Adirondack entrepreneurs think big, work small

Small businesses face challenges in getting capital, employees

By Tim Rowland

The Lord knows when the smallest sparrow falls to the ground, but if you want to know when a fruit falls from a wild Adirondack apple tree, it’s better to ask Zach Clemans.

This summer, Clemans parlayed his knowledge of abandoned orchards and wild roadside fruit trees into Sandy’s Local Cider in Upper Jay, where he sells boutique hard and sweet ciders made from foraged fruit and runs carefully choreographed weekend suppers.

Clemans is among the newest members of the Adirondack entrepreneurial community, a stalwart group that’s had some eye-opening successes, some eye-averting failures and taken together represent a meaningful segment of the region’s economic future.

A small-business renaissance?

Nationwide, entrepreneurialism is having a moment. Post-pandemic surveys by ZenBusiness, a self-help company assisting entrepreneurs, indicate three-quarters of Gen Z members dream of owning their own business; Junior Achievement, a global youth-advocacy nonprofit, says two-thirds of post-pandemic teens want the same thing.

Statistics specific to the Adirondack Park are unavailable, but trends in adjoining and overlapping regions give some hint as to changes locally. According to the Center for Economic Growth, the startup rate for new businesses increased 7.3% in the broader North Country region from 2015 to 2019, 7% in the Mohawk Valley and 8.4% in the capital region.

Entrepreneurialism comes naturally to the Adirondacks, where for two centuries residents have survived on their own wits and where necessity is the mother of invention. “

Considered individually, people who work for themselves and maybe hire a person or two might not seem impactful to the workforce — and since they do not fit into one particular category, they don’t show up in labor statistics. But with a population of just 130,000 (in the U.S., the labor pool generally consists of one half of the population), Little said it only takes a relatively small number to move the employment needle.

While more businesses were forming, however, it wasn’t enough to overcome business loss. Statewide, the number of businesses employing fewer than 25 workers dropped by nearly 6% from 2018 to 2022, according to Empire State Development.

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Struggles around access to funding

While the state set aside $1 billion for small-business investment in 2023, Adirondack entrepreneurs who work for themselves have difficulty qualifying for assistance that’s targeted toward significant job creation. But help is available through organizations including angel investors Point Positive and Clarkson University’s Shipley Center for Innovation, which has provided support for more than 400 Upstate entrepreneurs.

Plus, county Industrial Development Authorities — often thought of as doing big deals — in truth append most of their time with less glamorous projects.

“Yes, we will do a Sylvamo or a big project like the Plaza Hotel, but the majority of our workday is with small businesses,” said Jody Olcott, who with Carol Calabrese directs the Essex County IDA.

In the Adirondacks, of course, there’s always a twist, and with entrepreneurialism it’s that success doesn’t always translate into sustainability. Successful start-up businesses have left confines of the Blue Line for want of workers or manufacturing space. Others have been purchased by bigger companies whose owners move them from the Adirondack park to an industrial park.

Other start-ups have trouble growing because of a lack of capital. There is a limit to the  amount of risk the region’s small banks find acceptable, and few venture capitalists come to the Adirondacks looking for investment opportunities.

Multiple Adirondack towns see an acute need for hotel space in their communities, but, said North County Chamber of Commerce Director Garry Douglas, an entrepreneur would have trouble finding investors because capital flows to projects where it will get the best return — so while an Adirondack hotel might be profitable, a hotel along an interstate along the eastern seaboard would be more profitable.

Going solo

In the Adirondacks and elsewhere, though, there is at least anecdotal evidence that new entrepreneurs are choosing to go it alone.

At Sandy’s Local Cider, the raw materials are as close as the nearest wild apple tree, but Clemans has nevertheless made a conscious decision to stay small. He scouts abandoned orchards and random plantings and explains to the property owners that he is interested in collecting the small, funky looking fruit. Some are excited, some puzzled. These “weird old apples” have a unique flavor and, of course, no one bothered to spray them with chemical pesticides.

His minimalist business — he built his own dining room tables and makes delicious pestos out of trimmings that traditional restaurants would have tossed — harkens to an era when most fruit in the nation was grown not for pies, but for ciders and brandies. “That’s the reason these weird old apples exist,” Clemans said. It was also a time when the only available help was to be found among family.

Clemens said Sandy’s was intentionally designed with Adirondack labor quandaries in mind. “My business model is a response to these unique conditions,” he said. “It’s hard to hire capable, passionate people, so I was reluctant to rely on a large staff.”

Nor did he want to take advantage of young, idealistic workers willing to settle for low wages in order to join a community they believe in — something he sees too often in the park. 

Filling a need

Yet for those willing to work hard and take risks, the park can be fertile ground for those who love its beauty and adventurous lifestyle.

Amber and Dan Margies were running a restaurant in South Carolina when, after visiting family in the southeastern-Adirondack hamlet of Wells, Dan — who was on the verge of leaving the food business and going to school to become a radiology technician — casually mentioned that a long-time country store was for sale. Amber thought about it that night as she went to sleep. “I woke up the next morning and I was still thinking about it,” she said.

On Christmas Eve 2022 they opened The Hamilton Mercantile, selling groceries, sandwiches, pizza, camping supplies, bait (including lures made by another Adirondack entrepreneur, John Zeis) and that most precious of rural Adirondack commodities — gasoline. “It was our Christmas gift to the town,” Amber said, noting it saved residents a drive of 12 to 14 miles to fill up their tanks.

On a weekday morning, a steady stream of customers are filling up their tanks, ordering subs and buying drinks. Dan’s Aunt Dee Dee — the Mercantile’s unofficial social director who has her name on a chair — has yet to arrive. Unspoken is that Adirondack entrepreneurs do more than earn themselves a living: they are often vital to the social and economic well-being of the towns in which they reside,

Like Clemans, the Margies have chosen to do the work themselves. Finding help can be both challenging and, for a small-business owner, prohibitively expensive. A $20-an-hour job requires the owner to pay another $30 an hour in unemployment insurance, workers compensation and Social Security. If they need a day off they post a notice on Facebook; the community understands.

There are other frustrations. Some are obvious, such as the red tape involved in getting a liquor license, but some almost comically arcane. The Margies own equal shares of the business, but if one or the other owned 51% they would have been eligible for state grants available to woman- or veteran-owned businesses.

Still, Amber said, it’s been everything they expected, and a joy to be in a small community where the scenery of wonderful and tight bonds are quickly formed.

“The town has been so welcoming and supportive,” she said. “I know it sounds cheesy, but we’ve found our home.”