former Shirt Factory on Broad Street and began advertising for merchandise to sell on consignment. She advertised it as an opportunity to recycle and “find homes for the wayward.” 

By Paul Post

Queensbury Hotel is already getting calls for large, sell-out conferences in 2024 and 2025, two months before the highly anticipated mid-June opening of its new $3.8 million grand ballroom.

The 5,200-square-foot addition with state-of-the-art kitchen facilities, located to the right of the building’s rear entrance, could be a major game-changer for downtown Glens Falls by hosting multi-day events for hundreds of people who would likely visit restaurants and retail shops throughout the city.

“This hotel can be an incubator for other businesses,” general manager Tyler Herrick said. “That’s always been part of our mission with doing this project. When we have 300 to 400 guests that’s 300 to 400 people that are looking for stuff to do and walking around. That obviously helps everybody. 

“I would hope some of our midweek conventions bring people who want to go to WorkSmart (Coworking & Meeting Space) because they want to get out of their hotel room or relax at places like Spot Coffee. Like they say, a rising tide lifts all ships. Right now I think Glens Falls is on a good wave.”

The ballroom is just one of several entrepreneurial ventures Herrick and Zack Moore, both 41, are pursuing as co-owners of Spruce Hospitality Group, which manages Queensbury Hotel and Fairfield Inn & Suites at Northway Exit 18 in Queensbury. The Fairfield opened in September 2019, affording guests easy access to Saratoga Springs, Lake George and Glens Falls.

Both lodging establishments are owned by Moore’s father, Ed, who also owns the Sawyer Building directly across from Cool Insuring Arena, along with French Mountain Commons and Lake George Outlet Center on the Million Dollar Half-Mile (Route 9) in Queensbury.

By Jill Nagy

Noon Whistle Deli, at 15 Lafayette St. in Queensbury will close on April 29. But, it will reopen under new ownership on May 2, the following Monday. 

In between, the new owners, Julie and Jedidiah Murphy, will do “a quick makeover.”

For the most part, the 27-year-old sandwich shop will remain the same. The new owners will reorganize the kitchen “to fit our operating style” and change the flow of the counter, according to Jedidiah Murphy. They will also give the place a paint job.

The business is in good shape, Murphy said, and they will make few changes. In fact, the present owner, Jackie Fosco, will bequeath to them her soup and salad recipes and instructions for the deli’s signature sandwiches: the accountant, the banker, the firehouse, the lumberyard, and six others.

The Murphys will extend the hours that the deli is open and also open on Saturday. They plan to end breakfast service and concentrate on the lunch business.

“We hope the clientele will follow us over,” he said.

By Andrea Harwood Palmer

Skin Renaissance Spa opened in early March at 142 Saratoga Ave., South Glens Falls, across the road from the Hannaford Plaza.

Shelley Riopelle has been a licensed esthetician for over 25 years. Previously, she worked at a spa in Saratoga for 10 years.

When COVID-19 hit and the state ordered businesses to shut their doors, she considered retiring. After time passed and businesses started to reopen, Riopelle realized she missed the work and wanted to get back into it.

“I decided that instead of going back to work for someone else, I would open my own spa,” said Riopelle. “Pandemic or not, I wanted to give it a go and see it where it takes me.”

The spa offers a full menu of skin treatments and modalities, body treatments, facial treatments, foot soaks and waxing.

Riopelle is a state licensed medical esthetician.

BY CHRISTINE GRAF

An area maker of custom wooden signs, whose work can be found in Warren County outdoor facilities and parks, recently secured a contract to make signs for Yellowstone National Park’s historic Lake Lodge.

Malta resident Jim Thomson, owner of custom wooden sign company Adirondack Jim’s, will make signs for the lodge, which was built in 1891 and is undergoing a $19 million makeover. According to Thomson, it was well-known Montana historical architect Ken Sievert who recommended he be chosen to make the interior and exterior signs for the lodge.

The signs will measure between 5-8 feet in length and will be framed in logs. Scott Phillips of Adirondack LogWorks in Schroon Lake will be making the frames.

This is a corrected version from 4/11/19.

By Susan E. Campbell
Andrew Meader has spent the past two years on a mission to promote tourism and increase visitation in Washington County.
So far there has been a quantifiable increase in traffic and dollars spent while in the county, but Meader will not take all the credit.
He is part of a triad of professionals working with the governor’s office and the local economic development agency to build awareness of, and bring industry into, the area where Meader grew up and has spent much of his career.
“I sit on the Economic Development Council for the Capital region and got to know Laura Oswald, director for economic development for Washington County,” he said. “We were involved in a lot of meetings and often talked about tourism.”
Oswald told Meader she was always looking for firms like his to promote the county. His company, 8 of Eight Strategies LLC, offers marketing strategy, business consulting, and project management to help clients reach their full potential.
“I threw my hat in the ring,” said Meader. “My primary role is to formulate a marketing plan and to oversee strategy and outreach.”