Westchester Entrepreneurs Celebrated at Greenburgh Library Event

The following release was written by Peter Flierl:

Holly Perlowitz from Community Capital New York hosted an evening devoted to celebration of local Westchester businesses and learning from their owners, including: Nick Califano, Yonkers Brewing Company; Laura Londin, The Booth; Ernie Molina, Lola Granola; and Judith Weber, Recologie. Carol Angert, Business Librarian at Greenburg Public Library, co-hosted and provided a marvelous venue for the informal conversations on achieving dreams by four who have done and are doing just that.

One important take away from the evening is passion for your business combined with dogged persistence. As Holly Perlowitz noted, “being an entrepreneur is not for the meek and timid.” It is critical to have a business plan and fiscal projections, including cash flow, that stretch and are also realistic and attainable. Community Capital recognizes that not every “good idea” can become a business, but the agency offers micro lending for businesses not yet ready for traditional commercial lending.

Judith Weber described the coming venue for Recologie that encompasses a global fair trade boutique, an art gallery for local artists who use recycled materials, a vegan café, and a large event space. The latter will offer monthly musical evenings and poetry readings. You are invited to their Grand Opening featuring a reggae band On Friday, September 26.

Ernie Molina stood in for his wife, Mary Molina, who was with one of their four children at a sports event. Family definitely comes first in this family. Ernie and Mary started Lola Granola on a shoe string producing all natural snack bars in their kitchen. From producing 300 bars in 5 hours, they’ve grown to 300 bars per minute and expect to get to 700 bars per minute. They are now distributing snack bars through Whole Foods, a key game changer, and are in 30 states, 265 universities, and innumerable corporate cafeterias.

Nick Califano grew his interest in brewing from his Italian grandfather making wine at home. Like many entrepreneurs, Nick found life in asset management and sales lucrative, but less than fulfilling. He and his partner recognized the growing interest in craft beer in California and the west coast, saw a trend, and jumped in with both feet. Rather than a shoe string, they started Yonkers Brewing Company on a wing and a prayer, the wing being 500 t-shirts that were distributed everywhere. Result? A request in October to become Empire City Casino’s craft beer provider with 8 craft beers in January. They did that in the allotted time and put Yonkers Brewing Company and Yonkers on the map in a favorable light.

Laura Londin and her husband, Ian, are partners at home and at work. Ian is the professional photographer with a strong background in commercial photography. They have found their niche using a popup photo and video studio at events. As they’ve grown, the mix of customers is 50% social occasions and 50% corporate, including work at the Emmys. Laura plugged the use of social media and trade shows for marketing.

If you missed this evening, join other business owners and those thinking of being in business for a presentation by David Fischer, Solutions for Growth, entitled Build Your Marketing Toolkit on Tuesday, September 30th starting at 6:30 pm at Greenburgh Public Library.

Photo caption: From the left, Nick Califano, Laura Londin, Ernie Molina, Judy Weber