Success stories
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Stacy & Adam Stevens Took the Entrepreneurial Leap Together: This Time it’s Her Turn
Being married, Stacy and Adam Stevens already felt as though they made a good team in many ways, including business partners. For years, they have been part owners of a crop and cattle farm in...
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Premier Dog Sports & Events Center Finds Growth Opportunities in the Buffalo area
For years, Shelly Gordon traveled hours away from her home in Buffalo to train her basset hound to become a ribbon-winning agility canine. In 2018, Shelly and her husband Don, wrote an idea on a...
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From Inspiration to Success: Goody Girl Flower Farm
Marina Goody, like millions of other business owners, had an entrepreneurial epiphany during the Pandemic. Faced with the loss of her corporate job, Marina took that as an opportunity to create her...
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Sydor Optics uses STEP to Step up its International Sales
For three generations, Sydor Optics has been on the leading edge of the optics industry. The family-owned Rochester manufacturing company specializes in custom flat optical components for a variety of...
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SBA Small Business Innovation Funding Speeds Up Development of Drone Deliveries
Dr. Michael Waller founded Falcon Fuel Cells in 2020, from spin-off technology through his research at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Designed for military surveillance and retail delivery...
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Local Film Company Glows with Success
Starting a film business in Western New York requires out of the box thinking, which is just what the US Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Buffalo District Office 2023 Young Entrepreneur of the...
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A Landscape Growing Success, NYS Small Business Person of the Year
At age 10, Josh Schmieder began mowing lawns to save money for an ATV. After a few summers and saving for a truck, at 16, he created JOSH Landscape, put advertisements in the local papers and decided...
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Women Owned Small Business Person of the Year
You never know when a great idea will come along; especially a cheesy one. Ten years ago, Simone Fancher’s daughter came to her with the idea of buying a food truck. Knowing nothing about the food...