Lisa Conway

I mean, my dad has been in this business for a long time, so I learned a lot from him. But I really attribute my success to the people who work for me, that work with me. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be where we are today. I feel like my staff is like my family, and I feel like if they're happy, then I have happy customers, and if they're treated well, they're going to work hard. That's really kind of been the driving force of what I do.

The best career advice I ever received was to treat your people well. I feel like my staff is like my family, and I feel like if they're happy, then I have happy customers, and if they're treated well, they're going to work hard. I would say that's really kind of been the driving force of what I do.

I would say to go in with open eyes and that it's worth it if you put the work in. Find a mentor - find someone to talk to, because again, it is a very male-dominated field, it is very niche. What I do is not common, so I don't really have a lot of people that I can talk to and lean on. I'm a part of that women's group and other associations, and I have, through the years, found people to talk to, but in the beginning, starting out, I certainly didn't have that. I had my dad, but we have very different leadership styles, very different ways of thinking, different generations. So my advice is to find a mentor, go in with open eyes - and when I say open eyes, I just mean being realistic. It's not all rainbows and butterflies, this is a tough industry.

The biggest challenge is keeping up with technology. Technology is literally changing every day - I mean, AI is actually changing probably multiple times a day. So keeping up with that is tough. Finding a way to stay in the game and also do a really good job for our customers, that is a challenge. As far as opportunities, actually, right here where we live in Syracuse, New York, there is a lot happening, a lot of growth. We have a huge chip plant that broke ground a couple months ago. That is going to bring in lots of jobs, lots of businesses to the area, so I do see a lot of growth opportunity there, which is exciting.

Family is most important to me - this is a family business, so I bought it from my dad about 10 years ago. Family has kind of been the epicenter of what we do. Between my personal life and my business, my brother works for me, my cousin works for me, or with me. We're really people-focused - we really try to go the extra mile for our customers, and we take pride in that. We take pride in doing things that maybe other customers or other companies wouldn't do. I would say that's probably number one - we're really people-focused.