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.

By jill Nagy

Just past her one-year anniversary, Leslie Swedish is finding Moxxi Coffee Co., her new coffee business, “nothing short of a pleasure.”

The company sells its own blends of coffee online and through retail outlets and “business is going really well.”

Swedish designs the blends—there are six so far—in cooperation with Chris’ Coffee Service in Latham. Chris’ imports the coffees and roasts and mixes the blends to her order. Coffees are organic and fair-traded.

Typically, there are between two and four varieties to a blend. The three basic blends are blond ambition, a four-bean blend of lightly roasted coffees; bold ambition, a dark roast blend of monsoon and Malabar coffees; and wild ambition, an “almost espresso” blend of extra dark Peruvian and Indian coffees.

In addition, Swedish has concocted three varieties of herbal and botanical infused coffee blends: relax, refocus, and revive. A winter blend is under development. Swedish also offers a variety of coffee mugs.

For every item sold, the company donates $1 to the Moxxi Women’s Foundation that makes grants “to support ambitious women in the Capital region.” The foundation, nonprofit charitable corporation, has been active since last March. Grantees include a local woman who sells soaps and candles and will use the grant money to buy a tumbler for polishing stones.

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.”

While working on her business plan in 2005, she attended a chamber of commerce meeting and was seated with the managing partner from a local CPA firm. After learning that his firm was interested in starting an HR consulting practice, she told him that he had found the person to run it.