Alums Share Their Business Success Stories

Students interested in starting their own businesses invited three successful alumni to campus to share their wisdom as part of the OCC Business Club's Entrepreneur Panel.

Members of the panel were:

• Michael Ancillotti '82, President of LP&M, a fully integrated branding agency in Syracuse.
• Stella Penizotto '90, Co-Owner of Shining Stars Daycare, which has three locations in East Syracuse, Liverpool, and Manlius.
• Anas Almaletti '08, Co-Founder and CEO of Cell Phones For Less, which sells affordable cell phones and Cricket Wireless service at 42 locations in New York and Pennsylvania.  

During the hour long discussion panel members gave students valuable advice. Penizotto opened her first day care center in 1994, and in 2010 was named the New York State Small Business Person of the Year. "It's very important you don't let people tell you what you can and can't do. And you have to treat your employees well. Your staff is your company."

Ancillotti stressed the importance of learning what is the best path for you. "Do something well and the rest will follow. Relax, do what you do best, and someone will pay you for it. If you believe in yourself and have passion and perseverance, you can do anything you want."

Almaletti emphasized the value of knowing and understanding the best option for anyone considering starting their own business. "You have to optimize for passion and optimize for what you're good at. And it's important to be a lifelong learner. You need to be able to continuously process and learn."

Sidney Chafee is the president of OCC's Business Club. She said she and fellow students enjoyed learning from successful small business owners. "It's definitely inspirational to hear from people who are in the position of having their businesses already established that they didn't exactly know what their path was and how they figured it out. Knowing that no matter what path you go down you can always acquire a skill set to own a business and have them talk to students about that is really important."