Jake Van Ness, Author at Saratoga Business Journal

Jake Van Ness

1844 Articles

Business Report: A Time For Kindness

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Rose Miller, senior director of strategic relationships, GTM Payroll Services Inc.
Courtesy Rose Miller

By Rose Miller

Every New Year is a time for reflection and planning. There is no better plan than reflecting includes ways to be grateful. It is also beyond time to exercise being nice to one another.

My mom passed away last August and her shining attribute was her kindness. Condolences from friends contained a repetitive story. They all remembered how my mom would always greet them with a warm smile, reach out to hold their hands and look them straight in the eye.

Such a simple gesture that impacted so many. It got me thinking about how important little gestures of kindness can be in the workplace.

Amidst the ongoing pandemic, being kinder has become a necessity. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle. These battles have challenged our ability to be kind. There is so much negativity and confusion out there and practicing kindness daily can counterbalance the dark messages.

The workplace is an ideal place to do this. We are physically and virtually together five or more days per week. We are interacting with a variety of people, some of whom are adding to our kindness challenge. Kindness, especially when unexpected, boosts morale and makes work feel a little less of a burden.

Regional Provider Of Bookkeeping Services Launches Professional Development Division

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Sabrina Houser is the owner of Capital CFO in Saratoga Springs.

Capital CFO, LLC, a regional provider of bookkeeping, consulting and CFO services to businesses and nonprofit companies, has launched its Professional Development division.

With an eye toward providing increasingly comprehensive business management solutions, Capital CFO Professional Development Division launched in January with online courses, workshops and webinars for business and nonprofit professionals. The complete curriculum will roll out over the course of 2022.

Sabrina Houser, Capital CFO president, saw the need for a cost-effective way for small businesses and nonprofits to invest in their employees.

“Providing employees with professional development opportunities is a smart investment that increases retention, builds confidence and credibility, and improves succession planning. Ongoing professional development can also re-energize staff and improve efficiency. It’s a win-win,” she said.

The addition of Professional Development extends the breadth of Capital CFO business management solutions to include webinars, workshops and online courses addressing topics that include strategic planning, finance, and nonprofit management.

Business Report: The Are No Shortcuts

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Michael Cruz is president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC in Queensbury.

By Michael cruz

We’re all aware of the current labor shortage. It makes it hard to fill your backlog or get your work done in a timely basis. It might make you feel justified in taking risks on marginal candidates for your jobs.

Don’t. Quick hires are all too often bad hires. And bad hires cost you lots of money both in hard dollars and your reputation. There is the cost of advertising and recruiter fees. These are direct hiring costs. When you must replace someone, you need to do this all over again, and the original costs are never recovered.

Then there is the issue of what you paid that person while they were in your employ. The actual salary or hourly rate, plus the 20-30 percent benefit load, plus any expenses they incurred that were reimbursed. Add in what you paid to have their computer and cell phone set up, and costs for other tools.

Add in what you spent for outside training courses. Add in any severance expenses. Severance can be minimal if they were not there long. However, when you linger in your decision, you are “running up the meter.”

Indirect costs are harder to quantify. Yet, they are far greater. You will need to take time to coach these people. And to listen to complaints about them. That negative energy drags us all down. Not only is the actual time spent wasted, but it also makes us less productive at the work we like to do.

It affects not just managers, but other employees as well. They will spend time complaining about your mis-hire. Often, they will have figured it out before you finally admit it to yourself. If they are in a customer facing position, they may have made life worse for a customer or client. You need to spend time repairing that damage. Lastly, they probably missed signals and lost some opportunities to pursue better initiatives that a productive hire would have seen.

Capital Region Chamber Of Commerce Works On Issues Like Supply Chain Shortages

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Pete Bardunias, membership/community advancement VP, Capital Region Chamber.
Courtesy Capital Region Chamber

BY PETE BARDUNIAS

Business in Saratoga County and beyond has faced unprecedented challenges and, fortunately, some opportunities in the past couple of years. The combination of the COVID-19 crisis, fluctuations in the economy, supply chain disruptions, soaring energy prices, capricious consumer demand, the outflux of state population versus a steady local one, workforce and education questions, agriculture needs, environmental concerns, and the desire to create a more inclusive community and culture have really impacted the way Saratoga County, and the Capital Region at large, does business.

At a recent meeting of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Business and Professional Association, nearly every business owner stated that their most pressing issue was the supply chain shortages, something we had heard much about in manufacturing but not at the local business level. From the car dealership lot to convenience store coffee cups, the disruptions were visible all over the country and our region was not immune.

They have been caused by numerous factors, from COVID quarantines, lack of workers to the backup of ships at coastal ports. While solutions to these issues may materialize slowly, it is vital that the business community recognize the magnitude of this problem and advocate for ways to address it.

One company that has been working to ease the supply chain shortage is GlobalFoundries. A partnership with Ford Motor Co. should produce much needed chips for automotive computers, and perhaps more importantly, an America-based supplier for improved, up to date systems in future cars. The auto industry has lagged behind others in development and utilization of cutting-edge technology, apparently a big reason for the recent shortages. It’s time for a systems upgrade, and Saratoga County industry is once again leading the way.

The Capital Region Chamber has found new and meaningful ways to support local businesses. The value of our regional approach with local affiliates in Albany, Schenectady and southern Saratoga counties was on display in 2021, and the biggest impact was a financial one.

Employees Working At Home Creates Issues For Businesses, Including Cybersecurity

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Martin A. Miranda, senior counsel at Tully Rinckey PLLC.
Courtesy Tully Rinckey PPLC

By Jennifer Farnsworth

Part of owning a small business is having a good understanding of the laws that effect it over time. In recent years, understanding codes and protocols is more important than ever.

Law firms and human resource consulting agencies can be important resources to help small business owners. They can even ultimately protect their livelihood.

Martin A. Miranda, senior counsel at Tully Rinckey PLLC, said his firm has seen an increase in cybersecurity concerns, as well as pandemic-related issues faced by small businesses.

“Due to the pandemic small businesses have relied more on their online business platforms. As more employees work from home, there has also been a significant increase in cyber attacks aimed at small businesses,” he said.

“Hackers may find small businesses particularly vulnerable for lacking adequate technology infrastructure and data security expertise.”

Miranda said to compound problems, networks outside of the workplace may not possess sufficient security measures to prevent cyber attacks, which have become increasingly more sophisticated and targeted.

Common methods of cyber attacks include phishing schemes, social engineering, malware, ransomware and password hacking, said Miranda.

He has also seen an increase in small businesses reaching out on how to best follow COVID protocols, a completely new area for small business owners to have to navigate.

“I receive many questions regarding how small businesses can maintain a safe work environment for their employees as COVID protocols evolve in response to the multiple variants. Implementing these protocols can be burdensome for a small business and enforcing the protocols can often lead to differences of opinion among employees,” said Miranda.

Empire State MBA Sees Enrollments Increasing

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

SUNY Empire State College’s Master of Business Administration program was ranked number one for enrollment during the fall 2021 term, according to a comparison of Capital Region programs by the Albany Business Review.

The ranking was published in January and showed SUNY Empire had 397 students enrolled in its fully online MBA programs, approximately a 3 percent increase over the previous year.

“This ranking speaks to the real-world relevance of SUNY Empire’s MBA in Business Management program to the Capital Region workforce,” said SUNY Empire State College Officer in Charge Nathan Gonyea, Ph.D. “Not only is the program affordable and flexible, but it is applicable to in-demand jobs in our local economy, making the MBA in business management program an ideal option for ambitious Capital Region professionals.”

SUNY Empire’s MBA in business management program offers concentrations in: management, international business, human resource, marketing, innovation management and entrepreneurship, healthcare management, nonprofit management, project management, information and global finance and investment.

Tang Museum At Skidmore College Offers Tours Through Semester Ending On May 1

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Rebecca McNamara, associate curator at the Tang Museum, will give a tour of an exhibit called Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science at Skidmore College.
Courtesy Tang Museum

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College has reopened and will host a series of upcoming tours that are free and open to the public.

Tang guide tours, Sundays at 2 p.m. during the spring semester through May 1, provide visitors with an overview of the museum and what’s on view. The tours are given by Tang Guides, Skidmore College students and visitor services associates who are part of a program that introduces them to the Tang and the museum world, trains them how to be gallery ambassadors and tour guides, provides guidance in how to talk about art, and gives them valuable experiences interacting with visitors.

Curator’s tours feature the organizing curator or curators providing in-depth information of an exhibition. They are set for:

Thursday, Feb. 17, noon: assistant director of curatorial affairs and Malloy curator Rachel Seligman; assistant professor of art history Nancy Thebault, and students from the Scribner Seminar; “Outsiders? Folk and Self-Taught Artists in the United States” give a tour of On Their Own Terms.

Thursday, March 24, noon: associate curator Rebecca McNamara give a tour of Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science, which includes the community-created crochet coral reef Saratoga Springs Satellite Reef.

Thursday, April 14, noon: Dayton director Ian Berry gives a tour of Opener 34: Ruby Sky Stiler—New Patterns.

New Industry Grant Supports SkillsUSA Chapter At Myers Education Center, Saratoga

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

The F. Donald Myers Education Center in Saratoga Springs recently received a SkillsUSA educational grant through its longtime partnership with Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Courtesy SkillsUSA

SkillsUSA has awarded a grant to the SkillsUSA chapter at the F. Donald Myers Education Center in Saratoga Springs, thanks to its longtime partnership with Lowe’s Home Improvement.

SkillsUSA and Lowe’s have teamed up for 16 years to support career and technical education (CTE) classrooms across the nation.

The new Lowe’s grants provide eligible SkillsUSA chapters with additional programming resources including tools and equipment and construction materials for students’ hands-on learning projects, officials said. The support can also be used for materials and supplies for local community service projects SkillsUSA chapters would like to conduct but need additional support to launch.

Each eligible school applied for a grant up to $15,000. Schools are asked to focus on outcomes and the quantifiable impact data of their projects. The grants are intended for construction trades programs to prepare our future skilled workforce, as well as for lab improvements or community service.

The grant obtained by the SkillsUSA chapter at the F. Donald Myers Education Center will be used to provide the HVAC lab with upgrades and state of the art industry equipment.

“This amazing opportunity through Lowe’s provides our SkillsUSA chapters with more resources to support CTE and hands-on learning. All SkillsUSA projects are student-led and center around the development of personal skills, workplace skills and technical skills grounded in academics through the SkillsUSA Framework, so every member has an opportunity for career success,” said SkillsUSA executive director Chelle Travis. “These grants remove financial barriers to excellence and ensure that SkillsUSA chapters have quality resources for the betterment of our CTE programs and projects.”

‘Ice Castles’ Attraction In Lake George Proves To Be A Tremendous Draw In First Year

February 14, 2022February 15, 2022

Ice Castles—a 1.5-acre sculpture with frozen 25-foot-high archways, tunnels and slides—is expected bring more than $4 million for lodging, meals, fuel and more to the local economy.
Courtesy Warren County Tourism

By Paul Post

Only a week after opening, more than 75,000 tickets had already been sold to a major new winter attraction that officials hope can contrubute to transforming Lake George into true year-round tourist destination.

Visitors to Ice Castles—a 1.5-acre man-made sculpture with frozen 25-foot-high archways, tunnels and slides—are expected to spend more than $4 million for lodging, meals, fuel and similar services.

Located at Charles R. Wood Park’s Festival Commons, 17 West Brook Road, it coincides with this year’s 60th annual Lake George Winter Carnival, featuring a slate of fun activities each weekend in February.

“This is big, really big,” said long-time Mayor Robert Blais, who has worked to promote winter tourism for many years. “All the businesses that have been open all these years, that have struggled through the winter and supported the Winter Carnival, I say thanks to them. Now you’re going to be rewarded. To the ones that don’t stay open and take advantage of it, I say, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing’.”

In addition to Utah, where Ice Castles is based, the company has similar attractions in Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. This is its first time in upstate New York.

Saratoga Eagle Expands By Acquiring Distributorships In Oneonta And Elmira

January 17, 2022

Jeff Vukelic is president of Saratoga Eagle Sales & Service.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Susan Elise Campbell

Saratoga Eagle Sales & Service is in the process of acquiring two companies that will expand its reach distributing beer, wine, soft drinks and water to an additional eight counties upstate, according to president and chief operating officer Jeff Vukelic.

With roots stretching back to Buffalo in 1928 with parent company Try-It Distributing, what started as a beverage bottling business by the late Stephen Vukelic is now a multi-generational family company. With the most recent acquisitions the company will hold exclusive distribution rights to such brands as Budweiser, Rolling Rock and Michelob in a total of 21 counties in upstate New York.

According to Vukelic, the new acquisitions are Northern Eagle Beverages Inc. out of Oneonta and Seneca Beverage Corp. of Elmira, both Anheuser-Busch distributors. Both will operate under the Saratoga Eagle name.

Saratoga Eagle has been in a growth-through-acquisition model since 2004-2005. This is the time frame when Try-It expanded into the Saratoga and Glens Falls areas with a new distribution hub subsidiary out of Saratoga Springs and grandson Jeff Vukelic took on the role of COO.

“Typically we are purchasing the rights to distribute beverages in the territories of the companies we acquire,” said Vukelic. “Occasionally we acquire a brick and mortar facility, but it is more typical to lease the space where the trucks are loaded for delivery to customers.”

The company will take on 60 stakeholders, which is what the company calls their employees, who have jobs in warehousing, delivery, sales and administration. Total staff will be around 260 once the transactions are finalized and the new companies absorbed.