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As he surveys the guitars, sheet music, home entertainment systems, digital cameras, LCD TVs and other stock in his thriving business in Potsdam, Jeremy Carney fully realizes how the SUNY campus one mile down the road makes his business a success.
“They are a major source of income,” said Carney, the co-owner of Northern Music & Video, a two-storefront enterprise in downtown Potsdam.
Carney reports during their last fiscal year, sales to SUNY Potsdam totaled $160,000. When you add sales to students — including those attending the Crane School of Music — sales total $200,000. “That’s a big chunk of our revenue,” he said.
Northern Music & Video is but one example of the economic clout that SUNY campuses bring to their respective communities across the state. It’s the multiplier effect in action. Every dollar of state support that goes to SUNY returns at least six dollars to invigorate the local economy. In many areas of the state, such as Potsdam — where there are few major employers — SUNY is a key supporter of the local economy.
In their capacities with SUNY, UUP members support the local economy by doing business with local companies.
“I feel a fiduciary responsibility to spend money in the local economy and foster good working relationships,” said UUPer Jeff Reeder, the technical director for the theater, dance and opera programs at Potsdam. “By keeping dollars I spend in the area, the money circulates.”
Reeder patronizes several local businesses, including Northern Music & Video, where he purchases such items as sound equipment, cameras, recorders and cable.
“The local economy is small,” Reeder explains. “SUNY is a big chunk of that small pie. The local economy would suffer if SUNY wasn’t here.”
Reeder also does business with Bill Evans, a co-owner of Evans & White Hardware, who is even more emphatic about SUNY’s economic contribution.
“Without them (SUNY), there’s nothing here,” Evans said. Reeder purchases paint, glass, nuts and bolts, tools and replacement blades from the family retailer that’s been around since 1922.
Doing business with SUNY spills over into private sales.
“Lots of SUNY employees are personal customers,” said Northern Music co-owner Chris Smutz. “Seeing the systems we’ve installed for SUNY Potsdam drives customers to us.”
Building business in Buffalo
Yet a more dramatic illustration of SUNY’s local impact is found in Buffalo, whose economy has been battered by factory closings in past decades. But the University of Buffalo has been an economic lifeline. UB is the area’s largest employer, with a resounding $1.5 billion overall economic impact, according to the University of Buffalo Regional Institute. The institute estimates that impact figure will leapfrog to $2.6 billion by 2020.
IBC Digital, an animation and visual effects production company in Buffalo, serves as an excellent example of how the University supports a local enterprise.
“Our relationship with UB has helped to grow our business in a number of ways,” said Ben Porcari, founder and president of IBC. He credits the SUNY campus with making his business more competitive nationally.
“UB seeks to build relationships with businesses and foster economic development and growth. Allowing access to resources at a competitive rate helps grow businesses in the region.”
Porcari works closely with UUP member Thomas Furlani, director of UB’s Center for Computational Research (CCR), one of the world’s leading supercomputing centers. Part of CCR’s mission is to act as a catalyst for economic development in western New York, often by providing the local business with a competitive advantage.
“CCR has provided IBC Digital, whose business in animation depends on significant computing resources, with rendering time on its large computer cluster to win animation jobs,” Furlani said. “It would not be economically viable for IBC Digital to maintain such computing resources in-house.”
Porcari boasts of a great partnership with UB.
“The cost of building and maintaining the type of facilities that SUNY has opened up to businesses would cost millions,” he said.
Furlani portrays IBC Digital as a good example of the role the University can play by linking local businesses with state-of-the-art resources as well as leading scientists and researchers.
SUNY’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) are also examples of SUNY’s vital role in helping the state’s economy. Here, small-business owners get advice about expanding an existing business by exploring avenues for funding, marketing, and management, and new entrepreneurs get help to successfully start a business.
UUPer Michelle Collins, an SBDC business advisor at SUNY Canton, helped a former student in her small business management class open a local business that has gone on to win awards.
“Lucas Manning presented some earlier plans for another small-business venture,” she recalls. “The seed was always there.” Manning brought Collins two or three business plans several years ago to reopen the Partridge Café, a small restaurant in Canton that had recently closed its doors.
Collins helped Manning refine his business plan with a good financial analysis on what Manning might be able to change or improve. He found Collins’ guidance invaluable.
“She provided encouragement and entertained any thought I had,” Manning said. “She knows all there is to know about the restaurant business. It’s like consulting with someone who’s in the field.”
Manning reflects that while he could have opened the café without SBDC assistance, “I probably would not have taken the plunge without her (Collins’) reassurance and guidance.”
Three years later, the business is not only a success. The 26-year-old Manning garnered honors from both the SBDC and the U.S. Small Business Administration as the state’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Manning serves as a case in point of how SUNY’s Small Business Development Center at Canton benefits the area’s economy. In its 10-year history, the office has created or saved 1,095 jobs by helping 3,500 businesses invest nearly $53 million in the local economy. Collins maintains the work the SBDC is vital for her area.
“Too much of the focus has been on big business,” she said. “Now economic development is centered around small business. When three or four small enterprises open, it brings a positive economic impact.”
SUNY and the membership of UUP do more than educate future generations. They clearly serve as a basis for economic stability and growth to benefit the population as a whole.
— Donald Feldstein