Rochester Business Journal Leading source of business news and information in Rochester, N.Y.

Leona Piro, owner of Act Two Home Staging, took her career in a new direction in 2008 and has never looked back.   Piro, 59, worked in real estate management for years, first forming her own management company 15 years ...

Seth Eshelman started Staach Inc. with plans to sell furniture at retail. Instead, he finds himself working with corporations like Google Inc., Starbucks Coffee Co. and the New York City-based restaurant chain Shake Shack.   Eshelman, now 28, was a ...

Playing host to a group debating wedding cake options could rattle even the calmest nerves. But to Debra Stirone, it is a normal day in her living room. Stirone, 43, owns Gourmet Goodies, a cake and pastry business she runs ...

Doug Miller, owner and operator of the Doug Miller Soccer Academy, was hitting golf balls 11 years ago on the driving range at the former Rochester Sports Dome LLC when he made a business decision. "I had this vision of ...

With a technology developed by a golfer for golfers, Mark Wekara, president and CEO of OptiGolf America LLC, hopes his business will become the premier indoor golf facility in the United States.   Wekara, 62, lived in Finland for 40 ...

After seven years in the cafe business and eight years in catering, Jackie Powers knows her way around the food industry.   Powers, 44, owns Orange Glory Cafe, a quaint place nestled in next to the Little Theatre on East ...

The Small Business Council of Rochester announced the 2012 finalists Friday for the SBC Business Person of the Year honors.

Breast cancer and divorce were not enough to stop Susan Reed from pursuing a business venture.   Reed, 64, decided that fortune cookies could be a new passion after a friend suggested that she try her hand at baking. For ...

YoTality, a frozen yogurt shop on Main Street in Pittsford, is Eugene and Susan O’Donovan’s way of taking something positive out of a difficult time.   "Our daughter was in a skiing accident around Thanksgiving time in Colorado, and she ...

After four generations on the farm, the family-run Wm. R. Heberle Stables Inc. knows everything equine.   The farm has been in the Heberle family since 1905, and has been everything from a peach orchard to the stables today. The ...

In the information age, Paul Cypher fills a niche he believes had been overlooked: cost-effective, customizable, interactive online training and learning for organizations.   Cypher, 45, first recognized the need for an alternative to expensive classroom-style lectures after managing small ...

In the children’s toy world of video games and electronics, Melissa Boyack sells mermaid tears and moonlight mist.   Her business venture, OT Creations Ltd., more popularly known as Opal & Twig, offers a line of magic potions and sprays ...

For Dimitra Apostolopoulos, European flair is what makes her crepes stand out from the rest.   Apostolopoulos, 53, has been baking all her life and recently opened Delish Bakery on Park Avenue. Located near Parkleigh between South Goodman and Oxford ...

Craft breweries producing no more than 60 million gallons of beer will be eligible for tax credits of 14 cents a gallon for the first 500,000 gallons made in New York and 4.5 cents for the next 15 gallons, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.