SBDC AT SUNY OCC TEAM:
ROBERT GRIFFIN
NYSBDC Regional Director BIO
Education:
Community Involvement: Long-time involvement in multiple non-profits, including arts organizations, a historical society, and the Boy Scouts of America. What is your background in business? I spent 20 years in the hospitality industry, as Director of a small Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, as a marketing director in the contract food service industry, and director of sales and marketing for a convention center. What are your areas of expertise? Most of my specialty is in marketing and food service operations. In recent years, I have developed skills in both financial modeling as well as advising business owners on succession planning strategies. What drew you to work at SBDC? I love helping people. Whether it is assisting people with a new business idea or helping existing business owners with the challenges of entrepreneurship, I love the idea of being a critical part of the team that helps someone achieve or sustain their dream. What’s your best advice for someone thinking about starting their own small business? Never be too proud to seek the advice and counsel of others. What do you enjoy about the work you do? Every day is a different day…some of what we discuss with our clients may be similar, but every client presents a distinctly new and refreshing experience. What makes you unique? Calm under pressure. David Allen called it, “Mind like water”. What are your personal interests? Hiking, the outdoors, travel, technology and spending time with family. I also have a mean chili recipe. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what sort of business would you found? Along with staying with the SBDC, of course! Great question. I probably would start a firm that specialized in detailed guidance for business owners looking to sell their businesses. It’s a difficult process that requires extensive planning to get the best results. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Always be willing to challenge your system. Just because it works today does not mean it’s the best system for tomorrow. |
PAUL BROOKS
NYSBDC Certified Business Advisor Offices: Tech Garden, Cortland County & Cazenovia CoWorks
Phone: (315) 470-1973 Email: p.c.brooks@sunyocc.edu BIO
Education:
Community Involvement:
What is your background in business? I’ve been in business quite some time. I started my career with Xerox Corporation. After working for various businesses in Syracuse and Rochester, I opened my own business called Brooks Communications. Then, in 2006, I joined the Syracuse Technology Garden as executive director when it was in its infancy. I did that for almost five years and then joined a business development organization called Launch NY as an entrepreneur-in-residence. I did that for about five years and then joined the Small Business Development Center. So, I’ve had a good deal of experience. What are your areas of expertise? Marketing is my strength as well as mentoring early stage startup endeavors. What drew you to work at SBDC? The opportunity to work with a group of startup entrepreneurs who are young, eager and anxious to get going in their careers. There are a great many young people trying to start businesses these days. What’s your best advice for someone thinking about starting their own small business? Do your homework. Get some help. Do your research. Find somebody who can help you and point you in the right direction and be your mentor. What do you enjoy about the work you do? I think it’s the diversity. The diversity of people, ideas, approaches. No two businesses are alike and no two entrepreneurs are alike, so it’s a very diverse daily activity. What makes you unique? In terms of experience, I’ve been involved, especially in the Syracuse area, for many, many years. I’m quite experienced. I’m also connected in the community, both in Syracuse and in my own community of Cazenovia. And diversity of background, as well. I’ve been in the software business, hardware business, been my own boss in my own business, been in communications, and creative roles, so I have a real diversity of experience. What are your personal interests? I used to play a lot of golf. I enjoy sports. I’m a big historic preservation fan. I like staying involved in my community and was a member of the board of trustees for the Village of Cazenovia for 10 years. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what sort of business would you found? Along with staying with the SBDC, of course! Ice cream! My daughter, who is now 35, and I have had this idea for years about an ice cream business. We’ve never put it together but we still think it might be successful. It would be something we could give a shot with the right kind of capital, which the lottery would bring. And who doesn’t like ice cream? What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Be yourself. Be who you are. Don’t put on any false airs. I think that’s really good advice for anybody, especially in business. — Someone a very long time ago passed that on to me! |
FRANK CETERA
NYSBDC Advanced Certified Business Advisor BIO
Education:
Community Involvement:
What is your background in business? Prior to working at the SBDC, my primary experience was working as a project manager for nonprofit organizations including the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers, and the MaCoskey Center for Sustainable Systems. I’ve been a board member and the Chair at our local CDFI Cooperative Federal Credit Union for most of the last 10 years. My time at the SBDC has also overlapped with the formation and growth of the Alchemical Nursery Project, Syracuse based not-for-profit that I co-founded and operates three food growing sites today. What are your areas of expertise? My expertise is in the cooperative business entity model and the nonprofit community development and sustainability worlds. I am an Advanced Certified Business Advisor with New York State SBDC in “Employee-Ownership.” What drew you to work at SBDC? The first position I held with SBDC was a one-year grant-funded position to assist businesses with energy efficiency development which combined my background in natural resources sustainability and project management. After that first year, I was offered a Full-Time Business Advisor position at a satellite location on North Salina Street in Syracuse. What’s your best advice for someone thinking about starting their own small business? The one thing I encourage people to do is to really understand what their motivations are. It’s important to understand if starting a business is the right thing for you or not. Make sure your business motivations fall in line with your personal motivations, too — your family situation, home situation, personal finances, etc. These are all going to be very intertwined, particularly in the early stages of a business startup. What do you enjoy about the work you do? I like talking to people and listening to people. That’s one of the things we really need to do in this job. In order to be able to advise and coach, we need to be able to listen first, in an active process of listening attentively while someone else speaks, paraphrasing and reflecting back what is said, and withholding judgment and advice. What makes you unique? My passion for the cooperative business model and my interest in social justice, equity and fairness. I’ve grown and developed my interest and passion in this role for myself but also for the full SBDC community. I’m currently the Chair of the national ASBDC Special Interest Section on “Employee Ownership and Business Transition.” We’re starting to bring people together from different SBDC offices across the country to talk, share, learn and bring resources together for other advisors to be able to serve their clients when it comes to the needs for employee ownership advising. What are your personal interests? I love to play tennis, garden, cook, travel and support the social justice, environmental and ecological communities in Syracuse. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what sort of business would you found? Along with staying with the SBDC, of course! What I might do is take that money and use it to grow the ecosystem of the cooperative business development community to support other cooperative developers and businesses. To increase the demand, understanding and development of cooperative enterprises, we need to expand the awareness locally and across the country. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? It all comes down to doing what’s in line with yourself and what you truly believe in. Otherwise, you’re not going to be happy. — Friend recently going through job transition |
NEIL B. MILLER, PH.D.
NYSBDC Business Advisor BIO
Education:
What is your background in business? I started my first business at age 15, a neighborhood lawn and gardening service. At age 23 I founded a business in Los Angeles that revolutionized music merchandising by direct telemarketing to music retailers west of the Rockies. In 1989 I founded JSR, Inc. (now JSR Merchandising), which in 2019 celebrated its 30th anniversary. In 2010 I released the Farmshed iPhone app, and in 2012 founded the Farmshed Harvest Food Hub, a regional, farm-to-table wholesale distributor. I have also managed a series of other regional food hubs, most recently North Star Food Hub and Hudson Harvest CNY. What are your areas of expertise? Developing business plans, market research, marketing strategy including leveraging traditional/social media and emerging technologies. Sales, distribution, logistics, and supply-chain management, especially for small-to-mid-sized farms and food producers. Thinking outside the box. Helping others to understand how their businesses fit into and create value within an existing, competitive social and business ecosystem. What drew you to work at SBDC? I’ve worked since I was 15, and owned and managed small businesses since my early twenties. While this experience has helped me plan and manage my own businesses, I think it has contributed more noticeably to my ability to analyze and assist other entrepreneurs in identifying key issues and weak points in their own plans and businesses. Nearly all small business owners, in my experience – myself included – have blind spots in their managerial vision that they are often unaware of until these lacunae are identified by someone with a fresh or outside perspective. What’s your best advice for someone thinking about starting their own small business? Create value. Do your research, know your target markets and ideal customers. Identify your unique value proposition. Understand where and how your business fits within a value chain. Build a support team, including a good accountant and lawyer, you will need both. Plan for the best and the worst. What do you enjoy about the work you do? I love small businesses, and as importantly, the communities that develop around and support them. This is where my interest in craft as a social and economic philosophy originates. Craft is a tradition (many traditions, actually), of skilled artisans creating functional tools and objects that provide meaningful value within a community. A “crafted community” would foreground and seek to build sustainable, equitable social relations around small-to-mid-sized producers creating functional value within communities of local and regional consumers. What makes you unique? I have a unique background and skill set as an entrepreneur and business manager with 30 years of experience overall (12 years working specifically in CNY), and 20 years experience as a college professor and researcher. The skills, insights and perspective gained from this combined experience puts me in a unique position to work successfully with individuals with diverse backgrounds and interests to help them formulate their business plans, undertake and analyze the necessary market research, and effectively communicate their ideas to others. The position of SBDC Business Advisor seems the ideal position from which to do good work at this stage of my professional career. What are your personal interests? Cooking, reading, studying craft and craft traditions, brewing and enjoying whole-leaf tea, collecting Japanese ceramics and tea wares. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what sort of business would you found? Along with staying with the SBDC, of course! With limited but sufficient capital, I would finalize market research and a business plan for State & Vine Wine Shop and launch the business. With unlimited resources I would figure out how to market and distribute farm products efficiently and sustainably from small-to-mid-sized farmers and food producers in Upstate NY to NYC and other Atlantic seaboard markets. Folks figured it out in 1825 with the Erie Canal, and we ought to be able to figure it out again today. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
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MARK PITONZO
NYSBDC Certified Business Advisor BIO
Education
Community Involvement
What is your background in business? I began my career at General Electric in Syracuse in cost accounting and then moved into international marketing. Over time, I went to work for National Grid in marketing, and then was recruited to help Agway Energy start a business. So, I helped them start and grow their national gas and electricity business. From there, I came to work for SBDC. What are your areas of expertise? Business development, financial analysis and program management. What drew you to work at SBDC? It was a perfect job that allowed me to combine helping people in the community while utilizing my business skills. What’s your best advice for someone thinking about starting their own small business? The more upfront planning you can do to build your business infrastructure, the smoother the ride is going to be. You’re going to have to navigate a variety of speed bumps. How you navigate them will dictate how well your business does. What do you enjoy about the work you do? It feels as though I’m helping the Central New York community create new businesses and expand upon existing businesses. But it also allows me to use my business experiences to help people navigate their individual journeys. People have been so appreciative when you help them get into business or expand their existing business. It’s very fulfilling professionally. What makes you unique? I try to approach my clients in a very practical way by putting things in terms that people understand and can utilize. This allows them to incorporate them into their business plans. Another thing that makes me unique is that I have a wide variety of business experiences in different industries that I’m able to translate for people who are trying to start or expand their business. What are your personal interests? I’m very involved in the Central New York community as I serve on several non-profit boards. I’m also very involved in sports as a coach and high school basketball referee. I also work at Syracuse University managing the scoreboard for football, basketball and lacrosse games. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what sort of business would you found? Along with staying with the SBDC, of course! I would start a small business like the Lyncourt bakery. I just love meeting and greeting people and talking with them on a small-scale daily basis while also filling a need. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? In the business world, be as “professionally direct” with people as you can be. Of course you want to make sure that you’re professional in the process. But it does reduce ambiguity and helps to improve effectiveness and efficiency within discussions. — Coworker at General Electric |
KELLIE GREENE
NYSBDC Business Advisor Office: Onondaga Community College, Cayuga County, Seneca County
Phone: (315) 498-6076 Email: k.a.greene12815@sunyocc.edu BIO
Education
Community Involvement:
What is your background in Business? I have over 30 years of professional experience with a large portion being in the area of global trade (import/export) and logistics/distribution/supply chain working. I have also been an entrepreneur in several other business ventures including owning a resume writing and career services business, real estate agent, business consulting, import/export trading company and a travel agency. What are your areas of expertise? Transportation, logistics, distribution, supply chain and import/export, service businesses, consulting. What drew you to work at SBDC? Having been a private consultant for a number of years, I really enjoy working with companies to help them with their start-ups and expansions. I have previously worked with the SBDC in various states as a consultant and I really loved the work that the SBDC does. I really enjoy helping people realize their goals and dreams so this was a perfect fit for me. I love using my knowledge to help people. What’s your best advice for someone thinking about starting their own business? First, surround yourself with successful entrepreneurs who have been where you are and learn from them. Having a mentor (or a few) has been a very important part of my journey. Second, don’t beat yourself up if things don’t go the way you hoped. Some of the most successful people in the world had bumps in the road and even failed businesses before they found success. What do you enjoy about the work you do? The clients that I am privileged to work with and to help create jobs and growth in my community, which I am passionate about. What makes you unique? I have a diverse background in both domestic and international business, manufacturing and service industries and internet businesses. I have lived and worked in Japan and Singapore and have worked around the world. And I love to skydive. What are your personal interests? Travel, sports (watching – not playing!) and spending with family and friends. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what sort of business would you found? Along with staying at the SBDC, of course? I would write a lot of books. What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? One of my favorite quotes: “Take a leap of faith. You will either land somewhere new or learn to fly.” – Kandyse Mcclure |
