Category Archives: Business News

By Jennifer Farnsworth

With the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation, using hand sanitizer is one of the strong recommendation of health agencies around the globe.

To help bolster supplies locally, some businesses have turned completely away from their normal mission and are making sanitizer.

Springbrook Hollow Farm Distillery in Queensbury is one, since distilleries have the necessary equipment to transition to sanitizer, which has a high percentage of alcohol.

Since the state ordered the temporary closure of bars and restaurants last month,    owner Matt Colucci is responding to the need for sanitizer.

By Dorothy Rogers-Bullis

I’ve had so many calls over the last two weeks from clients preparing to work from home.  drb Business Interiors is known for designing and furnishing the most productive spaces to work in, and now is doing so for clients conducting “business and school out of the home” sessions  for the next few months.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the new work space standard calls for multiple workspaces for multiple types of work. From the business professional who needs to conduct Zoom calls throughout the day, to the children who are being homeschooled, all are sharing the same home and space. It can get very stressful just to find a productive space to work, especially in your own home.

It’s important to plan when you work remotely. Here are some tips:

• Test your technology and plan ahead for all logistics. Do you have all your necessary tools?  Cords, headset, mouse?  Have you tested all your technology? Does Zoom work?  How do you look to others? What is your backdrop?  There is much to consider here.

By Amy Roman, CPA, CGMA, CM&AA

The daily challenges of running and growing a business take the full focus of business owners. The hardest thing you’ve had to face most recently has centered around finding qualified help rather than how to manage employees remotely or put them on furlough.

I hear you. The forced changes to, and even temporary closure of, your business could well be the worst pill you’ve ever had to swallow as an entrepreneur. But the best way to minimize damage is to face the hard realities head on. You need to reduce your exposure quickly.

While this may be challenging to consider today, this crisis could actually push you toward healthy business decisions you should have been planning for all along. If you had a contingency plan in place prior to the coronavirus, high marks for you. You’re among the business owners best positioned to come through this intact.

By Rose Miller

Business and the workplace have had to make dramatic shifts during the current crisis. It is being named the Adaptation Era.

During times of adversity, situations require adaptation, major pivots and an increased need for creative solutions. All of this equals Change.

Change in the workplace has always been inevitable and most employees are uncomfortable with change. Change brings uncertainty. Change involves a loss of the familiar and it requires a considerable amount of effort to learn and adjust to innovative ways of doing things. Organizations that did not embrace a culture of change struggle to endure high times of adversity.

By Jim Marco

It was just a few weeks ago that employers were lamenting the fact that they could not find enough qualified employees to help run their businesses. Now, these same business owners are faced with questions of whether they are essential/non-essential, closing store fronts and offices, remote work, layoffs, furloughs and more.

While you might be trying to recover from “managerial whiplash” at the moment, it’s time to start planning for your business to emerge from the other side of this pandemic. That starts with making sure you have the people to help you successfully recover from this challenging time.

While it is true every day, communication with your employees is more important now that it ever has been. Frequent, honest, thorough communication with your staff, whether actively employed or on furlough or layoff, will help you gain the trust you need to retain these folks so they will be ready to come back to work and help you re-start your business.

By Bill Murray and Gretta Keene

Relationships lie at the heart of a business. As psychotherapists, we have observed that effective communication promotes healthy relationships. And healthy relationships will improve the outcome, whatever challenges your business is currently facing.

We teach our clients this important and often overlooked principle of effective communication: Everyone is in their own movie.

We all tend to assume that others are experiencing life in the same way we are. In fact, that’s why we’re often puzzled—or outraged—by other people’s words and actions. Their behaviors don’t make sense in our movie, so we label them wrong or bad or stupid or worse.

By Jill Nagy

William Farmer,  chief operating officer of Creatacor Inc., is hoping to help with the coronavirus pandemic with a plan he has to build  hospital beds and other things to help out in the crisis.

The company, located in Halfmoon, usually builds displays for retail stores, trade shows and other events. It is well positioned to create temporary structures for use in the crisis, building things like beds, waiting rooms and treatment areas, Farmer said.

Normally, Creatacor would be preparing exhibits for events like South by Southwest and companies like AngioDynamics, General Electric, Lego and Ikea.

The Holiday Inn in downtown Saratoga Springs is now serving as a temporary location for the city’s homeless.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shelters of Saratoga (SOS) Executive Director Karen Gregory said isolating people experiencing homelessness in individual hotel rooms with access to private bathrooms is the best possible solution to facilitate safe distancing and the ability to practice good hygiene thus preventing a community-wide spread of COVID-19.

Food service, basic necessities and case management is being provided to those staying in the hotel. The shelters on Walworth Street remain open and SOS is serving over 100 people through the outreach program which provides people with food and hygiene products, she said.