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Long Island Entrepreneurial Briefs Feb. 21, 2003

Long Island Business News, Feb 21, 2003 by Adina Genn

Wally Teich started All Island Elevators, a firm that installs elevators, wheelchair lifts, stairway lifts and dumbwaiters, last month after eight years as general manager of a similar firm in New Jersey.

The company, which caters to both homeowners and commercial clients, already has four clients. So far, customers have called on him to help avoid stairs, transport the handicapped, move laundry and groceries from floor to floor and install an elevator in an East Hampton office building.

Teich, a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology and an engineer by training, said he started the company at a time when people are putting more money into making homes more accessible.

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"Hopefully I can fit into this market," Teich says. "In New Jersey, we did work out here but the travel was so long, it was uneconomical to drive here," he said, adding that there are competitors in Farmingdale and Carle Place.

A demographic study indicated that eastern Suffolk was underserved. So Teich, who already owned a home on the East End, decided to open a 1,200-square-foot show room and office space in Hampton Bays.

Startup costs ran nearly $100,000. Teich received a loan from Bridgehampton National Bank and self-funded the rest. He hopes to break even in the first year.

The showroom features samples -- two elevator cabs, a wheelchair lift and a stairway lift so that customers can see the equipment, rather than look at catalogs and spec sheets, Teich said. And its not just homeowners and building owners that Teich seeks. He is heavily pursuing architects and contractors on the East End where new homes either are designed with elevators or retrofitted with shafts outside the house to preserve interior space.

For installations, Teich collaborates with Greg Celi, proprietor of Celi Electric Co. in Westhampton Beach. "I'd rather team up with an experienced contractor who's knowledgeable of the business and use his expertise as opposed to hiring people as I need them. For me, it was a more intelligent way of running the business" rather than manage a staff, he said.

Teich retained East Hampton-based Gurvitz Marketing Solutions, which has launched a print ad campaign in local newspapers and a direct mail campaign. "We're getting calls. I see the marketing kicking in," he says. He will also run ads in the yellow-page directories as well as the "Blue Book of Building and Construction," a regional resource for contractors.

"Right now all business is out of the East End. I'm playing it by ear to see how far up Island I want to go," Teich says.

He finds the transition from employee to entrepreneur easy. "As the general manager of other company I ran the operations -- not the sales and finance." But there is no heavy sales pressure at the showroom, Teich said, because people don't visit unless they're interested in his inventory. Mostly, "I'm answering technical questions, if there's a need."

Creative designer takes firm full-time

During his seven years as an advertising designer, working for Qwest Communications and then Bozell Advertising, Jason Napolitano was able to get a taste of running his own business with some side work for private clients.

Good thing he did. The extra jobs helped pave the way for Vissium Studios, a print and Web design firm Napolitano started in March 2002 after the long advertising slump caught up with Bozell, forcing it lay off some staffers, including Napolitano.

Now, Napolitano is running Vissium from office space in Roslyn and in Bayside, Queens, he said. Services include interactive design and brand development. Vissium has an e-platform to conduct online transactions.

The company is also developing a relationship with ACS Communications, a Great Neck advertising firm that handles in-depth market research and specializes in technology, Napolitano said. In the deal, Vissium will act as the Internet arm for ACS, and ACS will provide market research for Vissium's clients.

What's more, Vissium will assist ACS in securing new business opportunities, one of Napolitano's biggest challenges. But, he says, "There's nothing as effective as networking -- 80 percent of business comes from that. Handling the business is no problem at all." To that end, he subcontracts work out to four different people whose backgrounds include marketing, programming and design.

Through extensive networking, Napolitano plans to double the amount of clients and revenue. He hopes to leverage new work into long-term contracts, getting clients on a retainer basis, maintaining their Web sites and keeping the cash flow coming in.

Long Island Entrepreneurial Briefs Feb. 21, 2003

Long Island Business News, Feb 21, 2003 by Adina Genn

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