Interviews by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
“We’re busy all time and making money. I’d call that successful.”
Denise McGill
Co-owner, Matt McGill Collision, Brewerton
“We have growth and positive customer feedback from happy customers. We really strive to go the extra mile, whether it’s special orders or helping them to the car with their purchases if they need help. More than dollars and cents, it’s having customers who feel satisfied with the service they receive here.”
Dorinne Kallfelz
Owner, Square Deal Liquors, Central Square
“If you have satisfied customers or clients and satisfied employees, that’s one sign your business is successful. If you’re keeping your customers or clients satisfied, you have internal policies and procedures and a good environment. If your customers or clients are satisfied, you are putting out a quality product or service.”
Jeff Scheer
Partner at Bond, Schoeneck & King, Syracuse
“Nothing defines success in a business more than having a positive reputation in your business community from your clients as well as everyone you deal with in business.”
William Galloway
Broker/owner, Century 21 Galloway Realty, Oswego
“Success: It means many things to different people. In my other life I’m a musician. Recently I played a show in a metro area jazz club with my trio backing a vocalist. The band was on fire! The vocalist was buoyant, the band supporting him through every word, every line, every story. The audience was riveted to the stage, speechless, erupting with applause after every number. Afterwards, we were overwhelmed with compliments from the audience, many of them thrilled to witness the magic that we call music. It was a success, musically. Financially, another story. The club would’ve been better not opening that night. Our audience topped out at 15 people in a room that holds 120. The owner was there along with two bartenders and a cook. Huge success and epic failure at the same time.”
Joseph C. Cortini, Jr.
Owner, Cortini Shoe Store, Fulton
“I feel having the capacity to complete your organization’s goals defines success. If you are doing what your business set out to do, you are successful.”
Tyler Ahart
Project coordinator, Oswego County Prevention Coalition, Oswego
“Overdeliver, reinvest in your business and compensate a great team.”
Marie Schadt
Owner, K9 Grooming & Pet Motel, Oswego
“Public opinion is the best indicator of your business success. Public meaning, the opinion of your clients and being recommended by your clients to new clients.”
Frederick Reed
President, Dot Publishing, Fulton
“For me, it’s the longevity and the personal satisfaction of accomplishing the goals for our clients, helping them get what they want and improve their living conditions, whatever it is. We work with seniors who are moving into senior living and that improves their life. We work for young people who are moving from a rental or those who are living with parents and buying their first home. There is a lot of satisfaction in that. Sellers moving on to whatever their next plan, whether moving up or downsizing.”
Faye Beckwith
Real estate agent and owner Freedom Real Estate, Hannibal
“Happy customers. We’re totally full and have no availability in our apartments. Some of our tenants have been here for 30 years. We have younger and older people living here.”
Sharon Schantz
Apartment supervisor, Country Garden Apartments, Central Square
“We’re a horse boarding facility and we have every stall filled. Happy horses means happy customers.”
Lorayne Winters-Hinman
Owner, Buxton Creek Stables, Central Square
“I’ve been in business 37 years. I think that’s a sign I’m successful.”
Pierre Lengauer
Owner, Bay Graphics, North Syracuse
“Repeat clients. That helps me know that people are satisfied with our work. Right now, with the pandemic, I’m turning away a lot of work because I don’t have enough people to work. I don’t have enough people who are willing to come in and clean. For all the years I’ve been in service, I have never seen this before.”
Janet Yankel
Owner, Done Right Cleaning, West Monroe
“One of the things that means BASCOL is successful is we have the trust of parents to care for their children while they’re working. We’ve come back from the pandemic to nearly full capacity. We appreciate that.”
Natalie Scavone
Executive director, BASCOL, Liverpool
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years. I think that people are happy with us. We try to keep everybody happy. A lot of people in business never return phone calls and ignore people and that makes a difference as to whether or not you’re successful. We try to keep up with people.”
Nolan Bradbury
Owner, Bradbury’s Boatel in Brewerton and Barado’s on the Water, West Monroe
“People keep coming in. We’re pretty busy all the time.”
Clayton Brewer III
Owner, Brewer & Brewer Mobil Service Station, Fulton
“Overall, being a hospitality centered business, our main focus is customer satisfaction. We look for the return of regular customers. It’s a 14-room establishment and we can build a rapport with our customers and their families. If we have a family dropping off their child for freshman orientation, we see them for four years. If we can capture that customer’s business for four years because they like staying here, then it’s an automatic insight that people are happy to come back. Or if they called and we’re booked and the guest is disappointed because they wanted to stay here, that’s our measure of success. We are the closest hotel in town to SUNY Oswego, so we get a lot of families coming in for tours in the summer and for freshman drop-off. They know they have a safe, comfortable place to stay. We book out 13 months in advance for graduation. We have so many regulars who know we book that far in advance and they call early. We enjoy seeing that.”
Kyle Walton
Operation manager, Beacon Hotel, Oswego
